Cannellos, John  

Watching Cannellos teach is like watching a less witty, more angry Woody Allen try to communicate something in a language he is unfamiliar with. He's somewhat amusing until you realize you're not learning anything and he's going to be grading you on this. The lecture rhythm goes something like this: "Mumble mumble mumble YELL!" Anyway, while he can't lecture, he is actually quite good at structuring a class, the HW and quizzes are both reasonable and helpful, and he puts students in groups so that they can teach each other even if he can't teach them. Additionally, he adjusts his expectations on the midterms and finals (with a disappointed voice) and will curve things so your grade doesn't die. If you have him for lab you will get out early, which is always nice.

This guy was a joke. He didn't collect homework and administered group quizes every other week. The quizes weren't bad and if your group didn't get it nothing prevented group collaboration. His midterms were fairly easy as well. He based them primarily on lab quizes and he also provided a consolidated list of hw and examples to study. He made that portion very easy. His lectures were terrible. Even though the class is very easy to I always hated going to lecture. He showed countless calculus derivations that were pointless... almost as if he was out to prove he knew how to take derivatives. He also becomes extremely frustrated at students at times if they dont understand something. He doesn't howevwr make an effort to clairify. Instead he attacks! I really hated tgis guy but he is a really easy professor.

Cannellos only made this class harder than it already is. His sporadic ramblings and derivatives only confused students on material they sometimes already knew. However, his tests are easy as he outlines them for you beforehand. He is an inconsistent grader though, so his lenience will change from problem to problem. He also gives quizzes every week in class and in lab which may or may not be on material that hasn't been covered yet. Your best bet is to not pay attention during lecture (because it will only confuse you) and learn the material outside of class in a workshop or study session. Overall, if you already have a firm understanding of 133 and have no problem going to class everyday (to take the quizzes), then this is the professor for you!

I personally liked him a lot. He wants his students to learn and to do well in the class. The only thing I didn't like was that he was somewhat inconsistent with how the class was structured, he changed the plan a lot. Other than that, the class wasn't too hard. He gave us a list of problems to study for the exams (which were usually harder than the actual exam problems, and I liked that - we learned how to do harder problems but we graded on understanding the basics). I had him for lab also, and he wouldn't accept our lab report until everything was done right. As a result, we got A's on all lab reports. His exams were very straightforward and he always gave us a formula sheet, which was extremely helpful.

John has extreme difficulty in knowing which way to correctly present material. Yes he knows his stuff, however throughout the course he changed from lecturing, to group work, then to presenting examples only, and finally back to lecturing. Yea it might be that he is a first year teacher, however it doesn't help us students at all. Yet if you do the reading and hw he assigns and take note of his examples it is not difficult to get a good grade. The course requires more individual work than anything. His final and midterms are exactly what he says they will be. There are no surprise questions. Just be for warned that the individual must do lots of out of class prepartion

Ok so I got an A with Professor Cannellos, but only because of what I knew in highschool physics. I am a physics major and this guy made the class confusing more often than not. I sat in the front row showed up on time and was never disruptive but the guy seemed to just generally dislike me and most everyone else in his class. I DO NOT RECOMMEND HIM honestly one of the worst teachers I've ever had. He did not have a set system for grading his midterms and final (it changed everytime) he made many mistakes in class and when he wrote things on the board or sent emails they were just plain confusing! Whenever I asked questions about them he seemed irritated that I was asking.

John Cannellos did not teach at all. He just took examples from the book and wrote them up on the board. Then at the end of lecture, he would just tell you to look up the example in the book if you did not understand it. He went from "lecture" which did not work out to group work. He was able to recognize student difficulties and would either drop or curve everybody's quiz grade if the majority of the class did bad on it. But there is a problem with that too, how can you expect to learn with such a method of teaching? I was able to get a A- in the class because I studied a lot out of class.

Ok, so everyone else here is explaining how Professor Cannellos does not know how to teach. Yes its very true that he did not present the material very clearly. I can see how this is a problem to most students who have never taken physics before like myself. I did not do so well on my first midterm. It was basically a D. But I set myself to do well in the class because of pride. I eventually ended up with an A- because I aced both my second midterm and final. It is possible to get a good grade in his class!! You just have to put the effort to understand the material even though he does not present it clearly. I read the book everyday, before class to even have a clue of what was going on. I signed up for a study session to get the extra help. Do whatever it takes to get that A! But enough about me. Professor Cannellos is a beginner professor, and like many beginners, it takes practice to excel at something! So even though I do not think Professor Cannellos is the best physics teacher on campus, he tried his best to help out the class by telling everyone exactly what was going to be on the midterms and final. I really hope this guy gets a better name because he's really a good guy.

Cannellos can't teach, AT ALL. I didn't learn anything in lecture, luckily I had already taken AP Physics and gotten a 5 on that test. He sucks because he doesn't even understand that everyone in the class is not understanding him, he just isn't on the same page as his students. Avoid Cannellos if at all possible.

Cannellos isn't the worst of professors. Although on many occasions he would stumble in his own lectures, at the end of the day, he presented the material he needed to present. He took examples straight from the book, which is not the worst, but I've had worse physics professors. At the beginning he was an okay professor, but as the quarter went on, he went on to become really inconsistent: his midterms were not exactly uniform, but graded similarly, the questions were really predictable, almost identical to in-class examples, he tried to implement group work which ended in failure, and for a while he did nothing but pure examples. Yet, all you need is to pay attention in his class, and you should be fine. Take him if you just need to get through a course.

His lectures were confusing and erratic, and half the time you couldn't read what he wrote on the board or your graded assignments. Thankfully, 141 is just kinematics and conservation of energy, which is not hard to do if you practice. His tests and quizzes were easy if you do the homework and study, but don't expect to get much out of lecture. Form study groups, or go to the one at the Library because you'll need it.

What the guy/gal below said. Amen. I too took this class and have long since graduated from Poly, but I was cruising Poly Ratings for a kick and thought that I should pipe in and let you know how much of a joke this prof is.