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McLamore, Alyson

Cumulative GPA: 3.25/4.00 with 16 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.81
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.38

Music Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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MU 324 Senior Grade Earned: B General Ed 10:57 pm, Oct 15, 2012 Report Evaluation		Alyson is an amazing teacher. She is clear in what she expects from you on tests and papers. She doesn't try to trick you. The material is a lot to learn. I never had to read anything out of the books, except for the few classes that I missed. She provides everything in the lecture. Make flash cards (at least for the songs you need to remember). I did the paper in 4 hours and I would have gotten an A except for her almost anal attention to grammatical and spelling errors. Overall a wonderful teacher.

MU 324 Senior Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 5:56 pm, May 8, 2012 Report Evaluation		I must say professor McLamore is a great teacher. She is more than willing to help you with any problems, and answer any questions you have. She is very fair in grading, and a pleasant person. Just like everyone else says, its all true, but what they neglect to tell you is.... Music324 (topic: history of musical theater) is an insane amount of work. The class is listed as 4 units, but theres only 3 hours of lecture, she sys the last unit is activity because you have to spend a lot of time outside class working, trust me, one unit isn't an adequate reflection on the work you must do. There are reading assignments every class (2-3 chapters and a few pages in the course reader), 10-15 questions/ch, 2-4 listening examples(which make up the majority of the tests at least 60%, so pay attention to them). besides there there is a quarter long paper, and there are additional assignments for the paper due nearly every week the class and material is not hard, the main difficulty is the insane workload for a GE. in addition the tests are mainly regurgitation, and memorizing facts, she said so herself, I might add memorizing USELESS facts. The class takes too much time for a ge especially when it will never prove useful in your life EVER

MU 324 Senior Grade Earned: B General Ed 8:47 pm, Apr 4, 2012 Report Evaluation		This is not an easy GE. If you love musicals, go for it. If you're looking for another easy A, take a different class. You must do the readings she assigns, as well as memorize a lot of material from her lectures. When you write the term paper, go in to her office hours to talk about it with her! I got a lower grade on the paper because I didn't check to make sure I was on track with her opinions before I turned in my paper.

MU 360 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 5:27 pm, Mar 22, 2011 Report Evaluation		Good teacher but pays to much attention to details for example spellings on tests...ect

MU 324 Junior Grade Earned: B General Ed 6:10 pm, Jul 2, 2010 Report Evaluation		Does this professor\'s teaching style maaaaybe get a little bit annoying...?

MU 324 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B General Ed 8:07 pm, Mar 31, 2009 Report Evaluation		Take this class if you're even considering it. I never knew crap about Musical Theater and thought it was pretty lame until I took this class and now I actually appreciate it. More importantly, this class is all memorization and analyzing songs. Get ready to use flashcards and hear her nag you to make them (which I didn't and crammed the day before each test but flashcards would have been a good idea). For the two midterms (20% each) and final (30%) you must answer multiple choice questions about 10 songs she plays on the speakers such as composer, lyricist, date, song form, etc. Then you have to analyze 1 random song you don't know in terms of dynamics, tempo, form, medium, etc. Then you answer questions from her book, maybe about 15 short answer, 1-2 point questions. Her homework schedule is set up to make you gradually complete parts of your course paper throughout the quarter. There are due dates every 1-2 weeks of the quarter for the research paper you have to write about a BROADWAY performance (has to be the songs and version from Broadway, not off-broadway). The overall final product includes a research paper with historical facts, biographical facts, 2 song compare/contrast, and a proven thesis. Turn your stuff in on time because she has a point a day late item deduction (3 pts a day for the final paper). Don't start your paper too late in the quarter (6 pages long) like I did and you should be fine.

MU 324 Junior Grade Earned: A General Ed 3:15 pm, Apr 2, 2007 Report Evaluation		This class was totally fun. You get background on tons of shows and then listen to music from a huge variety of musicals. It does help to have some music background because you have to understand some technical things about music, but she explains everything even if you don't have that knowledge. But a fun class, especially if you are a musical theatre fan. Oh, and on the paper, be very aware of typos because she is s total stickler!



MU 333 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:26 am, Jun 14, 2006 Report Evaluation		There has never been and there never will be a teacher so willing to help, care, and cultivate a student's education like Alyson. She is truly exceptional - and will remain my most admired teacher and role model for teaching. I have become a teacher thanks to her. She was my teacher all five years at Cal Poly. You have to work in all her classes, and it is very very hard, but the rewards are astronomical once you've mastered the routine of doing the work. She is clear in what you have to study - if she says it is on the final exam, it is. There is no guessing work with her. What you see is what you get.

MU 324 Junior Grade Earned: B General Ed 5:41 pm, Nov 3, 2004 Report Evaluation		A very good teacher who understood student difficulties and made every effort to help students out. Tons of memorizing for tests and a 10 pg. paper comparing two mediums of the same show though.

MU 334 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 12:48 pm, Jun 1, 2004 Report Evaluation		She had a great lecture that was fun to attend but not much else would make me want to take her agian. 17 page syllabus - 2 hour classes with no breaks - A 10 page term paper with graded aspects of it being due the 2nd week - tons of memorizing musical pieces for the listening portion of tests - 2 tests and a final - and she has this bucket that gets passed to anyone who contributes in class, therefore exiling anyone who isn't informed or is maybe shy. Of all the music professors, she is by far the toughest.

MU 324 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Elective 2:19 pm, Jul 12, 2003 Report Evaluation		Dr. McLamore is one of the best presenters of imformation I have ever taken a class from. However, she is a angry person and this effects her teaching. It becomes apparent that she lacks personal skills that would help her students to feel good about themselves. I often felt intimidated and felt bad for the students that asked questions that she deemed foolish. Her reactions to some students seemed inappropraite for and individual of her age and status at our university. Although the information was presented without fault, I often felt belittled by her domineering personality. Furthermore, the way that she promoted her feminist agenda often left the men feeling annoyed, which I thought was unfair to them.

MU 324 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 7:19 pm, Jun 30, 2003 Report Evaluation		Wow, this was by far the hardest quarter I have ever had, and I think this class was the only thing that kept me sane. There were 2 midterms and a final, part multiple choice, part short answer. She gives you all the reading questions, so just know the answers to two thirds of them or so and you'll do fine on that part (you can cut and paste most of the answers word for word out of the reading). Also make sure you know the terms she uses in class, and the information she gives you about each song. Its a bit of memorization, but not nearly as difficult as it could be. There is also one research paper (9 pages) which constitues 30% of your grade. Because of my otherwise hellish quarter, I started the paper at 11:00 the night before it was due, finished 5 minutes into class (yes I was late), and with some help from her in office hours, I was still able to get an A- on the paper. Overall, Alyson is one of the best teachers I have had, and especially for a subject that I really don't care about, she was really able to make the material interesting. If you can get into this class, take it by all means :)

MU 328 Junior Grade Earned: B General Ed 6:18 pm, Jan 9, 2003 Report Evaluation		This is a great class with a great teacher. She is always there to assist students in any way she can. She has the live performances and gives really interesting lectures. It is 2 midterms, 1 final, and 1 research paper. I would definitely recommend this class to fullfill a GE.



MU 328 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 2:02 pm, Dec 27, 2002 Report Evaluation		Dr. McLamore is an excellent teacher. She has won a Cal Poly Distinguished teacher award and it shows in her care for students. I am an ordinary guy who took Women in Music and it was actually pretty cool. Mclamore has a full syllabus and there can be a lot of work but it is pretty easy to do well in the class. There is a pretty lengthy paper(8 pages) and three tests but visiting her office hours really helps. There is a lot of in class listening so it helps time fly. If your looking for a GE and want a cool teacher, don't be scared to take Women In Music.

MU 328 Senior Grade Earned: C General Ed 1:46 pm, Jul 7, 2002 Report Evaluation		I took this course with no idea of what I was getting myself into and with no musical background whatsoever, but McLamore was an awesome teacher for those in my shoes. women in music was a learning experience and i reccomend it to anyone looking for a cool GE.

MU 324 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:38 pm, Jun 10, 2002 Report Evaluation		Dr. McLamore is by far the best teacher I have had at Cal Poly. She is very clear in class and very willing to help you in her office hours, and on the phone, if office hours are not helpful. She always has fun jokes and when things are turned in on time, she passes around the infamous "bucket" (filled with candy). If you need to fulfill your C4 requirement or just want to take a fun class, take Music 324, History of Musical Theater.

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