Professional Development = Demoralization

There is nothing more painful than presenting your work to others who are completely objective and have no interest in saving your feelings. Yesterday, I went to an all day training on developing better online instruction. Now normally I love tweaking my WebCT class and I feel real accomplishment when something actually works the way its supposed to. During the training we were to take a course that we created and apply a very sensible evaluation rubric. I got through the first three levels of the rubric having failed to meet the standard even once.

Recognizing that this process is one of self-improvement, I really should let up on myself. It just burns when I realize that I could have had a much better course for my students than I have already developed. I will spend more time using the rubric to make changes to my course and to develop a more useful resource for my students.