I've had the pleasure of teaching some incredible students at the University of South Carolina, and they've been generous with their anonymous course evaluations. Here is some of what they have had to say about my teaching:
"I feel like a more informed citizen than I did before this class. "
"his class was very different but in a good way, even before we went to online school Mr. Brake did stuff that was out of the ordinary with his simulations."
"He knew the material well and wanted us to learn it. I also liked how we had an area to focus on and relate to US foreign policy all semester. Kept us all engaged with current and relevant foreign policy things. "
"Mr. Brake speaks in a very clear manner, and you can obviously see that he has a fascination with what he teaches about. He seems genuinely excited to talk about the subject of the day and by proxy that makes me more interested i what I am about to learn. I also feel that the way that Mr. Brake structured his class around the readings was more of a benefit than a hinderance as it allowed me to schedule around those readings. "
"I loved this professor! One of the best professors I've had while at USC. He is very smart and knows what he is talking about. He was ALWAYS available to meet outside of class and helped me tremendously. "
"In-class simulations helped me understand the complexities of the subject matter, the topics were of great interest and I think accurately and appropriately covered what I expected to learn in the course ."
"The in class discussions were the most helpful to me since I had a hard time understanding the readings a lot of times. I also got great experience with writing a research paper. "
"He is very relatable and does a great job at explaining concepts in ways the average undergrad student would understand. I also think he has fair expectations for our work and understanding of material - which is really refreshing compared to some other courses that seem unnecessarily dense. "
"He wanted you to understand and did everything in his power to make you think critically "
"He was extremely knowledgeable and wants people to understand the information. "
"This teacher is very professional, accessible outside of the classroom, compassionate about the subject, and caring. He really wants his students to learn more about the subject and ask questions if they are confused. He understands that college students have other classes, but still has a high expectation and expects you to work hard. He listens to everyone's opinions and never makes anyone feel like they're wrong. He listens to students' feedback and really takes it into consideration. I learned so much in this class."
"Very approachable, very intelligent. A genuine and authentic person who cared about students and class material. So, so knowledgeable about the subject, was able to explain difficult concepts very easily and well. "
"Used creative means during group discussions; very helpful "
"Very flexible, generally unbiased, and accepting of most answers and opinions even if they were wrong . . . Very interactive and facilitated (forced) students to share opinions and ideas and work together. Very understanding and gave good (reassuring) feedback. "
"The reading responses (as much as I didn't want to do them) contributed to my overall understanding of the readings. Additionally, the in class discussions helped with understanding and applying the information learned from the readings. "
"The readings were incredible. Rich texts which made for deep discussion. "
"Approachable and ok with slowing down to explain something you don't understand without making you feel stupid like many other professors. "
"He was always so energetic and invested in the material. He definitely cared and that made every class a pleasure"
"Our professor did a great job with making sure classes weren't boring or just a simple recap of the readings. We had discussions, activities, and even a few short clips presented to us in class - these were all helpful and interesting."
"The instructor was good at what he did. He was flexible and able to adapt as the course progressed. "
"The workload was way too heavy. "
"I really liked how he made us think and learned differently than I would in other classes. He pushed us to reflect on information before we had even dove in-depth about it and our tests weren't just a right and wrong answer which was also really helpful "
"I valued the lectures the most in this course. The readings were good with explaining what the lecture was going to be about, but they were sometimes hard to read. The lectures always put the readings into perspective and told me what I needed to know for the exam ."
"Really liked the Game theory/prisoner's dilemma games we played in discussion groups "
"The instructor is an excellent lecturer. The class captured my interest and genuinely made me think, this is what has made me excited about political science. Although it’s easier to have ppts and notes posted on black board the in person lectures forced me to be active in absorbing information. the quizzes and readings were very hard for me and many others however it pushed me to understand how to read and comprehend complex materials. Despite this class having the most time consuming and difficult information it is my highest grade. "
"Enthusiastic about every subject and asked a lot of questions for us to think about. Related almost every topic to real world politics and situations "
"Everything, I loved professor Brake's lectures. He makes things very engaging and easy to digest, but no too easy to the point there is not complexity/ability to think about how the topics work and apply in different situations. He has the perfect blend of engagement, explanations that make sense and have clarity, complexity, as well as usefulness to my other political science courses. "
"He was very knowledgeable about the topic & so he was able to easily answer and explain questions to everyone. "
"P. Brake had a completely new style of teaching that I enjoyed and he explained difficult concepts if the class was confused. He made jokes and jabs, but he also connected the material and theories we were learning to the current events going on in the world. This helped us gain more conscious of the world around us. "
"Lecturing after the readings so that we could review any holes we had in understanding. Because the readings were so long, sometimes I needed to review things the next day to remember key points or figure out what would be relevant on the exams. "
"Professor Brake is very good at explaining complex material. "
"Professor Brake knows a lot about political science, which shows in his lectures. If there was a question, he tried his best to answer it and often did an excellent job with his explanation. "
"Professor Brake was very good at connecting the different topics we learned throughout the semester. He also explained things in a clear manner, which significantly aided in my overall learning process. "
"I honestly have no complaints. "
"The instructor was very open to opposing opinions and went so far as to encourage them."
"The jokes he made and made the material relatable."
"He keeps the class very interesting and upbeat. I think he explains the subject matter very well in a clear and concise way that makes a lot of sense! "
"He explains things very clearly. He has a lot of knowledge on the subjects he teaches. "
"He is passionate about what he talks about and you can tell he enjoys what he teaches."
"I really enjoyed his openness to letting us form our own opinions about the information he gave us. Additionally, he made time in class to have open discussions about those opinions we could have formed."