introduction, due on september 6

my name is tenery campbell. this is my 5th year at byu and my last semester of classes. i’m studying math education and will do my student teaching in the winter.
i did take calculus here at byu (twice—that’s how much i liked it), but i have also taken a lot of others:
math 113 (calc 2)
math 290
math 313
math 314
math 334
math 341 (bane of my existence)
and math 371.
i’m taking cryptography because for my major, it’s required that we take one of four higher upper-level classes (number theory, graph theory, combinatorics, or cryptography). i chose cryptography because it didn’t have the word “theory” in the title and it fit right into my schedule. also, it seemed like a really interesting class.
i don’t really have any experience with maple, mathematica, SAGE, or any other computer algebra system. i have done a little programming, but it was just programming on a graphing calculator. i do feel pretty comfortable using these programs, as long as i know how to use them. i’ll probably be just fine with it.
my favorite math teacher was one i had in high school for pre-calculus. he was my favorite because he was very realistic, and helped make math relevant. he made me want to learn more and i learned a lot from his class. not just about the subject, but about how to use a calculator and about life in general.
i have also had teachers who are on the other end of the spectrum. the least effective teacher i’ve had, at least for me, wasn’t very realistic. he was one of my math ed professors, and he always taught us about how we would teach ideally. not every situation is ideal, and we won’t be able to apply what he taught us every time we teach. i didn’t feel like he cared about what i had to say, because i had different opinions than he did.
in short, i feel like effective teachers need to be realistic and get on their students’ level. they need to help their students care about the subject and show them that it is relevant.
luckily, i have a weird name, so i don’t always have to make up something unique about myself. my name is tenery because i’m the tenth child in my family. (yes that really is true, and no the ninth one is not named ninery. and yes i’m the only one in my family with a number name.)