Evaluations

     At the colleges where I work, they perform teacher evaluations every semester or every other semester. I have to tell you, it's always, always a harrowing experience. Here's why. The evaluations are done with another teacher sitting in on your class. They generally give you a few dates to choose from, but there's not much in the way of flexibility for what they see. It sounds pretty straightforward, but here's the harrowing part: students. Students are a wildcard. A gigantic one, at that. There's no telling what students will do from day to day, especially during an evaluation. It could be as simply as being extra rowdy to texting to being completely disinterested in what goes on.
      This has me thinking about becoming a published author. When it comes to agents and editors. There are a lot of things not in my control. I can't control the state of the industry or what is currently trending. I can't control the recent sales of manuscripts. But I can control my own writing. And that is really the most important part of the process. What agents evaluate me on primarily is my writing. If it's good, I do well. I can't control what students do no matter how much I refine my teaching. I can continually improve my writing, though.