William Pittman

This professor has taught: CINE280, CMLT280, ENGL101, ENGL101S, ENGL101X, ENGL202, FILM298D, UMEI007

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William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2024	Professor Pittman genuinely cares about his students. He does this fun socialization bit at the beginning of class and because of that I've made some good friends here as a freshman. He's open to talking about things outside of academia and shows you a way to incorporate that into your essays and assignments. Just do the work and participate and you'll be fine.
William Pittman CINE280 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/25/2024	simply the best. extremely nice, no exams, extremely passionate about the content, always so fun to be in the class.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/14/2024	This class was centered around institutional racism, but it used to be centered around buddhism so I assume it is subject to change. Nice professor. In the beginning of class he will talk to anyone about anything. If you keep him talking it is unlikely you will do any work. Not that you do much work in class but it keeps it from being boring. There are several essays throughout. The first is graded the most harshly and the last is quite lengthy but do not fear. It is a stress free class.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2024	Professor Pittman was one of my favorite professors at UMD, and I would highly recommend him if he does not retire after this semester. He was very clear about how we should write each of our essays in this class, and he had a great sense of humor that kept me awake despite the class being at 9:30 am. He also made students go to the front of the room to talk to each other before each class started, which I enjoyed as a more social person. However, it is important to keep in mind that his teaching is highly based around Buddhism (and that he extensively discusses the teachings of Buddhism) before enrolling for his classes.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/25/2024	Dr. Pittman takes attendance which is annoying and doesn't put in any grades until your final end of the semester grade
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/25/2024	I took AP Lang Senior year of HS but I didn't end up taking the exam so I thought that this class would be relatively easy. Dr. Pittman is a tough grader and is obsessed with Buddhism. Attendance is taken every class and as he always says "every day is a test". Much of this class is useless and you spend the entire class talking about Buddhism. The final paper even has a whole section on Buddhism. For an ENGL 101, it is more of an intro to Buddhism ideology class. Definitely don't take him unless you plan on going to class every day and willing to do a bunch of work on Buddhism.
William Pittman CMLT280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2023	Cool class (CMLT280). He's very enthusiastic and the class is participation based. As long as you watch the movie before class and say something, you'll get an A. If talking in class is stressful, you can talk more in discussion boards. The essays (we had 2) aren't stressful either; he makes his standards clear and simple. You generally have 1 movie per week. 2 if one or both are shorter than the standard 2 hour length.
William Pittman CMLT280 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2023	The class was very unorganized and he did not follow the syllabus at all. 30% of our grades complied of discussion board posts but he did not make that clear at all and made it seem like they were optional. Furthermore, these discussion board posts also weren't counted as "assignments" on elms so you can VERY easily forget about them because I use the calendar on elms to ensure I've done all my work and the discussion board posts don't show up because he doesn't put them as an assignment. Furthermore, he doesn't follow the syllabus at all and kind of reconstructed our class. Also, we didn't see our grades AT ALL the entire semester so we didn't know what we were doing wrong or how we were standing in the class. We were only given grades on our papers that we had to write for films. Will is a very nice guy and understanding but the way he structured this class was very bad and could have been done a lot more organized. If we were given a clear outlook of how this course would've been structured, it would have been a lot better.
William Pittman CMLT280 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2023	Will is really funny and interesting to talk with during the discussions we had in class. I think a lot of people took this class really unseriously because no one would show up to the Friday classes or they would come late in general. Make sure to go to class and remember to do the discussion boards because they don't show up on canvas and they're due at 7pm because that's 60% of your grade. You don't even have to talk that much in class just show up on time and do the assignments which are just the discussion boards and 3 short essays.
William Pittman ENGL202 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2022	Professor Pittman is one of my favorite professors of all time. I believe this was his first semester teaching a literature class, but the guy knows his stuff. And he knows how to teach. Classes were only discussions, with a socratic set up of the desks. You really have to read (or at least skim the readings) to know what's going on, but Pittman provides his own notes on the readings which clarify a lot so this isn't too much of a task. He's so kind and approachable, and so willing to help. He is not a harsh grader whatsoever; if he sees that you are understanding the concepts and able to think creatively and putting forth SOME effort, he will give you an A. ENGL101 is a different story since it is a composition class and it is more technical, but ENGL202 was a literal dream. Fave class ever, fave professor ever.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2022	This is probably the easiest english 101 course you can take at UMD, largely because of how great pittman is as a professor. He simplifies writing and makes it clear what he expects from you for every assignment. I would definitely recommend taking pittman. As a side note, this class focuses on a book called "What the Buddha Taught" for a few assignments so just know that going in.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2022	Pittman's class just makes sense. Little to no homework. Makes the most of class time. Explains exactly what he wants for every assignment. This class is just a joy to go to and learn in. You will not regret taking Professor Pittman.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2021	Pittman is the GOAT! Go to his office hours if you're struggling. He really helped me. I learned a lot and actually enjoyed the readings he assigned for homework. Learn essay structure because that is how he grades. Overall, the A was not easy to achieve... he is a tough grader but his comments are very helpful.
William Pittman ENGL101 WhatitDoBaby 12/09/2021	William Pittman is a great professor. This is not your traditional ENGL101 class. He teaches about Buddha's teaching and how it would apply in the real world. He leaves helpful comments on the papers as well. Highly recommend him. Plus he does music on the side.
William Pittman ENGL101 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/10/2021	Pittman made the class super interesting and I learned a lot from him. It was not your traditional engl101 class because he taught it through reading a book about Buddhism. I would recommend him highly to any incoming freshman who needs to take an english course. He's also a really friendly guy who loves to tell stories.
William Pittman ENGL101X Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2020	Will is an awesome professor. He makes everything fair. There are not too much assignments. And he did teach me a lot. Also, because he asked us to "socialize", I also made a lot friends in his class. BTW, I'm not an English native speaker, but he is very patient although sometimes I may have horrible pronunciation.