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Howard, Zeljka

Cumulative GPA: 2.50/4.00 with 21 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.60
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.25

City and Regional Planning Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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CRP 410 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 6:36 pm, Mar 25, 2012 Report Evaluation		Zeljka pushes students to do their best work. The class is really what you want to make of it, though. If you try hard then you will earn her respect and trust (and better grade). She genuinely cares about her students and takes the time to get to know them as people out side of school too. She seems a little scary at first, but is really very sweet and a great professor. The time frames can get a little messy, but that is reflective of real-world planning practice. I feel much more prepared for a job now.

CRP 212 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:45 am, Mar 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		Zeljka was an amazing teacher. I don't agree with her being "unprofessional". She was definitely prepared for all of her lectures, and had answers to most of the questions we had. She knew what she was talking about, and she provides many information that could be hard to understand at same time. Her grading on the midterms could be little un-fair based on her "favoritism" but if you went to her office hours and ask her, she'll definitely reconsider your grade. Do your readings, go to her office hours for clarification and you'll be able to get an A.

CRP 212 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:47 pm, Dec 7, 2011 Report Evaluation		Zeljka Howard is one of the best instructors I have ever had. After reading these reviews and taking her class (as required) I watched for the signs of favoritism and incompetence, but what I saw was an incredible lecturer who knew exactly what she was talking about. Sure this is a difficult class. There is a tremendous amount of information and an A is going to take a lot of commitment and work (on the part of the student), including asking for additional clarifications outside of class. She doesn’t treat her class like a group of children. She treats her class like a group of adults who have a job to do, and in my experience, she acts more like a boss than a friend, which is what the pansy instructors do to be perceived as “cool.” I didn’t come to college to make friends with instructors who never matured past the age of 25. Zeljka Howard is an incredible instructor for students have a strong work ethic and who want to use their brain to learn something.

CRP 411 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 1:33 pm, Mar 22, 2011 Report Evaluation		One of the most unprofessional teachers I have ever had the displeasure of having. She grades based on how well she likes you--no, she really does. She picks her favorites within the first week of class and keeps those favorites throughout the entire 410-411 experience. She treats the remainder of the class like they are incompetent shitheads and always discredits their value to the class. The favorites can end up doing much smaller, less quality work than some of the others and they will always end up with an A while those who actually worked their butts off and produce quality work, she gives lower grades to because she thinks the work HAD to have been produced by one of her favorites and nobody else. This year was particularly bad when she decided to choose one favorite and make said person into the dictator of the class, who treated the class disrespectfully on an almost daily basis. If someone were to go to her with a problem with this set up, she would wholeheartedly defend said favorite. I have NEVER dealt with such an unprofessional and biased teacher, EVER. At this stage in my academic career I was not expecting the immaturity level in who I thought was a professional in a professional environment. I have never ever complained about anyone like this in my entire life, but her way of making others feel like utter crap and her obvious favoritism just takes my breath away, and I feel compelled to evaluate her here. Please, make your choice wisely when registering for this lab. In other words, be forewarned about Zeljka. The only positive experience I have gained from this is that now I have experience in dealing with the most ridiculous (and I mean this in a BAD way) behavior of someone who supposedly (but undeservedly) has authority over me.

CRP 203 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:24 pm, Feb 4, 2011 Report Evaluation		She is like the little woman that creates the costumes in the movie The Incredibles.

CRP 212 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 5:42 pm, Oct 16, 2010 Report Evaluation		I couldn\'t stand this class. It was so incredibly boring and she did nothing to keep my interest. I text messaged the entire class. I hated this class so much that I didn\'t pay attention and didn\'t study so obviously I deserved the D I got on the midterm. However, a lot of the questions were really unclear and the class complained about a lot of them so she gave us all extra points to add onto our grade. I freaked out because I got a D and for the final we could take a comprehensive test that would cancel out our midterm test or a final that only covered the second half of the quarter. I chose to take the comprehensive one and since the midterm was so confusing she made the comprehensive final super easy. In fact, the final that covered the second half of the quarter was harder. I shouldn\'t complain, but I don\'t think I deserved to get an A in this class and I don\'t think I have ever hated any class as much as this one. I don\'t remember a single thing from that class. I heard Wack is better.

CRP 410 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:37 am, May 12, 2010 Report Evaluation		If you get her for 410-411 get on her good side and kiss butt it is the only way to get an A. In 410 she delegated \"special tasks\" to everyone in the class, but only 3 people ended up having to do their tasks b/c most of them were BS.. (Graphics, GIS, Etc). I picked up graphics and had to put maps, posters, PowerPoint, and report formats together for the entire class, this would have been fine if it was reflected in my grade, but of course it was not. She also likes to talk if you can try to do work while she goes on and on, she leaves very little time to do actual work during lab time. One last thing, if she hasn\'t got a definite project at the beginning of the quarter you will spend the rest of your quarter debating what you should do. This class was supposed to be a capstone it really was just another CRP 203.



CRP 212 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 11:50 pm, Feb 2, 2009 Report Evaluation		ok- Im only halfway through the quarter. I havent even taken the midterm yet, but I find Ms. Howard to be an excellent professor. I dont know how the test will be, but as far as the job she's doing in presenting the material- Id say she's great. Clear and concise, yet elaborate enough in her presentation so you get good real-life examples, and great information in a way that at the very least maintains my interest. I've read some of the poor reviews, and heard a couple kids whining, but I dont get it... She's funny, informative, interesting, and seems like a reasonable professor from what ive seen so far. Dont necessarily trust the bad reviews. I give her an A so far, and im a tough grader.

CRP 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 1:58 am, Dec 11, 2008 Report Evaluation		jaka (or however you spell this weird name) sucks

CRP 411 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:31 am, Apr 11, 2008 Report Evaluation		Zeljka knows her stuff! As professional Planner, she has much "hands on" experience that is accurate and informative. She is a GREAT instructor for students who want real-life procedure methodology. For students who are more interested in design, I would suggest a different instructor for the community planning courses, as Zeljka does change the plans as work progresses. Although this is how Planning really does happen, some students get upset with this way of doing things.

CRP 212 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:31 pm, Dec 14, 2007 Report Evaluation		i dont know why everyone said she was mean, she turned out to be a very understanding and clear professor. lectures were boring but straightforward so it was easy

CRP 212 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:14 pm, Dec 15, 2005 Report Evaluation		Get on her good side right away, contribute to lectures and ask questions. Right away she learned a handful of names of the people who were involved in class. I didn't do much if any of the reading but I went to every single class meeting. The tests were all short answer with a complete essay. The key is showing up for class. I liked her but the class was scheduled at 2pm (nap time) and I did nod off a few times. I liked it, but I'm glad I am done.

CRP 515 Graduate Student Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:56 pm, Jan 7, 2004 Report Evaluation		Professor Howard is awesome! She's friendly, funny, and approachable. The assignments are challenging, yet enjoyable.



CRP 410 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 4:43 pm, Dec 21, 2003 Report Evaluation		This is a lab course with 15 hours a week scheduled in class. Yet, somehow Zeljka manages to waste a collosal amount of time in utterly useless lectures that convey material of no intellectual import whatsoever. If you like once or twice a week to listen to an old serbian lady ask questions like: "Vvvvaat is infrastructure?" (bored student)- "Ahhhh, water,sewer,etc." No Shit. Tell me something I don't know. This class is a total waste of time. It's sad that so many CRP students have to have half their weeks schedule ruined with rote, process driven assignments that offer nothing to professional development.

CRP 203 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 4:10 pm, Jul 23, 2003 Report Evaluation		I was enrolled in Vicente's section, but since this lab was taught by both instructors there was no escaping Zeljka. Several hours of class time were waisted while both instructors figured out--on the spot--what to do for the day. Zeljka clearly wore the pants in the Vicente-Zeljka teaching relationship, if "teaching" is what they call what we endured. The assignments were constantly modified AS WE WORKED ON THEM, forcing us to repeat tasks and waste time on activities that did not make a difference in the final assignments. The final project was rushed and had little to do with what we had been working on the previous several weeks. I remember that after grades were given on the first assignment, the class spent over 30 minutes questioning Zeljka on her unclear grading. At one point, she couldn't even defend a low score given on a project's layout, citing her reason as something that actually fell under a different grading criteria. It is often said that Zeljka chooses favorites, and while it was not too obvious, there were a couple of groups that consistently scored higher than the rest of the class (and not because the other groups weren't working). Lastly, the entire class was devoted to group work, which irritated me greatly as I did a large percentage of the work...only to be punished with a B- after spending countless hours working so incredibly hard. Verdict: Avoid Zeljka at all possible costs, but kiss up to her (if you don't have dignity enough not to) since you will have her sometime in your CRP career.

CRP 203 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 1:10 am, Apr 10, 2003 Report Evaluation		Ugggh... Zeljka! Where shall I start? Behind those brown-tinted misshapen eyeglasses is the gaze of an evil beast! One girl in our class, on the first day said essentially this: "I heard she's favoritist... so I'm going to suck up"... and she did suck up... and it worked... Zeljka loved her. But those of us with dignity were given the cold stares and told we were wrong constantly. The assignments were indeed changed WHILE we were working on them... we were constantly set back. Taking a class with her was a nightmare... especially because I was registered in Vicente's section and not hers! The icing on the cake was the fact that Vicente had to travel back to Rio, and left the grading in her hands... bad idea. Oddly enough Zeljka is my academic advisor... even though I haven't spoken to her at all since taking this class nearly a year ago... when I pass her in the hallway I don't even acknowledge her presence.. nor does she mine. What bothers me is that I actually went in to discuss my grade and see what I could do to circumvent ruining my GPA, and while Vicente was sympathetic to my concerns, I received only a cold shoulder from Zeljka. No wonder she's a "lecturer" and not a professor.

CRP 212 Freshman Grade Earned: A Elective 2:18 pm, Apr 1, 2003 Report Evaluation		Professor Howard was probably my favorite teacher fall quarter. I felt that she covered all the material that we were tested on and as long as you actually paid attention and took notes you'd be alright. She was funny and made the information enjoyable. To me, she was never unapprochable, as long as you actually try and be assertive you'll do good.

CRP 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 7:55 pm, Feb 1, 2002 Report Evaluation		I'm not a CRP major so I suppose it's a little different, but I enjoyed the class lecture. It was two hours long and it's easy to nod-off but she was funny and got the class to get into some interesting coversations. The essay tests suck but the questions are straight out of the study guide and she grades on a pretty decent curve.

CRP 410 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:13 pm, Jan 7, 2002 Report Evaluation		I have had a few classes with Zeljka, 201, 203, 211 (I believe) 410, and now 411. Never once has she been tolerable, although 211 was okay. I have never been on her good side (an essential). She has four major flaws. One, she loves to hear herself talk. This means that you spend virtually no time working on projects and most of the time listening to her ramble. Two, she has no clear concept of what she expects from her students on projects which can be the most irritating of her traits. Three, she is unapproachable so be very careful when the time comes you need to speak to her. Finally, I have never come across a teacher where her favorites were so obvious and greatly coddled. I guess I should say that they often end up doing more work, but in my case I would have like to be involved in this extra work, however that was given to only the elite and the people who she decided would fail unless they worked their asses off. Towards the end she bitched and moaned about the quality of our work and how much work she was doing which probably was true but I has little sympathy after she wasted nearly a month and a half of this quarter assigning us mindless work that didnt really add to our finished product. Becuase of this I saw for the first time our finished product when we presented to the county, that was a little unsettling. When you worked on something and you basically know the same as the guests who come to see what we've done thats not a good feeling. Finally a word to the wise, dont get on her bad side cause you'll mean nothing to her and very little will make up for it. If you dont want to work stay in the middle, but if you need that grade speak up and kiss ass. Also as someone said before be very careful about approaching her, she does not respond well to criticsm even if she asks for it and in my experience has been unwilling even to go over past projects so "I could get an idea why I wasnt doing as well as I expected and how to improve. Without wanting to be obvious, I will just say that from then on I was on her really bad side. And it has taken about 2+ years to get to the bottom of the middle group where I have noticed you stay mainly below her radar screen. You wont have a choice wheter to take her or not, but dont mess with her, she can be a mean bitch and you will pay dearly every time you have to take her again. Many say time heals all wounds, well thats bs as concerned with Zeljka. When it comes to her good, bad and middle groupings her memory is amazing.



CRP 203 Graduate Student Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 2:02 pm, Sep 7, 2001 Report Evaluation		I thought she pretty much sucked as a teacher. I had her for design lab and it never really was clear what she expected out of our assignments. Despite what she said in class or wrote on an assignment sheet, the assignment would change everyday and as a result many students would have to throw away a portion of a project they spent hours on because she changed her mind. The class was always confused and what we would turn in for final projects never had the same elements as a result of her lack of clarity. She blatantly has favorites in the class and she is very inapproachable if you want to talk about grade discrepancies and things of the sort. I highly believe that our grade in the class is based on how much she likes you. Although I got a B in the class, I had many assisnments in her hand writting in which she gave me an A. I know many of you won't have a choice of avoiding her, but make sure you keep very clear records of your assignment grades because she doesn't. I just graduated and I had her a few years ago and I definately felt the lack of skills that I was supposed to gain from the class as I advanced in my CRP classes . Overall, The CRP staff was wonderful, but she has been my least favorite CRP professor. Good Luck and I hope this is helpful. Make her do her job the way it was intended. We pay too much tuition to have professors like her. If you don't like something she is definately more approachable if you go to her in a large group rather than alone because no matter your demeanor, it can become a little confrontational.

CRP 211 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		If you enjoy history you'll find this class very interesting. There is alot of reading assigned for this class but I never read. The criteria consists of a midterm, a final, and a research paper on a city. There was also an extra credit paper based on a guest lecture. The tests are based on the notes you take in class which is basically all the transperencys she puts up. She gives you a final review sheet which has everything on the test. She grades very easily and you should'nt have a problem getting a good grade in the class.

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