Honey Minkowitz

I have had several opportunities to receive formal and informal feedback from my students.  Formal feedback is in the form of course evaluations at the end of the semester and informal feedback is collected through my feedback forms, emails and other communications. I have provided a few comments and shining moments below but I am happy to share more, discuss my philosophy on feedback or discuss any of the feedback on this page. 

​

Informal feedback from Fall 2019:

• "I enjoy being able to have civil discourse with all these people that know what they are talking about"

• "I like how easy the conversation flows.  I've learned how to confidently state facts or my opinion"

• "I like that everybody has the opportunity to speak their mind"

• "I enjoy that if someone has extra info to add to the current events.  Also I enjoy being in small groups because I don’t really know anyone in this class"

• "I wouldn’t have everyone speak at the beginning about current events I feel like it wastes a lot of time compared to it was one large open discussion for an alotted time"

​

Formal feedback from Fall 2019:

• 'Professor Minkowitz was a very helpful TA in the sense that she offered lots of feedback and advice for ways we could improve, things we could work on, and studying methods that might be beneficial. Furthermore, she encouraged discussion, creative ideas/options/activities, and a cohesive classroom of students inclined to learn more about current events, understand politics more effectively, and cooperate with each other. A weakness might be that the grades were not gradually put on moodle but we could get a predicted idea of what grade we might end up with in the class if we talked to her individually.'

• 'It made me sort of think about the future, perhaps being a TA while in a graduate program. It also allowed me to take in different viewpoints and formulate or reevaluate/adapt my own; being more attune with the news and the big issues and events going on.'

• 'When we collectively brainstormed ideas and topics that should be clarified or studied (better understood) for the exams. I also liked the two big writing assignments because we were able to be creative and express our concerns while incorporating political concepts. The TA was very encouraging and open to influencing us and guiding us to success to achieve our goals for the course.'

• 'I loved this part of the class! Honey is a really good teacher, especially for moderating discussions. She's super nice and knows her stuff. She also strongly encouraged the students to  give feedback on how we wanted the class to go, and was very receptive and good at listening to us while still making it a great learning environment.'

• 'VERY easy to talk to and communicate with. Super passionate about the class and knowledgeable on current events which helped me understand politics better. She also helped me prepare for the exams and improve my scores, as well as proofread my paper. Really enjoyed her class and would make an excellent professor someday!'

​

Informal feedback from Spring 2020 - Pre and Post COVID:

• "I thought it was going to be a lot about statistical analysis and more specific. I'm definitely happy that the topics we cover are more broad so I can apply them to larger concepts outside of the classroom."

• "I was hoping to become more comfortable reading and understanding academic literature and I think I have been getting more comfortable as a result of this course."

• "I was expecting to learn a lot about research and how to properly write a story. I figured it would move faster, but I like that were starting with basics and building a base of knowledge before diving in too deep. I think the course is laid out in a manageable way and I am really glad for that I was worried I was going to be overwhelmed."

• "I did not know what to expect coming into this course, I only knew that it was one that students tend to hold off on because of its difficulty. I would say that this course has exceeded my expectations in this way, because I was scared of having to learn a lot of statistics again when I haven't taken the class since high school. With the way the class is set up I feel like I can actually succeed in the course!"

• "Ms. Mink's enthusiasm, hearing about her research, practicing (such as when we took examples and wrote research questions and hypotheses about them), using powerpoint and posting them on Moodle, how our research project is split into smaller tasks"

• "there is not too much I honestly like about this course so far, just glad that I have some friends in the class to take it with. Professor Minkowitz also seems very nice so that's something I like too but overall this class is not my favorite"

• "I really enjoy that we can adapt and change assignments as we go. I think that is a really cool feature that takes the pressure off of being perfect and instead encourages us to be creative and try something outside of the box."

• "Thank you for all your unconditional support. This semester has not been the easiest for me in the slightest and having a professor work with me and display the care that you have means a lot to me."

• "I just wanted to give you a well-deserved shoutout for being such an adaptive and caring professor. I think you’ve gone the farthest when it comes to catering to the needs of your students with the transition to online coursework, and I just wanted you to know that I (we) appreciate it. I was reviewing your presentations for the exam and I liked the supplemental videos and in-depth descriptions and everything, as well as the practice problems. I can see from how you’ve completely restructured the course (most have just gone with the flow like we students are doing) that you’re truly keeping your students at the forefront of your mind."

​

​