“Valentina is very well prepared for class. She has a variety of speaking, listening, and talking activities. She somehow manages to fit all the material into the fast pace of the class. Her office hours are very helpful, and she encourages participation in class. Her passion for German is very obvious. She is a tough grader, but this only benefits the students. She makes us write. I find this to be challenging, but also important.

 

We spent a couple days on the Holocaust and the Third Reich. I thought that it was interesting the German book talked about blander topics such as the "World of Work", but those couple days on that harder topic will stick with me more and did much more to enhance my understanding of the German language and its history. Learning about the Holocaust in German is a far different experience than learning about in English. I though Valentina did a good job and should continue to include this in her lesson plan.”

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“Valentina was always available for questions and concerns and responded quickly to emails, especially when considering the time difference. She knew what each individual student struggled with and obviously took time grading all work. I thought the student-instructor meetings were the most informative part of the class.”

 

 

 

“Valentina is a really well prepared instructor for this course. Her teaching method is easy to follow and digest especially for a language course. She is always looking for ways to help students, plans helpful activities when it comes to understanding the course material and is really fun as a professor. She is one of the most helpful professors I have met and really cares about her students succeeding and doing well in her class. She was very helpful because she always made time to help me and even tried to explain the material I had a hard time with in my native language (Spanish) that she is also fluent in. I attended many of her office hours and these were very helpful for being prepared for quizzes projects and exams. She is also a very fast grader and gives students comments over their mistakes in every assignment. I really enjoyed having her as my professor and I would recommend her to any student trying to learn German at an advanced or intermediate level.”

 

 

 

“Valentina is an excellent language instructor. She is punctual, professional, and excited about teaching the material and the learning process, itself. She understands and appreciates the importance of what I would call 'good intentions' in engaging that learning process, and she with this attitude in mind she welcomes wholesome laughter in her classroom. This is not to say that she is casual or flippant with her class -- quite the contrary, actually. She made maximum use of the limited time at her disposal by always starting the class promptly, if not early. This impressed me greatly.”

 

 

 

“My instructor did a great job encouraging students to keep trying even when they were struggling. She always made sure that everyone in the class was participating and never let anyone just sit through a class period. I hope that my instructor will also continue to encourage students to pursue German further. She convinced me to pursue a German minor.”

 

 

 

“Valentina is very good at speaking German in a way that students of our level can understand. It is still difficult to understand (because we are not anywhere near fluent), but definitely not impossible, and my listening skills consistently improved throughout the course. The focus is certainly still on vocabulary and speaking skills, but she will correct obvious grammar mistakes and is willing to answer grammatical questions, which is helpful. The course is very enjoyable, yet I still learned a lot.”