Professor
Octavio Pescador
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Most Helpful Review
Disregard the class below. I had to put that there or it wouldn't let me submit the interview. This evaluation is for Education C125, Politics of Education, which he taught in Fall 2010 with Prof. Juma. First of all that class was very mislabeled. It should really be called Paulo Freire because everything we did in that class centered around him. All the books were either written by him, about him or inspired by him. It was ridiculous. I hated Freire by the time the class was over. Now on to the professors. My GD can Pescador talk! I mean the class was 4 hours long and he could talk and talk about any little thing. I swear I had brain cells dying hearing him talk. He would continuously say we would get out early only to have us actually stay longer because he couldnt stop talking! Prof. Juma was better. He was more direct and got to the point faster but he basically took a back seat to Pescador. It was basically 80% Pescador and 20% Juma. Now for the structure of the class. The entire class was group work so you better make sure you're in a great group otherwise you're going to end up doing alot of work on your own. And by everything I mean everything. You never turn in an assignment or paper that you have done individually, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your group. Now having said all the above I will admit that this class is an easy A. They grade very easy and as long as you do the work there is no reason why you shouldn't get an A. Would I recommend this class? Only if you think an A is worth being in a class for 4 hours with a prof who cant stop talking about the same guy and the same concepts for 10 weeks.
Disregard the class below. I had to put that there or it wouldn't let me submit the interview. This evaluation is for Education C125, Politics of Education, which he taught in Fall 2010 with Prof. Juma. First of all that class was very mislabeled. It should really be called Paulo Freire because everything we did in that class centered around him. All the books were either written by him, about him or inspired by him. It was ridiculous. I hated Freire by the time the class was over. Now on to the professors. My GD can Pescador talk! I mean the class was 4 hours long and he could talk and talk about any little thing. I swear I had brain cells dying hearing him talk. He would continuously say we would get out early only to have us actually stay longer because he couldnt stop talking! Prof. Juma was better. He was more direct and got to the point faster but he basically took a back seat to Pescador. It was basically 80% Pescador and 20% Juma. Now for the structure of the class. The entire class was group work so you better make sure you're in a great group otherwise you're going to end up doing alot of work on your own. And by everything I mean everything. You never turn in an assignment or paper that you have done individually, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your group. Now having said all the above I will admit that this class is an easy A. They grade very easy and as long as you do the work there is no reason why you shouldn't get an A. Would I recommend this class? Only if you think an A is worth being in a class for 4 hours with a prof who cant stop talking about the same guy and the same concepts for 10 weeks.
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Most Helpful Review
Disregard the class number I actually took his Latn Ame 191 class the fall of 2011. This class is a requirement for Latin American Studies majors so I took it my first quarter at UCLA, but only to leave with such a bad experience in his classroom. He will make you think that he loves teaching and cares about his students, but for me it was different. I always give professors the benefit of the doubt and almost never complaint about them. Pescador left me very disappointed because at the end of the day it does not matter how much extra work you do in his class, but the amount of time you attend his lectures. I was absent 3 times, which I had sent an e-mail beforehand, letting him know it was an emergency. On top of that his syllabus never stated anything about absences in his classroom. I did the same work plus extra work in the classroom; everyone got an A in the class. And when I asked him why he had given me an A- he said I was absent too much! He wrote a script for a Children's book, that I was genuinely interested in, but sometimes I think the only thing he wanted was to advertize it through us. He made our class project a research paper or a group project about his children's book. Honestly, we all opted for the group project since it seemed a lot easier. For the group project we had to actually make the children's book, that we ended up making it as a comic-book because it was almost impossible doing a real kid’s book with no resources, we had to write a narration of his story in English and Spanish, and finally act it out in front of elementary kids, this last one never happened due to his lack of organization, which I will later talk about. At the end, some of us ended up doing most of the work while others bailed out on us (needless to say, they got an A in the class as well). Another requirement for this class was to volunteer in a K-12 school and to be a mentor to students. As he likes to brag about everything, he made us think the experience was going to be unforgettable, but I and others ended up just making copies for the teachers, sitting down doing inventory, or just staring at the white board while the teacher taught the class—oh! I forgot another one: inflating balloons for the open house at school. How inspiring. This might seem a really unfair and negative review, but we did complain to the teacher and to the supervisor about what we really wanted to achieve as mentors. We wanted to tell our stories on how we got into UCLA, to not only to be a friend but also a person the students can look up to. This never happened. I believe others did have a good experience since they went to a different school—a real underrepresented school. Some of my classmates and I would share our stories of how privileged these kids at our school were since they all had Mac books and in-class tutors from other organizations helping them in class! These weren’t the underrepresented minorities we read about or talked about in the classroom at all. Finally, his teaching style was all over the place. Yes, he claims his style to be influenced by Paulo Freire's philosophy on education, but all I took from his lectures was rambling about everything at once. He tried teaching about the educational system in the US and Mexico in two days! If anyone asks me now about how the educational system works, I would not have a clue. And, talking about unorganized, he told us about presenting our final project to kids the day of, when everyone was busy and no one showed up of course, and even though I did my best to get there on time, and after leaving everything behind he told me it was cancelled. He never saw or recognized any efforts I did in this class. I am sorry to write this big review on him. After this class, I was so disappointed in Pescador, I had high expectations, I thought he would be fair and see the amount of work I did (that comparing with other students was not as bad). But at the end of the day when I asked him to give me the scores I had gotten in every assignment he responded “hey, you know how I am about grading..” Now, I know what that meant. It meant that he doesn’t care and he doesn’t even look at it. That explains why he never replied to my e-mails when I asked for feedback. Yes, at the end of the day all what counts is to do mediocre responses online about the readings and to be in class every day, no matter how crappy your work is, you only have to sit in his class like a zombie to pass with a perfect A. I wish I would have known that from the beginning.
Disregard the class number I actually took his Latn Ame 191 class the fall of 2011. This class is a requirement for Latin American Studies majors so I took it my first quarter at UCLA, but only to leave with such a bad experience in his classroom. He will make you think that he loves teaching and cares about his students, but for me it was different. I always give professors the benefit of the doubt and almost never complaint about them. Pescador left me very disappointed because at the end of the day it does not matter how much extra work you do in his class, but the amount of time you attend his lectures. I was absent 3 times, which I had sent an e-mail beforehand, letting him know it was an emergency. On top of that his syllabus never stated anything about absences in his classroom. I did the same work plus extra work in the classroom; everyone got an A in the class. And when I asked him why he had given me an A- he said I was absent too much! He wrote a script for a Children's book, that I was genuinely interested in, but sometimes I think the only thing he wanted was to advertize it through us. He made our class project a research paper or a group project about his children's book. Honestly, we all opted for the group project since it seemed a lot easier. For the group project we had to actually make the children's book, that we ended up making it as a comic-book because it was almost impossible doing a real kid’s book with no resources, we had to write a narration of his story in English and Spanish, and finally act it out in front of elementary kids, this last one never happened due to his lack of organization, which I will later talk about. At the end, some of us ended up doing most of the work while others bailed out on us (needless to say, they got an A in the class as well). Another requirement for this class was to volunteer in a K-12 school and to be a mentor to students. As he likes to brag about everything, he made us think the experience was going to be unforgettable, but I and others ended up just making copies for the teachers, sitting down doing inventory, or just staring at the white board while the teacher taught the class—oh! I forgot another one: inflating balloons for the open house at school. How inspiring. This might seem a really unfair and negative review, but we did complain to the teacher and to the supervisor about what we really wanted to achieve as mentors. We wanted to tell our stories on how we got into UCLA, to not only to be a friend but also a person the students can look up to. This never happened. I believe others did have a good experience since they went to a different school—a real underrepresented school. Some of my classmates and I would share our stories of how privileged these kids at our school were since they all had Mac books and in-class tutors from other organizations helping them in class! These weren’t the underrepresented minorities we read about or talked about in the classroom at all. Finally, his teaching style was all over the place. Yes, he claims his style to be influenced by Paulo Freire's philosophy on education, but all I took from his lectures was rambling about everything at once. He tried teaching about the educational system in the US and Mexico in two days! If anyone asks me now about how the educational system works, I would not have a clue. And, talking about unorganized, he told us about presenting our final project to kids the day of, when everyone was busy and no one showed up of course, and even though I did my best to get there on time, and after leaving everything behind he told me it was cancelled. He never saw or recognized any efforts I did in this class. I am sorry to write this big review on him. After this class, I was so disappointed in Pescador, I had high expectations, I thought he would be fair and see the amount of work I did (that comparing with other students was not as bad). But at the end of the day when I asked him to give me the scores I had gotten in every assignment he responded “hey, you know how I am about grading..” Now, I know what that meant. It meant that he doesn’t care and he doesn’t even look at it. That explains why he never replied to my e-mails when I asked for feedback. Yes, at the end of the day all what counts is to do mediocre responses online about the readings and to be in class every day, no matter how crappy your work is, you only have to sit in his class like a zombie to pass with a perfect A. I wish I would have known that from the beginning.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Very accommodating and will listen to his students. Though the lectures are a bit unorganized, they are meant to be engaging so that students participate and discuss. Overall, the workload is not very hard, but you will be presenting, so if you hate speaking in front of others or being put on the spot, this may not be for you. Still, it's a comfortable environment and he allows everyone to get out of their shell. The class is more about how much effort you personally put into it and how you can benefit from the theories and topics of the class. Would have definitely taken this professor again if I wasn't graduating this year.
Winter 2022 - Very accommodating and will listen to his students. Though the lectures are a bit unorganized, they are meant to be engaging so that students participate and discuss. Overall, the workload is not very hard, but you will be presenting, so if you hate speaking in front of others or being put on the spot, this may not be for you. Still, it's a comfortable environment and he allows everyone to get out of their shell. The class is more about how much effort you personally put into it and how you can benefit from the theories and topics of the class. Would have definitely taken this professor again if I wasn't graduating this year.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - This is one of he best Classes ive ever taken at UCLA. The professor doesnt believe that a professor should determinate a students grade entirely so he leaves it up the the students to indicate the grade they deserved and he will go off your suggestion. The class was not that difficult, you do have to attend every lecture because grade is based on participation. There was no midterm or final instead the class consisted of 2 short presentations about an article on Freire (which also came with a written summary of each article). Then you had the cultural artifact which is a 10 page paper and an art form (so like a drawing, video, music video, etc). The 10 page paper was not at ll difficult since you had a group of 5-6. So each person can share the fair amount of work. The thing that was not that good about the class was that there was no lecture slides, so basically you would listen to the professor talk for 2 hours. But I recommend people to take this professor, he was really great and understanding.
Fall 2023 - This is one of he best Classes ive ever taken at UCLA. The professor doesnt believe that a professor should determinate a students grade entirely so he leaves it up the the students to indicate the grade they deserved and he will go off your suggestion. The class was not that difficult, you do have to attend every lecture because grade is based on participation. There was no midterm or final instead the class consisted of 2 short presentations about an article on Freire (which also came with a written summary of each article). Then you had the cultural artifact which is a 10 page paper and an art form (so like a drawing, video, music video, etc). The 10 page paper was not at ll difficult since you had a group of 5-6. So each person can share the fair amount of work. The thing that was not that good about the class was that there was no lecture slides, so basically you would listen to the professor talk for 2 hours. But I recommend people to take this professor, he was really great and understanding.
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