Assessment of one's own teaching

AKMA posted some observations about teachers and teaching that have been making me look at myself. He says that teachers will very often--almost always, in fact--say that they are excellent teachers. Few will "cop to being a mediocre teacher." I believe I am slightly better than mediocre, but only slightly, and it took an enormous amount of work just to get to mediocre. My first semester teaching was an unmitigated disaster; I was lucky to get through it in one piece. The evaluations, which ranged from excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor, averaged out to be "fair," and I can't believe I even got that. Both my classes were train wrecks. Now I'm much better (read: okay), and still striving.