My student evaluations are positive overall. Students take notice and respond positively to my willingness to experiment and learn more about the language in front of students by creating examples and experiments on the overhead projector, and appreciated my intentional departure from the usage of powerpoint slides. Most students often get frustrated when instructors bring up topics that are not in the curriculum, but the students in the class appreciate the deeper dive into the course material since it helps cement some of the topics that they are usually asked to take at face value. While most of the comments are appreciative of my demeanor and receptiveness outside of the classroom, I find the comments that show students recognizing how I realize my teaching philosophy to be the most encouraging, since it shows that my philosophy is aligned with reality in what helps students learn.
Negative comments are more difficult to swallow, but one element that troubles me is how students believed that the lecture materials did not do a very good job of preparing for the exam, meaning that the exam and the course materials were in some way disconnected. This is likely a result of my diversion from the course material, as I have a tendency to overemphasize the esoteric tendencies of the language in a way that does not help students learn how to use the language in ways that it would "usually" be used. Students also expressed some frustration in how I reorder my lectures away from the PDF lecture slides that they are given before class.
Both of these key themes can be addressed with changes in the way I lecture. For example, I never considered giving students my lesson plans that I used for the lectures, but I could certainly do that in the future, which would let students see the topics that I care about and what I intend to emphasize. I can also dial back my enthusiasm for the esoteric behavior of the programming language or clearly mark where I'm intentionally going deeper into the language than most people need to know. Students did not bring this up in the reviews, but one side effect of focusing on the interesting parts of the subject matter is that it unfairly biases the course to benefit the strongest students, with not enough emphasis on the drilling needed to help weaker students catch up with the rest of the group.