First I look at the average numbers for each subsection and see if anything stands out. For instance for two semesters in a row, my lowest average score was "Were the course objectives clearly stated" - which I found odd as there is a section in the syllabus named "course objectives" and we met each of them. But I got that most students simply don't read the syllabus so I created an entire section on the online/course website called "What's the point of this class? AKA Course objectives" and listed them in chatty bullet points, and then would start each lecture with "what's the point of today's lecture?" before getting started and they found this comforting. On the next set of eval's in the written part they specifically said they liked that and the numbers became one of the highest. It didn't matter that the objectives had always been there, the eval scores just let me know I wasn't communicating them in a way they were willing to read.

Also, in our evaluations they don't have to write anything if they choose not to, and they can bail on class 15 minutes early if they don't write anything and just fill in the numbers, so anything they make an effort to write is something they're really making an effort to get across. But because of that, the written part can be weird. Sometimes it's based on however they did on the last exam, or how much they like me as a person, or whether that day's lecture was particularly interesting. So I'll definitely get the "She's always available outside of class" alongside "she's never in her office". Maybe the former student just recently had a chatty meeting with me and the latter student randomly passed by my office while I was teaching or something, who knows. As another poster said, I take trends to heart more than individual comments.

Another thing I will sometimes do is tell the students in the next semester what my negative reviews were like the previous semester and that I'm going to focus on those things this semester. I sometimes do this strategically. For instance one semester a few students complained that other students using cell phones was distracting. I informed my next class that this was an issue and promised them that I would take this to heart and keep them from this distraction. I also know that I can get distracted in class by kind of odd things (we have a huge window in one lecture hall that was reflective on the outside, and people passing by on the walkway outside would walk up to it and use it as a mirror to check their teeth, adjust boobs in bras, sometimes lean back against it pressing plumber's crack to the window) Because the window was towards the back, I could see it very clearly and I would notice whatever was happening first and lose my train of thought, which made everyone whip around to see what had caught my eye. Everyone would laugh when this would happen and it was hard to keep on track. I got several complaints about this distraction (but it's otherwise a really sweet lecture hall so I didn't want to switch) and so I started the next semester's class explaining that the window's an issue and that if anything happened we'd all get 10 seconds to laugh and then move on. In other words, I let my students know that I read evaluations and take them seriously, and I use them as a way to communicate as well as improve things.

Finally, the bad or mean comments stick in my head forever. I can probably recite all of them. I would love it if someone made a video of professors reading their most negative evaluations, the way they have celebrities reciting the mean tweets they get. I have no advice for how to get those out of your head.