Mrs. A... She was tough, but she's a good teacher. I can't express how it
feels to see your ability change so much in so short a time. If you trust
her and do what she says (the reading), you will take skills from her class
that will help you be an A paper writer thruoghout college. Thanks Mrs. A.
Use the office hours to keep you on track.

She is the best English teacher ever!  Go to class and list to this sage on
the stage.  She rocks!!!  I learned to write and she was helpful during
office hours, too!  I definitely recommend Mrs. A who deserves an A by the
way!

get out while you can.

HORRIBLE teacher!!! STAY AWAY if you want to pass... If your noamally a 
student or even B you prob wont pass!

old, bitchy, and not worth your time or money. DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS! and
if you think im just bitter bc i got a bad grade, thats not true. i got a
B, which isnt the best i know but god damn she is a bad teacher. i feel
that if a teacher is going to be that awfull and angry w/teaching then why
is she doing it?

very tough teacher! i took her in the spring of 05 and remember being very
stressed out every time i went to class. We had 4 papers we had to write:
Profile, Informative, Argumentative and a 3,000 word minimum research
paper. One of the essays above had to be on the topic of cheating because
she was very anal about any kind of cheating. She failed a couple of kids
on the last day because they didnt cite their sources correctly on the
research paper. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. you can learn alot but in doing
so you will be stressed out for the entire 18 weeks.

She is the worst teacher i have EVER had!  I would not recomend her to
anyone! i msised two days when i was out wit the flu! i left her messages
and she  claims to have never recieved them! my grade went to an f after
that! she is baised and is not afraid to make you look stupid!

This lady is a litte crazy and hard. I am by no means a english major but I
worked my butt off and barely made the cut and got a C. I really think that
66% of our class had dropped the class before the final. I recommend her if
you are a english major, because you will be interested with her knowledge.
However for everyone doin the G.E. thing avoid at all costs!

i dindt like her at all

I couldn't stand her teaching techniques. Never have I had a class go by so
slowly. She is extremely crtical in her grading of essays, and to make it
worse she dosn't back up her critical, uncarring mannerisms with any true
intelligence. I was unimpressed and would not recomend her to anyone.
However, if you ask lots of questions, type all the homework, and kiss the
stick up her hole frequently you will come out all right.

She was an ok person, not the sweetest woman on the planet. We had four or
five essays assigned, but she did that stupid chek +, check -, and check
thing.  The hard work you put into the essays was not even graded or
calculated into  your grade. Most of your grade is based upon the research
paper you have to do, and there are a lot of dumb little assignments along
the way dealing with the research paper.  The ONLY thing I liked about this
class was the fact that we had no tests or quizes and there was no final.
This might have changed since I took her class in fall 2003. I am a fairly
good student and am relatively stress free, but this class really got to me
stress-wise.

The worst english teacher I've ever had, and approaching the worst teacher
I've had in any subject period. All the reviews about her are correct in
their views. She always seemed to be pressing on us her own little agenda
in the way we should write. It was always a hit or miss with papers in this
class and you never knew when you hit it, and if you did manage to get an
A, you don't know why. Avoid this teacher as best as possible.

mean lady who doesnt open up for student questions,crushed my self-esteem
and degrades you in front of class even the hot girls. worst teacher ever.
thanks to her i have to take english 56 for the 3rd time.

First off, Mrs. A was always very friendly towards me and I ended up
getting an A in her class so I have nothing against her as a person.
However, I would definately not recommend her as an English 1A teacher. 
Her classes were highly unorganized and many times students would come to
class unaware that a major assignment was due.  She would refuse to answer
many questions regarding assingments, always referring people to the
syllabus.  Secondly, I disliked her grading system since I never felt I
knew where I stood in that class.  Instead of traditional A,B,C,D,F grades
she gave check +, check, or check - on the four essays required for the
class.  Then at the end of the semester you got one grade based on a
portfolio of your work.  As a student hoping to transfer to a UC college I
am very grades conscious and I remember being very stressed out the entire
semester over her ambiguous grading scale.  Lastly, she never struck me as
passionate about english or teaching and most of the discussions in that
class were boring and generic.  If possible, take another teacher for
whatever english class you need and you will have more fun and learn a lot
more.

bitch nuff said

I took this teacher quite some time ago (2 years?), however my opinion of
her has not changed.  Because it has been quite some time since I have
taken her class, I can't possibly recall all the fine details about how she
teaches, but what I can tell you is that she is not a very understanding or
outgoing person.  The specific instance which brings this opinion to mind
(I swear to you that this did actually happen) was when I was walking to
her class when a young girl came up to me with a concerned look on her
face, asking for my help.  I found out from her that a heavy set man had
fallen out of his wheel chair, and he couldn't get back up because he was
paralyzed from the waist down.  I couldn’t just turn away and leave,
especially because the man was bleeding from his knees, so being the good
willed person that I am, I decided help despite the fact that I would be
significantly late to the quiz I was supposed to take for Mrs. A's class. 
Unfortunately no one was around to help me haul the bleeding 250+ pound man
back into his wheelchair so I had to run and get someone to help, which I
did, and we managed to get the man back into his chair.  I eventually made
it to class half winded, but the class was already starting to turn in
their quizzes.  I told the wonderful Mrs. A that I was late because I had
to help a man who had fallen out of his wheelchair, but her response was
"Hahaha, that’s a good one.  Just for your creativity, I will give you 45
seconds to try to finish the quiz."  Not enough time! But that didn’t
matter much to her.  The point of the story is that this woman is pretty
rough around the edges; in fact she'd very rough.  So, if you’re weakness
is English, then she will be sure to let you know in the rudest way
possible, which will doubtfully boost your confidence to do well.  Ok,
maybe that wheelchair story doesn’t have much to do with her actual
teaching ability, but I've always wanted to let the world know that she was
WRONG!  (Wouldn’t you feel the same way if it happened to you?)  As a
general rule of thumb, choose someone else for English 56 and you probably
won't regret it.

Very disorganized lady. It seemed if a good portion of the class was always
confused on what we were doing and when assignments were due. Homework is
not too demanding. She is an extremely critical grader on essays - perhaps
more than she should be for English 1A. 4 essays throughout semester. 

Mrs. A is an a**hole.  She is so f*cking paranoid about plargarism that she
does not care what is in your paper.  All she looks for is to see if there
is a problem in something and to point it out and make you do the whole
assignment again.  She assigns a lot of busy work that does not matter at
all.  I have learned nothing from Mrs. A except for how annoying and power
hungry a teacher can be.  She needs to lighten up! No one is going to
seriously publish any of their school papers so why are you so paranoid
about plagarism!
When signing up for any english class avoid Mrs Achterkirchen!!!!

I had this teacher and I have to say that I think she graded way more
harshly than what she should have.  I ended up getting a C in the class and
should have gotten at leat a B.

Not that bad of a teacher. A little unorganized at times which can lead to
confusion on assignments. Hardly any reading, just a little and a class
discussion on it which is easy. Four essays total which are easy, just
follow the handout. All you have to do is go to class, try to do the work
and you'll pass easily. The only hard part is going to class.