#49–Video tape–ha! I did that at school at it was so terrible. But very, very useful. I can’t imagine doing videotapes at church. The pain-to-benefit ratio is too high.

But I’m with you on everything else. I don’t see the fact that they are volunteers constituting any kind of rebuttal of the need for evaluations. Getting feedback and fixing things makes teaching much more enjoyable because you can be confident you are being effective, vs just hoping you are and having a sinking suspicion that you might not be.

The truth is, even excellent teachers have total blind-spots. A once quarterly meeting (maybe take all the SS teachers out to eat, or something) where you discuss challenges/successes could actually be very rewarding, beneficial, and inspiring to teachers. Teachers can feel very isolated, but if a leader routinely sits in on lessons, picks out some strengths, and mentions them to the teachers, that can make a real difference. It would be so easy to have a discussion like: what happens when the crazy commenter goes off on a tangent? What are some effective open-ended questions to ask? How do you manage your class time? How do you plan to tackle the Book of Revelation?

There are so many ways to collect student reactions: give out a simple survey asking about reading habits, ask at the beginning of the year if students prefer more history or more doctrine, ask what the students would have emphasized about the lesson had they been the teachers, ask how this topic/section might have been taught differently by someone older or male or by Joseph Smith. You get feedback that is not exclusively aimed at you, but you still get some ideas. If the feedback is useless (ex. “good job”) then chances are your classes are asleep. Train them to give quality feedback, ask for it regularly (make it a ticket out the door), and use it.

It is a brave teacher who asks for feedback, but an even braver one who consents to being video-taped. You can learn a lot about your presentation style from that.

#40–I have a policy about unpaid volunteer work

Being a university instructor *almost* fits this category. :-)

Kaimi-
I hope your students aren’t too disenchanted. Maybe you should talk with a British accent so as not to disappoint.