SPAN371 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Evelyn Canabal-Torres SPAN371 Anonymous 12/13/2024	I'm not sure what the people writing "my pookie" went through, but this is easily the least helpful class possible for a variety of reasons, some are her fault some not as much. The plus side is that it is not graded super duper harshly. If you are going to med school (like myself) expect to learn nothing, and if you are not, do not take this class do something more interesting. To address the "not her fault" issues: 1. She is not a doctor, nor does she have any scientific background, as such her knowledge about the topics she is teaching is not always the most extensive. We were discussing stroke in her class, and it was just blatantly wrong. It is a little unfair to expect a Spanish PhD to have a working knowledge of physiology, so it is basically a really cursory overview. 2. The department benchmarks are a little wild, there are a lot of different things expected of a SPAN300 level class that she just cannot do in a reasonable amount of time while trying to help everyone practice their Spanish. To address the "definitely her fault" issues: 1. This is the most disorganized professor I have ever met. She refuses to grade basically anything. I sit here and write this review 3 days before my final, and we have had about 20 assignments and a midterm as well as a participation grade so far. Only 5 of the assignments are graded and the midterm. No participation grade, none of the major projects we presented or the little hw assignments she assigned in September. When she was asked about grading she responded with "I know your grade is important for medical school but I don't like to grade" and just shrugged. Can't go to the advisor because if you get on her bad side you are screwed with how much subjective material there is left to grade. 2. She is extremely condescending when she tries to be funny. We gave group presentations and we all wrote "anonymous comments" and she proceeded to read them word for word in front of the whole class about only 2 of the 5 groups. Why not just hand the comments back? Why only 2? Why was that necessary. 3. Refuses to be flexible. She always asks for "questions, comments, or concerns" at the end of class and on the last day of class I gave some feedback on one of the assignments and she felt the need to defend what she was doing and questioned my opinion as I was "not an educator of 20+ years." I was like dude you asked me. 4. She is all over the place in general. We bounced around from topic to topic without any rhyme or reason at times, splitting time between cultural competency, physiology, health afflictions of latino populations, but it was all so cursory with no explanations. No notes, just appended about 1000 pdfs and random websites to her modules page. It was a headache to look at and to gather materials to study for the exams. 5. Rubrics are not super useful for assignments, they are very vague and are missing instructions and she says it is because she does not like to grade. Pro: 1. midterm was graded relatively fairly 2. gives a study guide for the exams All in all, do not high expectations for this professor. It was disappointing that this was my last Spanish class at UMD because this was easily the least educational.
Evelyn Canabal-Torres SPAN371 Anonymous 05/02/2024	BEST PROFESSOR EVER I LOVE HER SO MUCH MY POOKIE she is so passionate and knowledgeable
Evelyn Canabal-Torres SPAN371 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/07/2023	She is funny, intelligent, and so very caring for every one of her students. One of the best professors I’ve ever had and my favorite class I’ve taken.

Evelyn Canabal-Torres
SPAN371

Anonymous
12/13/2024

I'm not sure what the people writing "my pookie" went through, but this is easily the least helpful class possible for a variety of reasons, some are her fault some not as much. The plus side is that it is not graded super duper harshly. If you are going to med school (like myself) expect to learn nothing, and if you are not, do not take this class do something more interesting. To address the "not her fault" issues: 1. She is not a doctor, nor does she have any scientific background, as such her knowledge about the topics she is teaching is not always the most extensive. We were discussing stroke in her class, and it was just blatantly wrong. It is a little unfair to expect a Spanish PhD to have a working knowledge of physiology, so it is basically a really cursory overview. 2. The department benchmarks are a little wild, there are a lot of different things expected of a SPAN300 level class that she just cannot do in a reasonable amount of time while trying to help everyone practice their Spanish. To address the "definitely her fault" issues: 1. This is the most disorganized professor I have ever met. She refuses to grade basically anything. I sit here and write this review 3 days before my final, and we have had about 20 assignments and a midterm as well as a participation grade so far. Only 5 of the assignments are graded and the midterm. No participation grade, none of the major projects we presented or the little hw assignments she assigned in September. When she was asked about grading she responded with "I know your grade is important for medical school but I don't like to grade" and just shrugged. Can't go to the advisor because if you get on her bad side you are screwed with how much subjective material there is left to grade. 2. She is extremely condescending when she tries to be funny. We gave group presentations and we all wrote "anonymous comments" and she proceeded to read them word for word in front of the whole class about only 2 of the 5 groups. Why not just hand the comments back? Why only 2? Why was that necessary. 3. Refuses to be flexible. She always asks for "questions, comments, or concerns" at the end of class and on the last day of class I gave some feedback on one of the assignments and she felt the need to defend what she was doing and questioned my opinion as I was "not an educator of 20+ years." I was like dude you asked me. 4. She is all over the place in general. We bounced around from topic to topic without any rhyme or reason at times, splitting time between cultural competency, physiology, health afflictions of latino populations, but it was all so cursory with no explanations. No notes, just appended about 1000 pdfs and random websites to her modules page. It was a headache to look at and to gather materials to study for the exams. 5. Rubrics are not super useful for assignments, they are very vague and are missing instructions and she says it is because she does not like to grade. Pro: 1. midterm was graded relatively fairly 2. gives a study guide for the exams All in all, do not high expectations for this professor. It was disappointing that this was my last Spanish class at UMD because this was easily the least educational.

Evelyn Canabal-Torres
SPAN371

Anonymous
05/02/2024

BEST PROFESSOR EVER I LOVE HER SO MUCH MY POOKIE she is so passionate and knowledgeable

Evelyn Canabal-Torres
SPAN371

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/07/2023

She is funny, intelligent, and so very caring for every one of her students. One of the best professors I’ve ever had and my favorite class I’ve taken.

Reviews for SPAN371