Update (5/13): Just a reminder that ALL work is due on May 15th by 11:59pm. I will not be accepting any work that is turned in after that time. I hope everyone is staying healthy. Finish strong!

Update (4/20): Thank you for all who responded to the opt in/out survey. Just a reminder: If you opted in, you need to be submitting work to me. I will be starting to grade by accuracy, and will be creating quizzes for the upcoming weeks. My email is jpietila@bfcsaz.com. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have and help you with anything you need. I miss you all and hope you're staying healthy.

Mr. Pi can be reached by email at jpietila@bfcsaz.com

Opt in/out UPDATE (4/9): Hey everyone. I'm sure you've all read the email regarding the procedure for grades for the rest of the year. Just as a quick summary, your semester 2 grade will be either your Q3 grade, or an average of your Q3 and Q4 grade if your Q4 grade is an improvement from your Q3 grade. I will be continuing to provide the same types of lessons, where there may be some new material, but just at a slower pace than you are used to in the classroom. AP will continue to review for the AP tests. I will be grading some assignments for completion, some for accuracy. There will be some quizzes as well. No final exam. In essence, we will be doing similar things that we have been up to this point, just modified slightly to account for the grading policy.

Now, I want to speak to your decision. Many of you have performed exceptionally in my class, and this may feel like an easy way to check out for the rest of the year. I want to encourage you to OPT IN, not because of any improvement of your grade (although, if you want to bring that up, that is a good reason), but because of the goodness for your life in continuing to learn. Many of the greatest thinkers of this world were self-taught. They read, contemplated, and wrote. They learned on their own. They were lovers of learning. Cultivating this habit in your lives is essential to living a good life. The easy way is to check out. I highly encourage you to think of your motivations, and whether they are legitimate reasons to stop learning. Make learning your objective the next six weeks, and hopefully for the rest of your lives.

I miss you all. Nothing can replace the time we had to learn together in the classroom. But the spirit of what we did in the classroom will not fade. We must persevere. Please let me know if you have any questions. I am here for you. Stay healthy!

Best Regards, Mr. Pi

***AP UPDATE (4/3): AP kids, please read Mrs. Churney's email regarding updates on AP testing. There is some very important information for you in that email. I HIGHLY encourage all of you who signed up for the AP exam to still take it. You guys still have lots of time to review and ask me questions as we prepare, and anything you see on the test will be something you have already seen in our classes. You guys can do great.

PLEASE FILL OUT THE SURVEY IN MRS. CHURNEY'S EMAIL. This is VERY important. Any questions you may have about AP testing, please contact me and I can either provide answers, or direct you to Mrs. Churney depending on your question.

I miss you all. Keep up the good working you have all been doing. I've very proud you. (Check solutions page for answers on your work thus far :)

Best, Mr. Pi

UPDATE (3/27): Great work this week everyone. For those of you who were able to get some work to me this week, thank you! For those who haven't, it is not a penalty against you, and you can turn in work late for full credit at any time.

I want to encourage all of you to, as best as you are able to during this uncertain time, to take advantage of this time to do SOMETHING. You may have time to do things you've always wanted to do but haven't had time for. You may have things to do that you pushed off because of your busy schedule that you now have time to do. You have time to sharpen some of your math skills. Whatever it may be, my encouragement is for you NOT to stress about deadlines, as they are very fluid, but consistently evaluate yourself and put your best foot forward. This is time for you to learn how to self-govern. I'm not there to nag you about doing your work. It's up to you. Stay resilient, stay healthy. I miss all of you and I hope to be able to see you soon.

Also, feel free to just email me to say hi. I'd love to hear how you are all doing, what you're doing outside of school work to stay occupied, and interact with all of you. It's important to stay connected with others during this time. A lot of my time spent outside of preparing materials is hanging out with my wife, talking to friends on the phone, and golfing (they haven't banned that yet!!).

Lastly, lesson plans for next week will be posted on your class page. Also, please start checking the solutions subpage for your class, as I will be posting some solutions to the work you have been doing (this is especially true for next week, AP classes will have solutions posted for this week). Please reach out to me if you are not getting an answer correct, I will be more than happy to help you through your work!

All the best, Mr. Pi

Hi everyone (3/23),

Welcome back to an unusual beginning to Q4. I hope all of you have had a safe and restful break. It was much deserved.

As you all know, there are things that we can control and things we can't. A lot of things right now are outside of our control. It's our job to focus on things that we can control. Let's love and support each other, and do our duty as both learners and citizens. The powers at be have a lot of decisions to make for all of us, and let's hope that they use the problem solving skills we learn in math to come up with wise and logical solutions. While we let them handle those decisions, I want to encourage all of us to focus on continuing to develop our own problem solving skills using math, while also (hopefully) seeing the beauty of mathematics as we continue to study it.

By Wednesday morning, 3/25, I will have posted your assignments for the week of 3/25-27. These will be review assignments for this first week. I will leave specific instructions for you in your given class tab in the upper right hand corner. This work will be completed between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week (rejoice in two more days off!). There will be instructions laid out for you for the coming weeks as well when I have more information and can plan accordingly.

I will be available Monday through Friday 8am-4pm by email to answer any questions for you (see email below), and I'll check it every once in a while outside of those hours in case you send me emails outside of those hours.

FOR AP ONLY: Please read Mrs. Churney's email regarding AP updates. I'll have more info for you about what that means for us on your class page.

Thank you all for being flexible. I hope to see y'all soon.

All the best,

Mr. Pi

Mr. Pi can be reached by email at jpietila@bfcsaz.com

Please go to your class tab for the latest announcements and assignment postings.