When reading someone else's assessment of your work, it can be difficult not to take it personally. However, you can maintain an objective attitude by realizing the evaluation addresses your performance, not you as a person. As you read through the evaluation, consider the standards of your particular classes, course goals and requirements for teachers at your school and question whether you honestly lived up to the stated objectives. Separating your personal identity and your work can give you a proper, objective attitude in deciding what to do next.
Reading about a flaw in your methods or presentation can be hurtful, but teacher evaluations are designed to help you get better at your job and be more effective for students. You may be frustrated by the comments, but the evaluator may be trying to give you helpful advice. For example, it may be hard to learn that a particular activity or assignment you designed didn't succeed, but when designing future assignments, you will know not to repeat the problem. Being aware of a weakness in your teaching can help you stay conscious of it.
If there are multiple things you need to improve, you may be tempted to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of having to fix them all. However, Lehigh University's faculty development center recommends choosing only the two most important elements and setting a goal to work on those weaknesses throughout the next semester. Trying to do everything at once will heighten your anxiety and make you resent the evaluation even more. You can increase your motivation to improve by setting specific small objectives for each week and making a plan of how you can achieve your goal each day.
According to the University of Hong Kong, you don't have to wait until your next evaluation to get feedback. You can learn to evaluate your own performance on a regular basis by keeping detailed notes, regularly obtaining feedback from students and making video or audio recordings of class sessions. You also can solicit feedback from colleagues by inviting them to sit in on your classes and meeting one-on-one later to discuss their observations. By regularly getting feedback from colleagues and evaluating yourself on your own, your anxiety about official evaluations should substantially decrease.