Michelle Patterson

Michelle means well. She understands that SFSU students are busy and possibly not all that bright, so she doesn't strain their pretty little heads with too much reading or essay-writing. Her tests are limited to poorly-written true/false and multiple choice questions.

Aside from her low expectations of her students, Michelle clearly doesn't have high expectations of herself. Her lectures are unfocused rants in which she continually stops herself every time she says "God" and replaces it with "Goddess." She often can't be bothered to get her facts right. She could not recall the story of Noah or the story or Lot from the Bible, waving it off with "I know there was incest in the Bible somewhere." She also continually misidentified Josephine Baker as "Jessica Baker." It goes without saying that she does not appreciate any efforts to correct her.

No matter how tempted you may be by the prospect of an easy A, walk away from this class. Surely there is something better you can be doing with your time.

Her lectures are not lectures, they are rants about overcrowded prisons, how all men are criminals, and how she's a feminist Democrat. She confuses the class, as well as herself, when she mistates facts from the book, reader, and the videos she shows. She demands respect from the whole class, yet she was repeatedly late and her cell phone would go off EVERY morning. She doesn't let anybody else finish their comments, so if you have something to say, make it short. Her exams are mostly true/false questions with extremely vague statements and her paper was like a report you had to do in high school. Good luck with this one!

Dr. Patterson is a fine lecturer and a decent human being. I have taken two of her courses, one in sociology and one in criminal justice and in both, she remained a vibrant and challenging teacher. She suggests explanations for social injustices that not only challenge the status quo, but challenges us to step outside our comfort zone to think outside the box.

No tricks or surprises with Michelle. Two scantron exams with 120 questions each and all material is covered in class or in the texts. One 5-10 page essay relevant to the course, but she's receptive to personal interest areas. Michele takes the time to obtain outside sources to update the reading material and provide current data. Unfortunately, the SFSU cutbacks mean that Michele must personally incur some of these costs and she is very direct about the limitations of resources available.

Michele Patterson is a lecturer at SFSU. She is also a political scientist and lawyer. You get exactly what you see and she plays no games and is sincerely interested in her students. She resolves conflicts quickly and demands a respectful and dynamic classroom environment. This lady is not pc, so the faint of heart beware. Michele's energy is like standing next to a bomb ready to blow, so hold on.

Michelle is absolutely great, she is that one teacher to have in a semester where you know you'll be swamped with work. She's extremely flexible because she realizes that at SFSU practically everyone works and studies. Her lectures are enjoyeable and she's open to discussion. The good thing about her class is that there is room for flexibility on all aspects. She is very approacheable and easy to talk to. Go to class, do the reading and participate and she will be very satisfied with you as a student.

A good teacher with the right idea about exams! She allows for open book and open notes exams. Her lectures were interesting although very biased, but overall she was a great teacher.

Michelle Patterson is a decent overall instructor. She has a PhD. in Sociology as well as her Juris Doctorate. She can certainly talk about many things. Her class consisted of group discussions relating to the assigned readings and she often brings contemporary issues into those discussions.

As a Sociolocy major, I never thought I'd say this about an instructor but, she gades far too easily. She is a relatively new lecturer at SF State and has already earned a reputation for being an easy grader. A lot of easy A's and B's. The entire semester, we were only given two take-home exams & there were no other difficult assignments. Also, her lesson plans seemed to be a bit disorganized. However, I did enjoy her in-class lectures and the guest speaker she brought into class from the SFPD. Outside the university, she lectures to the SFPD and counsels incarcerated women. She's in the vanguard of what she does.

This class wouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't on her soap box so much or if she wasn't so anal about "respect" and coming to every class. It's like high school- go to every class, be on time, don't leave early, don't talk, don't chew gum etc. I don't think I really learned anything else from this class.

All tests were open book/note and there were take home exams. Definetly a good GE class to take with a semester of really difficult classes.