Jason Schatz

My major beef with this teacher is the limited amount of energy he seemed to put into being the teacher.

No examples, very little communication just read the book.

All of the students who wrote extensively on the discussion forum, were CS majors and they tended to answer questions from a technical point of view. I needed clear examples and simpler language.

I don't recommend him to a beginner in the programing field since you'll be completely on your own.

I has to say the two review that gave the teacher A+ don't know what they were talking about. Don't get me wrong, I think the teacher is really cool, but give him A+? You either never took another teacher in your life or you was just out of your mind.

For one thing, he always posted his stuff in his website late or he didn't post it at all even he said he would.

Another thing I have to critize is his class material is too simple for a intermediate class. In other words, the class did not prepare you good enough to take a more advanced Java class. Maybe it is a good class to get a good grade, but definitely not for learning.

He always available after the class , instead of typing everything to the screen, he puts everything on the board which is cool because it allows you to take notes without hurting your eyes!! He's very open-minded , which i think is very important in programming because in this kind of class , there is no right or wrong answer. He interacts with students. he never gives the solution for homework because i personally think it is the student's responsiblity to ask if he/she doesnt understand something from the class. if the student is too lazy to ask, that's absolutely not the teacher's fault.

The people who write on this review have no idea of what they are saying. This guy is an amazing C++ teacher. Although it is true that he takes a while to return homeworks, his teaching skills are exceptional. The class is very interactive; something I consider very important for programming. This is the perfect teacher for those who really like programming and are really interested in learning it. This is not a class for students that just want to go by with reading the book and getting high grades on the tests. Algorithms are discussed in class and everybody has the right to give their own opinion. Most programming teachers at city college teach by the book, something that makes the subject boring and demotivting. Prof. Schatz clearly knows what he is doing; he is very charismatic and is always willing to help and explain things thoroughly.

His homeworks are simple and very straight forward. They are perfect for understanding the subject content. The same with his tests. No multiple choice like the other teachears. He tests with short questions and asks you to write blocks of code.

If I could recommend a teacher for programming, it would be him. I would not listen to people that simply post negative things here just for the sake of getting back at the teacher. They should procrastinate less and do their homeworks.

While the guy has a pretty cool personality, good handwriting and can speak quite clearly, I have to critcize him for the fact that he's too disorganized (and his spelling occasionally isn't too good as well, but that's a minor quirk).

For one thing, he never seems to have anything set up completely. You have to check his website to see what he's assigned and sometimes you're never sure when he does it. As another reviewer said, he does stuff "off the cuff".

Also, he did not tell us anything about the final (no info posted even) until two days before it began (there's a possibility, however, that they changed it too late and thus he ended up not having enough time to go through it). While the test was open book, some of the stuff he wrote for the exams were either a little too ambiguous or weren't clear.

Sometimes, when you ask him questions about Unix, he just goes "Hmmm... that's a good question" and then can't answer you. This occasional lack of knowledge is not too good a sign, but the attempt he makes to answer questions is something good.

Overall, not recommended.

Although he is very knowledgeable about C++ programing, I have to agree with the previous poster that Mr Schatz seems to lecture "off the cuff". The later homework assignments are rather difficult and he never goes over the solution after its been graded so you have no idea what you might have domewrong is you didn't get it right. Several times I attempted to email him for some help during his office hours but never got a responce. Although I passed the class I feel that I need to repeat it again with a better teacher so that I get better understanding of the class

(I actually took 110K with Schatz, but I understand that from now on it will be called 111B.)

I was not provided with the best framework to learn at my pace in this class. In fact, I would have to say that Professor Schatz is somewhat unorganized, even lazy.

This class is scheduled from 6PM to 10PM once a week. Yet, Prof. Schatz never starts earlier than 6:10. We take at least three 15 minute breaks during class. And he always dismisses us by 9:45. So the total class hours actually taught end up being less than three(3) hours instead of the scheduled four(4) for the week. It's frustrating, because I want to learn. I get the impression that this teacher is not suited well for the 4 hour class. I truly believe that if the class was split up into two separate sections, we would have learned a good deal more by now.

His lectures feel off-the-cuff. Sometimes I wish his examples were a little more descriptive. Last week, someone asked a question about why something worked, and he actually seemed a little frustrated that he had to spend the time to make out a new example to better explain what he was trying to put across.

When it comes to exploring concepts more deeply, he tends to explain to students that the more they work on problems of this sort, the more they will understand them... I would prefer he give us a series of examples to work through so that we can begin to fully experience the issues. Several times I have felt left hanging, in need of more examples, more explanation.

To be fair, this teacher always makes sure he answers students' questions.

However, I think he could use some more descriptive examples. I think he should give out more homework. The assignments are sometimes quite simplistic.

Prof. Schatz does not follow through with some things. For instance, a couple times he said he would post homework onto the website, and failed to do so. Once he did it quite late into the week.

I feel unfulfilled and not fully challenged. I do not recommend this teacher.

- Disgruntled student.