Sharon Kuusisto

Ms. Kuusisto is a teacher that is excited to be teaching her subject and genuinely interested in her students. Kuusisto is aware that different students have different levels of skill in the spanish language and your own level of improvement is the most important mark. I feel that she is also realizes that students have a lot going on, and she is accepting if you get behind in homework, and trusts the student to catch up, rather than making them feel uncomfortable or stupid. However, she does leave it up to you to do (or not do) the work, so if you are expected to be prodded into studying, that will not happen. I find trying to speak and understand spanish to be very challanging, but Kuusisto, has such a nice manner, and is *mom-like*, that you are not afraid to try out your emerging spanish skills. There were an unexpected amount of oral presentations for a grammer class. I think I actually did more talking in Spanish 2 than I did in my conversation 10B class. But I found the oral presentations to be very helpful, and they helped me use the language in my own words, rather than completing some fill in the blank exam, that would only test if I had learned the grammer rules. Kuusisto is very flexible and will change the lesson plan according to what she feels the class needs. This can be very helpful if you don't understand the lesson, but also frustrating if you came home late from work at night and pushed yourself to finish the homework that was scheduled to be due and then find that something else is gone over in class instead. Overall, Kuusisto is a great teacher and I highly recommend her class. I am taking conversation 10C with her next semester because I like her so much.

Kuusisto is a super-sweet woman, and that facet of her personality is clear every day. She explains subject matter well in class if you haven't had much time to study at home, so in that sense she is a good instructor.

My only complaint is that she is a little unorganized when it comes to due dates for some work, and she is flimsy with her exam schedule, sometimes changing dates or suddenly making them "optional". It could be a good thing, though, depending on your personality ;)

She is an incredibly nice teacher who loves all things Latino. I've had very few teachers who have such a passion for their subject matter. She is fair, but her teaching style is such that you pretty much have to learn the topic by yourself and then come to class to practice it. The class in general is difficult - 5 unit Spanish class is really hard and it requires way more work than I expected. However, I would recommend her as a teacher.