Western Kentucky University / S / Shannon E. Schaffer

Professor Schaffer knows what she is talking about when it comes to Old Testament, Hebrew, and Jewish things.

I have had her for other classes and she is a very good teacher. However, she needs to work on presentation for her Judaic class. The way she presented material for this class didn't seem to follow a logical order.

Class lectures left something to be desired unless you had read the material. She does not account for you not having read :). Lectures are designed as supplementary to the readings ...which there are a lot of.

There are a number of novels read to help understand Judaic life, she chooses things that are actually interesting.

There is also a lot of other reading as well.

There are mandatory projects to participate in. As a class you celebrate any Jewish holidays that fall within the semester. You have to help with one and attend two others.

Aside from the specifics of this class, Professor Schaffer is a wonderful teacher to take.

Okay, going into the class it was just general ed. requirement, but I truly enjoyed the class. Discussion was always good, but she does move a little fast with notes. To allow for her moving fast though, she moves through powerpoint in outline form so that all notes from previous slides are still displayed on the side of the screen. She's very knowledgable and does a great job of presenting the text in an objective manner. I'd recommend Schaffer to anyone and everyone. It's not a super easy course, but I only read 3/4 of the required readings in the Bible and only read the other texts for the first three readings and still pulled a B.

i had to work my ass off to get an A for this class. However, that doesn't matter. The teacher, Ms Schaffer, is an amazing teacher. She's knowledgeable, and she cares about teaching this class which is nice, b/c most teacher's show no interest. If you ever need help, or more of an explanation to understand something you don't understand, she'll gladly help you and even stay after class.

she offers plenty of extra credit.

her tests are brutal. class attendance is neccessary if you want to pass. the books have 90% of the information you need but the books don't tie everything together like she does. You need to hear her lectures.

she's a good professor.

I've been waiting all semester to leave this evaluation. Ok, this lady sucks ass! First of all, she just talks and doesn't write anything down. She has a powerpoint, but it is just names with no explanation. Impossible to take notes. Second, approximately 200 pages of reading a week. Third, takes her forever to return graded work. Fourth, homework every night. These all are just small expressions of how crappy she is. Get this: class gets cancelled and we have two lectures between tests. She gives us a test anyway. She said she made it easier, yea right! So for the grand finale, she gives us a take home final which consists of writing 3, three page essays. Two of the essays are over the material that we had to skim through at the end of the semester due to lack of time. That is nine pages of typing for a 100 level class within a 6 day time period. In English 300, you have write 8 pages over the course of the semester. She is a nice lady to speak with, but just totally oblivious to how much effort she requires from her students. This is my final semester at college and I am graduating with a degree in chemistry and biology and this is by far the most effort I have ever put in a class just to get a C. You are a fool if you take this class.

She did an awesome job at throwing out some new ideas that most people in this part of the country haven't heard before. I am a Christian from a Christian home (not originally from the South), and I very much appreciated the sense of history Ms. Schaffer brought to the study of the Old Testament. However, I know many people in the class did not feel the same. I really enjoyed the class and Ms. Schaffer was more than willing to help on anything you needed, but this class was not easy by any means. I have been a straight A student my whole life and I really had to work for this class. I got my first C on an exam in this class (avg. was a 60-something). Good news though... she gave tons of extra credit. I would say that if you did all the EC you could make a high C in the class and maybe pull an A by the end of the semester. Maybe... Very nice lady, good class, but tough.

Flies through the material... You seriously don't have enough time to get all the notes most of the time. If you have a laptop, you're in business. I considered buying a voice recording voice of some kind; it really would have come in handy. Also, TONS of reading. Heavy days can top thirty OT chapters (not short); short days around two to five chapters... Lastly, she's really the only professor I've had who gives completely unannounced POP QUIZZES. Class attendance is a MUST to take these quizzes (which can really make or break your grade) and for material. Good class though.

Tons of extra credit. Overall pretty easy class. Final is 3 essays that are take home.

This is one of the best classes that I took this semester. It's hard and there are lots of notes, but this is college and it's worth it. Professor Schaffer knows her stuff and she is passionate about it. I learned more in this class than any other. Don't take this class if you're not interested in the subject because you won't do well and don't take it thinking you'll do well because you're familiar with the Bible, it's alot more in depth than just going to church and knowing the stories. Attendence isn't mandatory, but there is no book that contains all the material from lecture. Botom line: I loved this class and if you're interested in the subject you will, too.

I wasn't so sure about this class the first few weeks, but I think Dr. Schaeffer did a great job teaching it. I feel like I learned a lot from her, and that she was fair about presenting information without shooting down people's personal beliefs. Also very nice as a person.

You have to read 4 really good novels and then turn in a 4-5 pg. essay. The tests are fill in the blank, and kind of difficult, but all the information can be found in the textbooks. There are other easy assignments to help your grade, such as going to synagogue, and holiday parties with the Jewish Student Organization. You definitely learn a lot in this class! Prof. Schaffer is a nice, approachable person. She appreciates students who are enthusiastic about learning.

What an awful teacher! She took this course and made it almost impossible for students to learn Hebrew. This teacher is very difficult and rude. She was not understandable at all when I had someone close to me pass away. This is the only teacher I have had that I did not like. WOW, this is the WORST class to take at Western. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!!!!

Prof Schaffer is such a great lady. Yeah the class is kinda hard but if you go and do the readings and think about what she is saying it is pretty easy. The tests are hard to study for but she grades very easy on the essays. Most of my essays were bull and I pulled an A with out any extra credit. All you have to do is read the Bible for details and take the quizes and you will do fine.

P.S. my friend slept through a lot of the class and still got an A. I did not read anything but the Bible past the 2nd half of the semester and got an A.

The proffessor uses quite a bit of history and archeology in the lecture. The quizzes over the biblical passages can be hard to study for, trying to figure out what questions she's going to ask, but its not too bad. The tests are easier and she gave us a lot of extra credit than normal, so you can always beg for extra credit if u do not-so-great on a quiz. Our final was an out of class essay that was pretty easy.

Professor Schaffer was an excellent teacher in this class. She offered any help she could give at any time. It is true that it was a very difficult class to take, but that's college. It's supposed to be difficult. She was very easy to approach and as long as people took the class seriously it wasn't hard to make a very decent grade. For those who are serious about Religious Studies it's a very rewarding class to take.

ms.Schaffer is new to the RELS staff and I think she thinks she is teaching graduate students. This is suppose to be a 100 level class. I could tell from the first day she was going to expect way too much and did not have a good teaching style.

Maybe she will improve with time. I hope so I have to take her for Judaic Traditions.

Dr. Schaffer!!!!!!! What can I say? I think I have a B in there but she hasnt graded the final. She has a tendency to fall off desks and give assignments that she can't get graded before the semester is over. I don't understand her mentality of student expectancy in a 100 level class. I think she is happy to share what she has wasted her life on learning. THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST. I did not want to learn about kings of another nation. I wanted to learn about psalms, I wanted to learn about proverbs. I like the Old Testament. I love learning God's WORD. I don't understand where on earth she gets her teaching skills from. Dr. Veenker was a weird man but he gave tests over scripture. She told me that she considers herself an upgrade from Dr. Veenker. I have laughed about this class for a minute now, because as a junior this is the hardest class I have ever taken. She wears herself out. She can't even grade what she assigns.I turned in a paper over an article of the Ancient Near East. She gave it back to me 3 weeks later, and I'm not lying when it had only 6 marks on it. All grammar marks. HA HA Ha Did not even comment one word on the paper. If you can't tell........ don't take this class. She is a sweet lady though.

I'm still not sure how the spawn of satan can teach a religion class

Prof Schaffer is a very nice person, but she needs to be teaching a 400 level class where the students may be able to understand her. She teaches very fast, does not put any of the weird words on the board, and expects students to retain everything she says. Impossible to study for tests. I am a graduating senior with a 3.6 GPA and this class was the worst class I've ever had. Way too difficult to be an intro course.

Prof. Schaffer is a good person and this was her first semester teaching. The class was tough and I had to really dig to get a B. Quizzes come from reading the Bible, I recommend a NIV translation. Tests are hard to study for, and sometimes questions seem to come out of left field. She draws heavily upon her lectures for her tests, however notes are not written on the board or presented in power point. She just talks and you are expected to write. I recommend a tape recorder, because all the Hebrew terms and names seem to run together.

Quizzes are usuall half easy and half really hard. She will ask questions that aren't focused on the main point of the section you read. She didn't really grade the article review, she just gave it back with a number grade on it, and told us to find out what we did wrong on our own. Notes aren't on the board or even on powerpoint. You have to listen to her, and most of the time she is just shouting off weird names, and moving real quick. She covered Alexander in less than 5 minutes and she focuses more on babylonian kings than on the prophets and judges etc.. She understands the material, but doesn't portray it well. I haven't learned anything remotely interesting the entire semester. She returns grades late and gives us study guides later than she says she will. Usually get guide the class day before the test. Getting a take home final but I can already tell its going to be exaustive and heavily graded. The answers she wants are just way to specific a lot of the times. Also for the last test and 2 weeks of class all of the reading is library reserve, and its not a little either.

Boring class. The first two weeks of notes are totally overkill and she goes through them way too quickly to keep up. She loves archaeology and talks about that a lot and comes at the Bible from a somewhat unbiased viewpoint - she does question it a lot and hands out articles that attempt to disprove some things. Lots of reading. She is an extremely nice person, but I do not enjoy the class. Some quizzes are given randomly (not without notice) and they are easy.