New Issue of The Law Teacher: 'Sometimes, We Really Do Suck'

The Institute for Law Teaching and Learning has published the Fall 2009 issue of The Law Teacher. Stewart Harris (Appalachian) offers advice for those soon to hand out student evaluation forms in Sometimes, We Really Do Suck:

While I don’t try to influence my written student evaluations — other than by teaching well — I have occasionally told my classes that cryptically negative comments, such as, “You suck,” while perhaps true, are not particularly helpful. I have then clarified that it’s perfectly all right for them to write that I suck, but that if they want me to stop sucking, they had better tell me, with some degree of specificity, just how I suck.

Here are the other articles:

• Taking a Small Step Toward More Assessments, by Sophie Sparrow (Franklin Pierce), p.1
• Book Review: Contracts -- A Context and Practice Casebook, by Roy Stuckey (South Carolina), p.3
• Teaching Issue Spotting Explicitly, by David Nadvorney (CUNY) & Deborah Zalesne (CUNY), p.4
• Lawyer as Counselor — Winning Isn’t Always Everything, by Susan M. Chesler (Arizona State), p.6
• Negotiation and Drafting in a Contracts Course, by Stephen A. Gerst (Phoenix), p.7
• Teaching with Sarcasm, by Harriet N. Katz (Rutgers-Camden), p.9
• Political History of Law, by Sabah Carrim (KDU College, Malaysia), p.10
• An Experiment in Participation, by Leigh Goodmark (Baltimore), p.12
• Conference: Teaching Law for Engaged Learning (April 10, 2010), p.14
• AALS Annual Meeting Sessions Related to Teaching and Learning, p.15
• The Activity-Based Seminar, by Stacy Caplow (Brooklyn), p.16
• Book Review: Teaching Law by Design, by Robin A. Boyle (St. John’s), p.19
• Call for Presentations: Teaching Law Practice Across the Curriculum (June 16-18, 2010), p.20