John Carlberg

Well if you have Mr. Carlberg the good thing is you will never be bored from his class. The bad thing is the reason why you are not bored is because ya he is funny, but mainly because you are working your butt off to just pass the class. He is HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first half of the class is easier then the second. He is one of the only English 102 teachers who gives a midterm a final and TWO research papers. The papers are very difficult and the final exam, don't even bother its impossible. Mr. Carlberg is really funny, keeps you interested but his assignments and tests are just so difficult. I am praying for a C and I am usually an A to B student. Also, he loves poetry so be prepared to read a lot of poems and you need to memorize one to read it in front of the class. I would say if you can take another teacher , do so. He is nice and funny but it won't be so funny when you almost fail the class. Oh yeah and he always takes his shoes off in class

Assignments are tough but fair, and Dr. Carlberg is very understanding of any outside issues you may have (I had a friend die and he excused me from reading an entire book without any furthur question). He is also an excellent teacher and makes it a point to get everyone in class involved in discussion and make sure they know the material.

John Carlberg is one of the most excellent teachers I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. First things first: this man cares about his students. Unlike some professors I've had (*cough* Robert Bryan *cough*), Carlberg actually makes an effort to get to know you personally. Case in point: the second day in class, he called me by my high school nickname. This floored me, as I didn't think anyone outside of my highschool class knew about it. When it comes to communicating with students, Carlberg is extremely good at it. He makes himself available at nearly all hours of the day, and he even invited us to call him at home if we needed additional help. THAT is dedication. Finally, he is very easy to just talk to as well, and he is very open minded - another trait that I find lacking among most college professors. Carlberg has a very laid-back style of teaching. He's very enthusiastic about the subject material, and makes good efforts to get the class involved in discussions. Assignments are fair. While most of them are writing assignments, only the final project is terribly long. Take this course.

Papers were challenging but doable. It seemed like none of us got all the notes down, as he would ask us a question that nobody knew the answer to. Notes were not organized well. The final exam was learning the authors and names of some 35 +/- poems and being able to identify lines from them. Why would we need to know this? I pulled off an A in 101 and just squeaked by with a C+ in 102. I find such a large grade differences hard to justify. Other than that he was very enthused, great sense of humor and knew the material. Just seemed like awkward expectations of the class.