I said I wouldn't do it, but I did.

Today, in my funk, I decided to Google myself. I had sworn heretofore that I would never do it because I didn't want to read the stupid reviews students gave me on Ratemyprof.com and like sites. But I went ahead and did it, and found to my pleasure that these reviews were way down on the list of information about me on the Net. Though I didn't find this blog at all, I did find the two poems I'd published recently at qarrsiluni, a review essay I wrote for Amazon and am rather proud of, and other stuff either neutral or complimentary about me. Then I looked at Ratemyprof. It was as I expected it. The usual complaints--too hard, bad handwriting, can't hear well. And some I didn't expect--first day writing samples seemed unbelievably harsh to a number of students. It's hard to believe that other teachers don't give them too. And also, it seems that somewhere along the line I've become an old fart. Bound to happen. But the reviews went either one way (5s from about half the students) or the other (1s or 2s from the other half or so). The 5s chastised the 1s and said they were being unrealistic and unfair. That was interesting too. It didn't bother me, needless to say.