One of those moments!

I am a part-time teacher in a local university. I teach classes in Information Technology. As the owner of a software company with over 30 years of experience working in big corporations, I have stories to tell, and challenging real life cases for the students to ponder. Still, in every class there invariably will be a few students who do not ‘get it’ however hard you try, and one or two who would give me a bad evaluation at the end of the class. Of course, I do get positive feed backs and occasional notes of appreciation from students. But I never truly feel good about them, as I wonder if they are just flattery to please the instructor. Anyway, this week I had a surprise audit of my teaching skills with a professor sitting in my class to observe. (The university does this every few years). Guess what? I received a very complimentary evaluation. There were statements like, ‘faculty was very positive and easy in manner, providing relaxed professional forum for learning…was very good at asking questions that got at depth of class understanding of the material… students comported themselves well reflecting facilitators style.’. As I signed the evaluation from, the professor said ‘the students are privileged to have a teacher like you!’. It was one of those moments when you feel it is worth what are you doing -- (like the 'moments' Barack Obama often talks about!)