I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that this course I have taken with you is one of the most beneficial courses I have taken at Ithaca College.  I have learned so much from you as a person and from the class.  You talked a lot in the second half of the course about being afraid to come to class.  Coming to your class I didn't have any fears.  I felt at home.  I looked forward to the time I spent in that classroom.  So much emphasis is placed in grades in school.  You took that fear away from the students in your class.  Giving out points instead of grades made me feel so much better.  I knew that as long as I was trying and was a part of the class that you would accept me into this class.  I really felt like you accepted everyone into your family no matter who they are.  You found something beautiful in everyone.  This is something that I always noticed and brought with me out of the classroom.  Instead of judging people for one reason or another I began to notice the beauty in everyone.  Everyone has a story and everyone has special abilities.  The uniqueness of each individual makes life exciting.  It is so refreshing to see this in my teacher.  You are truly a life teacher.  You brought in guests that really had an impact on me as well.  Ed sticks out my mind the most.  Ed's talk made me feel like it is OK to be creative in school.  That it was OK to step away from the norm of school.  Because of Ed's talk I decided to do my journal with music.  Music is my whole life.  Every moment of my life is saturated with music.  For my journal I made a CD with songs that I have wrote or songs that have had an impact on me this semester.  Especially with all the events of September 11 and Israel.  There are songs of fury and songs of sadness.  I feel like it would be better for me to write my journal with music because that is how I really think.  To me music is the best way I can express my thoughts and feelings.  Ed's talk made me want to do this.  In some of my other classes I experimented with doing projects in different ways that let me be creative and I was surprised to see how accepting other teachers were of this.  The 12 stone problem really challenged me.  I have not taken any math courses since high school.  I used to absolutely love math.  I didn't know whether I should go to school  for math or for music.  Even though I do think I made the right choice by picking music after you introduced  that problem and I solved it I remembered how much I love math.  I love the feeling being confronted with a challenge and finally conquering the problem.  It's such a feeling of power and I have missed it for a long time.  Thank you for reminded me the beauty of math.