Jennifer Baumer

For those who think this class consisted of too much work, you are kidding yourselves. Her essays are easy to write, since all it required was some thinking skills and correct grammar. How hard could that be? For heaven sakes, aren't you all in college? I didn't feel that this class was a great help in understanding American values. The readings required were very rich and were indeed wonderful choices. However, not enough time was spent discussing them. She is a very enthusiastic teacher, but her teaching experience is a limited.

Although the class is called "Values in American Culture," it's taught more like an English class. Taking the class means writing 5-6 major essays, an oral presentation, reading an independent novel, 5-6 quizzes, and writing 4 essays for the final!! Attendance is taken everyday and missing even one class can affect your overall grade!! Rather than learning about "American values," we had to do critical analysis on different readings from a (very thick and expensive!!!) reader. Jennifer is very knowledgeable about novels, authors, writing technique, etc. and would make an excellent English teacher!! She really takes the time to go thorough every reading and makes the effort to be available for her students. But she grades harder than most English teachers I've had and is very strict on writing style!! If you love English and doing critical analysis on authors, this class if for you!! But if you aren't a very strong writer and can't commit to the class everyday, DON'T TAKE IT!!

Ms. Baumer is a pretty good instructor. Her subject matter is very interesting and relevant. However, her HUM 225 class is over-loaded with work and consequently she had some trouble following her syllabus. Required for this class are: (4)four papers, (3) books, (5 or 6) five or six article hand-outs, (1) very large, very expensive reader, (1) one oral presentation, (5) five quizes and (1) a final that consisted of (3) essays and a suprise (4th) fourth essay announced the morning of the final. All requirements were not listed plainly in the syllabus. (new things popped up as we went along) Do I sound bitter? It was also difficult to estimate your final grade because almost half of the total points, [(6) six page paper,(4)four essay final and (1) one oral presentation.] were due in the last (3) three weeks of class. For those of you that need an "A" there is extra credit which involves additional research and an addtional oral report. Ouch! Don't take more than 12 units if enrolled in this class. P.S. She also takes attendence and factors even (1)one absence, it into your final grade.

Miss Baumer is a very good instructor, but there is but one thing that is not quite right about her teaching. The class is about Values in American Life, however, Miss Baumer doesn't really pay attention into reviewing to her students what the readings are about and what values applies to the main subject of the class (which is values in American Life!). Instead, she puts more time in making us learn how to write an almost perfect paper. I thought that's what English teachers do, not humanities or ethnic studies teachers. Sure, they should give us papers to do, but to give more emphasis on these things instead of having the students learn what they should learn in a certain class (like in Miss Baumer's class, we should focus more on the authors and their values and influences, instead of teaching us how to write papers -- that's what English teachers are for!!!) In fairness to her, she would be a good English teacher, and she should if she teaches that way. I think that the lectures that she gives and her quizzes doesn't help at all because that's not where she focus her attention on. Like on the finals, i feel like I'm going to an English Placement Test because our finals is not about her lectures or quizzes, it's about her "doing the right way to do an essay", we're gonna do a three mini-essay on the finals, and guess what? She will time us! We have to be finish at a certain time for one question. I thought it is really stupid, but that's her. I just want to say that most of my classmates feel that they took the wrong class. They thought that they were finally done with English 214 and 114, little did we know that we took an extended version of these English classes. Oh well......

I have really enjoyed Prof. Baumer's class this semester. She gave us a lot of readings, which at first made me want to drop the class, but they were all short and good to read. A lot of them were about cultures different than ours and that has made reading them interesting to me. She also takes the time to explain the readings, which I like because some of them were a harder to follow than others. Prof. Baumer always made sure that we understood what was going on. Sometimes I think the professors have forgotten what it's like to be a student. Knowing that she is also one too made sure she knew what we were all going through! I have found it to be an enjoyable class and would recommend it to anyone who wants to take an interesting g.e. type of class. You can learn a lot about other cultures in America which are not given as much attention in history or english classes. This class is a history class, an english class, and a critical thinking class all rolled into one! And Prof. Baumer makes learning it fun!

I believe Ms. Baumer is the best instructor I've ever had in my 18 years of life! She brings the readings to life with her imitations of the authors themselves! She made me begin to care about literature, now I even want to become a writer. I write comics now, but I plan to write my first epic novel next summer, once I learn more about gerunds. Take this teacher, unless you don't want to appreciate good art! ; )