EDLF 3170

Prof. Smith is the bomb. He makes it obvious that he truly cares about his students and they work that he and we are all doing. He makes the class engaging and truly provokes great thought and discussion. The class is fairly easy, and for being 2.5 hours, it goes by pretty quickly. Smith does not ask a lot of you; he gives about 50 pages of reading a week, but that is easily attainable given you have a whole week to do it. There are few assignments & the majority of them are due in the second half of the semester, yet they aren't super difficult. Take this class prepared to feel inspired and ready to discuss your vision for youth!

Two words: busy work. Courseforum review was honestly kind of misleading. Take it if you're really passionate about education for youth and stuff, but honestly you don't learn anything you couldn't just read in like one singular research paper. Prof Smith is a nice guy, and his TA (a fourth year that does all the work for him) is nice too, but I feel like anyone could teach this class. His stories were interesting in the beginning, but most of the time he just read of ppts word for word. And since going online, he literally hasn't lectured at all - we just do groupwork and readings on our own, so apparently he's not all that passionate about teaching. ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOTE he uses a 5-pt grade scale, so you need 95+ for an A (not an easy A gpa boost like I thought). Will be pass failing this class because they're definitely not the easiest graders.

I really enjoyed this course with Professor Smith. It's clear he's passionate about the subject material and fostering an engaging, interesting class atmosphere. It's not a ton of reading per week, and there's a heavy focus on group work and discussion (which I learned a lot from). The two and a half hours went by quickly every week, and was honestly such a breath of fresh air from my other classes. The grading felt fair. With the transition to online classes, he has been more than accommodating. I would definitely recommend this class!

Smith really knows his stuff and what differentiates him from other professors, he really cares about his students. He'll check in with his students and talk to them in the beginning to ask them how they're doing to gage how they're doing mentally. It's really hard to not do well in this class as it's an Easy A as long as you do the projects with your group, it's not that hard. You may not find it engaging if you don't read the texts he assigned as there's a reason he assigns them, but it's not the end of the world if you don't. He's not really a strict grader and he also doesn't like to give exams/tests. He's one of my favorite college professors and I ended up taking another class with him the next semester.

Dr. Smith is the GOAT. This class is so entertaining, so informative, and pain-free. Dr. Smith knows that his students are taking more than just his class, so he does not expect you to be putting in hours upon hours into his class outside of class-time. You are assigned a Pod at the beginning of the semester with whom completely pretty much every assignment. I had an incredibly positive experience with my Pod, so as long as you put in the work and communicate well, I don't see how you could have a problem. The writing as mostly reflective, the discussions in class follow directly from the reading/videos/Ted Talks/TV show episodes assigned prior, so there is nothing unexpected. Also, the way Dr. Smith grades is incredibly generous. He is very open about the fact that he wants his class to be centered on discussion and "go-with-the-flow" type activities rather than checking boxes to get the grade. It's very fun and incredibly stress-free. I 1,000% recommend it.

#tCF2020

I really liked this course. It has more group work than individual work. At the beginning of the semester you get assigned to a pod and you will work with that pod until the end of the semester. It is fun to come to class because you get to work in assignments based on the readings that are not hard but you will need to at least put effort to it. This course is based on the period of the adolescence and it goes very in depth on the key aspects of the macrosystem, personal identity, and the development of a human being. There are small written assignments, a discussion facilitator (presentation about a reading), and a group project where you create a presentation with your pod and focus on a vision that can positively change the lives of young people. I liked the course and I highly recommend to take it with Professor Smith, he is the one!