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Kalin, Ruth

Cumulative GPA: 3.93/4.00 with 14 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.86
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.79

Women's and Gender Studies Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 1:44 pm, Apr 8, 2013 Report Evaluation		I was dreading taking public speaking, but this class ended up being my favorite last quarter. Professor Kalin is very understanding of these fears and creates a comfortable environment. She helps you get to know your classmates and teaches you skills for speech success. The best part was that she really never lectured. Every class was doing a fun activity that increased your speaking comfort. Most things weren't graded. You have to write five two page essays for this class but they aren't difficult at all. I spent less than an hour on each paper and got a perfect score on all of them. A little over half your grade is speeches and there is a participation component. You are guaranteed at least a C on the final if you show up. I got high Bs/low As on all my speeches, participated regularly, and got a solid A in this class. I would definitely take Kalin again and recommend her to anyone who wants to have fun in public speaking.

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 9:06 pm, Dec 19, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Kalin is amazing! She is funny and kind, she's sarcastic with her students, but not in a negative way. At the beginning of the quarter we kind of just chilled with classmates and did really fun activities. She requires 5 lab assignments (public speaker evaluations) and you have about 5 speeches, the longest is 6-8 minutes. Very do able. If you have the opportunity to take this class be sure to get her!

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 9:49 am, Dec 19, 2012 Report Evaluation		Nice teacher but she has a particular way of grading things. Make sure you do as many particpation points as you can because she doesn't tell you how many you have until the end of the quarter. For the group essay, my partner and I wrote a pretty good essay-- but we did not realize she only cared about how many concepts we mentioned. Therefore, because we ONLY mentioned 24 concepts and the most was 74, we got a C... Thankfully I kept on top of everything else to keep my grade up.

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 7:01 pm, Dec 11, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Kalin was a really fun teacher. In her class there were 1000 points. Students give an anecdote speech, a process speech, an informative speech, a persuasive speech, and finally an impromptu speech. These speeches are worth 50, 100, 150, 200, and 75 points respectively. There are 4 quizzes in the class, but the last two were fun activities such as a group essay and debating against your friend on a given topic. There is no midterm and the final is the impromptu speech and you cannot get below a C- on the final. Participation points can be earned by volunteering in class or by bringing in outside speaking opportunities or news articles. Lastly, you have to attend those speaking opportunities and write analysis of them. These are referred to as labs in her class and they are really easy to complete. She tends to give full credit on all labs as long as it is written coherently and structured well. However, make sure you follow the two page requirement otherwise it is a 5 point grade deduction, even if it is 1/8 of a page short. Kalin was extremely helpful during office hours and she understands that public speaking is not a favorite among most students, but she tries her best to make this a fun class. I would highly recommend her to anyone needing to take her class.

WGS 301 Junior Grade Earned: A General Ed 10:52 pm, Jun 5, 2012 Report Evaluation		If you want an easy D5.... take this class! You do a reading reaction paper each week which sounds annoying, but it's only two pages and if you write anything relevant you get full credit. There are no tests, and you choose what to do for the final. Other than that, all points come from participation (bringing in articles, watching videos, etc) and an interview paper you do with a female family member. Super easy class, easy A and you get a D5 out of the way!

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 9:13 pm, Mar 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		I personally always liked public speaking, but never really learned the exact format of it or did it in a professional manner. However, after this class, I learned how to properly organize my speeches and make them look more impacting and professional. Professor Kalin understands all aspects of a student. Never criticizes anyone, and in fact always cheers them up if anything is done poorly. She is not an "easy" grader, but a decent grader who completely understands and recognizes that public speaking is not a favorable thing to many people. So even if you have flaws in your speech, it will not kill you. So if you never had public speaking experience and have stage fright, then you should definitely take her. She will change your thoughts on public speaking. Her activities are fun, and her workshops are always helpful. TAKE HER IF YOU CAN! P.S. You should try speaking for the intramural speech competition, she will definitely prepare you for it, and you will not regret such a great experience.

WGS 301 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 6:55 pm, Mar 25, 2012 Report Evaluation		I loved this class! The class really makes you think deeply and explore issues in society. It was my favorite class I have taken out of my 200+ units here at Cal Poly. Class discussions are not intimidating (coming from someone that doesn't like public speaking) and it is easy to get an A if you just do all of your reflection papers. Very interesting! I didn't want the quarter to end



COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 12:09 am, Mar 22, 2012 Report Evaluation		LOVED THIS CLASS. I really suck at public speaking and I've always been so scared of it...but Kalin made it really comfortable for us to get up and speak. She grades very fairly (often recognizing that most of us are very afraid of public speaking) and she makes the class really enjoyable and relaxing! There are 3 big speeches...and the class isn't hard to ace as long as you get your participation credit! Best class ever!

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 1:58 pm, Mar 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		Kalin is a good teacher and tells you right from day one what she expects from you in her class. It's not too difficult to manage an A in her class, and if I just participated a little more I would have wound up with an A. She's extremely nice and she's fair in her grading.

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 2:12 am, Feb 29, 2012 Report Evaluation		This was my favorite class! She did a good job of making public speaking fun (FUN?? yeah, she makes it way less bad than you think it is). She's a really great teacher and her class is really fun to be in- it was the highlight of my whole schedule!

COMS 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 12:08 am, Feb 29, 2012 Report Evaluation		Kalin is so fantastic. I got Bs/B-s on must all my speeches and even did one on the make up day (Day of your final for a full grade deduction) and got away with an A-. Probably the funnest class I've had so far. The 2 midterms was common sense gleaned from the reading. Speeches are fine as long as you don't start them the night before... and some people who did ended up just fine.

CM 101 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 8:17 pm, Jan 3, 2012 Report Evaluation		Kalin is awesome! She understands that public speaking is a major fear of most kids, and that pretty much no one actually wants to do it. She makes the environment very comfortable, and constantly tries to boost everyone's confidence after every speaking activity. I thought of this class more of a way to help kids get over there fear of public speaking, rather than actually being graded on a college curriculum. Which makes sense, since it was a 101 class.

WGS 301 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A General Ed 11:58 pm, Dec 20, 2011 Report Evaluation		Kalin is extremely helpful and very open. I took WGS 301 with her to fulfill GE area D5, and was not sure what to expect. But the class ended up being great. It was very light on actual lecture and very heavy on seminar style class discussions, which she facilitated in a way that makes participating easy and comfortable. You need to participate in discussions and bring in articles, etc. if you want to do well, but it's pretty easy. Other than that, there are weekly reaction papers, which are very very easy and one larger 4-5 page paper (which is also easy). I was one of only a few guys in the class and I enjoyed it much more thoroughly than I ever could have expected. I highly recommend this class on its own merits and as an easy fulfillment of D5 and USCP.



CM 101 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 4:33 pm, Dec 7, 2011 Report Evaluation		I loved this class! Professor Kalin was really nice and made class fun. We did a lot of fun activities that let the whole class get to know each other. She knew everyone by name and made sure we had an environment we were comfortable speaking in. There wasn't too much work, just speeches and 2 tests. I would definitely recommend taking Kalin if you can.

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