Mr. Duttlinger's Mathematics

My Dear Students and Parents,

Welcome back from Spring Break! At a time like this, I'm reminded of two thoughts that were often expressed in the Marine Corps: 1) "Adapt, improvise, and overcome." 2) "We've been doing so much with so little for so long, it's quite possible that we could do anything with nothing."

In this spirit, and with hearts dedicated to the virtue of humanitas, we continue our education despite our physical separation. This website will be our primary point of contact, and I invite you all to make liberal use of my email: gduttlinger@bfcsaz.com. We teachers are still engaged full-time from home, and I have complete access to our textbooks, the gradebook, and your contact information. I will specifically be reaching out to the families of those students who had grades of "Incomplete" last Quarter, as these will be a major priority in this first week of Quarter 4.

Students: Do you remember what I said some months ago at Opening Ceremony? I said that if you want to have a happy life, you need to live a meaningful life. And the key to making your life meaningful is to take on, and fulfill, as much responsibility as you can find. As your teacher, I am your guide and helper as you execute the consummate human activity of learning. Executing this learning has already been a grave responsibility for you, but never has your responsibility for your own education been so great. I remain your guide and your helper, but events have taken me physically away from you. Rejoice in this challenge, and delight in the pleasures of discovering how much you can learn on your own initiative! I will be cheering you on and helping you remotely as much as I possibly can!

Lesson plans + my commentary on the individual lessons + specific links to alternate explanations of the concepts will be shown on the relevant class pages on this website. My understanding is that we will have no new content in this first week, but I will have more specific directions for the individual classes updated by Wednesday morning.

Best Regards,

Mr. Duttlinger

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I have been teaching mathematics at Benjamin Franklin High School for over 4 years, mostly at the precalculus level. Before I was a teacher, I worked in customer service, contract administration, and served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, during which time I had one deployment to Iraq. I like to think that I've seen a fair bit of what the professional world has in store for our young students and the kind of adversity which they will all encounter on their journeys. Life is supremely beautiful and supremely challenging. I hope that, through my mathematics instruction, I can help to strengthen the minds of my students so that they can more readily perceive the beauty and overcome the challenge.