March 20th (please read)

March 20, 2020  oh 202020

Good morning,

Happy Friday!  There are no new assignments for today or this weekend.  This will give everyone a chance to catch up on Khan Academy.  I can see that a majority of you are done.  Great work.  What a crazy week?!  We will resume a regular schedule with a Monday morning email and assignment posted on Moodle.  I’ll try to be clearer with the directions as the look of your Khan Academy window is different than mine.  My window is very clear as to what are videos and practice problems and I thought it would have been more obvious on your end too.  It will be much easier the second time around.  My goal is to give you around 20-40 minutes of work for four to five days a week.  As we get back into the new material we will have some sort of google meetups or zoom.

This is definitely the toughest week I’ve seen a senior class have to go through with the loss of Muna.  I still haven’t wrapped my head around this and I can’t find any words for the sorrow I feel for Muna, her family, and her friends.  Please find someone to talk with or connect with if you need to talk about your feelings, anxieties, and/or fears.  We are available to talk so don’t be afraid to email me or someone and ask for a phone conversation.  My youngest daughter is usually pretty goofy but she goes very quiet for long periods of time right now.  We pull her in the kitchen and start cooking or baking and then she will start talking and asking questions about the current situation.

To compound (math word) things, I feel terrible (in my best Schmidt imitation) for the seniors that were looking forward to the end of the school year activities and the fun that goes with it.  I’m actually a little curious to find out about the current state of assassin.  This is your generation’s 911 moment.  I feel bad for the juniors who have worked so hard in your AP classes (pre-calc too) and studying for the ACT/SAT.  You guys were finally getting close to the light at the end of the tunnel.  Now that has been disrupted but I’m optimistic that we’ll get back to normal soon.  And sophomores who were so looking forward to and optimistic about the torture junior year every junior and senior talks about.

So if you are looking for some math to do I have a couple of ideas.  You could write an exponential model for the number of cases of coronavirus in CA and compare it to models that you write for the US, Italy, Spain, China, etc.  You could write a cosine function, with a restricted domain, for the flatten the curve predictions that we all hope happen.  You know you’ve looked at those curves and thought cosine function!!  Please email me, videos work too, some of the models that you come up with.  Lastly, for those looking for SAT/ACT practice you can go https://www.khanacademy.org/mission/sat/tasks/onboard-92829382938. 

Please take care of yourselves and your family.  Make the most of the opportunity to connect with family and friends.  I’d love to hear some of your stories.  I hope all is well!

Best regards,

Mr. Nacht