First Post

My name is Mike Snavely.  I am a freshman at Mac and I'm planning on a Major in Biology with at least a minor in Math.  I have taken Calc 1 and Calc 2 and Multivariable Calc (at the University of Minnesota).  A weak spot in my math is geometry and I also have not yet taken linear algebra.  The strongest part of my math is calculus; I took Calc 2 twice because of IB regulations.  I am taking this class mostly because I love math and I wouldn't want to go a semester without it.  Also, I very well may major or minor in Math.  What I hope to get out of this class is a broader math background and some experience with applied math.

My interests outside of school are almost 100% sports.  I am on the Mac football team and I am going to be on the club hockey team in the winter.  Then in my free time I'm usually playing basketball or disc or ping-pong.

The worst Math teacher I ever had was the teacher I had during my senior year in high school.  He would just lecture in a monotone voice for the first part of class and then just go sit at his desk, while we were expected to work.  If anyone talked or took out a bag of chips, or did anything that kids normally do in class he would yell and scream about how we were disrespectful.  And by the end of the year kids had stopped trying to ask him questions on the homework because he just didn't care.

The best math teacher I had was my Calc 2 teacher during my sophomore year in high school.  His genuine love of math rubbed off on everyone and he was one of the funniest people I've ever met.  In the middle of one of his interactive lectures on Taylor and Maclaurin series, he made up a limerick of the top of head about Taylor and Maclaurin traveling together.  It was just a relaxed atmosphere.  On days when we all felt burnt out on math he would take out his guitar and play songs he had wrote, and one time during the winter we spent the entire day learning how to make huge, ornate paper snowflakes.  I'll never forget that class.