My name is Jenifer Michelle Davenport , and I am 22 years old. I am from Conway, SC. I have been living in Newberry, SC for the last year, but I cannot wait until I can move back home. I will be moving back to Conway, SC in May to live with my parents and my niece Amber Nicole Yarbrough. I have a sister name Kristina Davenport and a brother name Michael Davenport. My sister has three children, but only Damon lives with her. Another child is Hailey and she lives with her dad. Amber is also her child. My brother and his girlfriend will be getting married this year, and they have a baby boy names Lucas. I am very family orientated.
I began my study at USC as a math major with a cognate in secondary education. I graduated with my B.S. in mathematics December 2005 with Honors from the Honors College. I began the Masters program May 2006. I will be finished at the beginning of this May. I will then be recommended for certification for secondary education. However, I want to teach middle school, so I will be taking an extra class this May to help make that dream come true. I am hoping to be teaching at Palmetto Middle School in Mullins, SC this coming school year.
I have wanted to teach since I can remember. My sister is only 11 months younger than me, and my brother is four years younger than me. I have always helped my sister and brother in school, and even before they entered school, I made them play school with me. I love learning and helping others learn. Since middle school, I have helped tutored fellow classmates when my teachers asked. I was not sure of the grade or area until 8th grade. I did not care if I taught primary, elementary, middle, or high school as long as I was helping students grow intellectually and mentally. During 8th grade, I had a great Algebra teacher. This teacher made me realize that I love math, and I want other people to not be afraid of math. I am realistic and I know I cannot expected students to love math, but I can get them to realize the subject is not scary. Teaching lets me help others, and it helps me to continue to learn everyday of my life.
These web sites are very important to me because I want to teach math. These web sites can give you a general feeling about what I want to do and with want I need to do. The first site is to NCTM, which is the math organiztation that I belong to, and I attended their state conference (SCCTM) in Mrytle Beach in October 2004.
NCTM homepageStudents can work on problems dealing with 24 different topics. As they answer questions, they can send their results to their teacher. This will allow teacher to differenant homework based on a students need and not have to make up individual problems.
I liked this web site because it explains why we can change dividing by a fraction into multiplying by its reciprocal. Some students accept rules, but some students would like to see why it happens.
This introduces topics through movies. They have quizzes at the end to make sure that students understand what is happening.