HIEU 3692

I had Matthew as my TA (everybody did) during Spring 2023. I'm not sure if he's continuing as a TA next semester or teaching classes or what, but he really is not my favorite instructor/TA. He was generally confused and confusing every single discussion section and always seemed like he didn't know what to say or was uncomfortable. He's actually pretty hard to describe now I'm trying to write this review. Honestly, he didn't really engage our discussion groups very much because if he got about 4 seconds of silence or confused looks from us, he would completely give up on the question or just move to a different topic altogether. Everything he has issues with seems like it could be fixed extremely easily with a little work on his part or even some simple instruction to us. Like, if he doesn't know what to talk about, he just asks us what we want to talk about. This class, in general, is actually really easy, so there often isn't one particular topic happening. It's pretty open-ended, and we have been going chronologically through the Holocaust, so his asking that makes for a pretty awkward room. He could just add more structure to the class and have us do quizzes, worksheets, review one specific reading at a time, or anything like that, but it's been 14 weeks, and he just hasn't. Another example of this issue I have with him is that he has been trying to learn all of our names all semester (which I super respect and appreciate), but he literally doesn't know any of them except for the two people in my section who speak the most. He has literally added an extra one to two minutes of absolute silence to every interaction with every student whenever someone raises their hand because he is referring to his roster and trying to guess our names. This could have been remedied by him telling us to make nametags and set them on our tables as any other prof/TA would, but instead, he literally tells us to wait on the question, and we just have to sit in the hot seat for the longest minute while he takes five tries to guess names. He's literally never rude; he's super nice. But it's the most awkward discussion I've ever been in. And he generally lacks interesting or intelligent things to say. Like we're talking about in-depth, specific primary sources of accounts and records of the Holocaust, and he makes the most surface-level observation. I'm not saying this to be rude to him; it's important because it has definitely affected the quality of discourse and learning happening in this class. He generally doesn't articulate what he's thinking well, which is an issue if you're supposed to be clarifying and diving deep into lectures the professor already did. Don't let him being the TA stop you from taking the class; just know that if you're super interested in history or want to truly learn everything this course material has to offer, he is not going to help you do that. He gives fall 2021 engagements professor energy. I still really enjoy this class because I don't really do much in it. His lack of skill allows you to have to do none of the readings.

Review for VICTORIA BARNETT
Professor Barnett is a very kind lady and makes this class very enjoyable. She is exceptionally experienced and knowledgeable on the subject. She is published in various places, including the US Holocaust Museum. Her lectures are not what I would call engaging but that literally doesn't matter to me. Her job is to educate, not be funny.
This course is SO incredibly light in work. It's not even funny. I'm finishing up my second year right now, and this class is about a quarter of the work as any of my engagements last year. There are LOTS of assigned readings each week but the only thing required of you from them is a weekly question due at midnight every Sunday, so you do not need to read them. You just have to turn in a 1-2 sentence question. I usually skim them and if something catches my attention I read it. They aren't that long actually, but there are always multiple readings. You could spend about 2 hours reading per week but you can spend as little as like 2 minutes. Someone told me you can miss two of these weekly questions and still recieve credit as if you completed all of them.
There is a 15-minute long group project and you sign up for a time slot to present it during class, so some of the presentations had to be done/presented at the beginning of march but I just presented my group's in the middle of April because there's so many groups and we got a later slot. So you either get it done ahead of time or you have a lot of time to not worry about the project. Ours was simply a powerpoint and they have to be focused on one primary source (like a pamphlet or diary or news article) from the Holocaust or relating to it. This project was incredibly easy to complete and present. Other than the class times that people are presenting their presentations, Prof. Barnett simply lectures with slides and sometimes (rarely) requests that we spl