Hey y’all – just wanted to write up a quick post as it’s been a while since the last status update (you know, the whole pandemic thing…).
First off, I absolutely feel for all the high school students out there — especially the Class of 2020. My heart breaks for you guys that all the hard work and hours-and-hours of practice you put into being the best math/science competitor came to such a nondescript ending. I can’t even imagine having to go through that and the range of emotions you must have felt: disappointment, sadness, anger, regret — just to name a few, I’m sure. This past spring was not the way to end one’s high school experience and this fall is definitely no way to start college. I just wanted to personally say that I’m so sorry!
As for current high school students, from what I gathered from the UIL website is that, barring some COVID-related precautions, it’s business as usual for the 2020/2021 school year and that competitions are on schedule. However, if I’m reaching an incorrect conclusion, please leave a comment as to what exactly the plans are (I’m not a Texas school teacher or affiliated with UIL, so I’m not too aware of what the actual plans are). Similarly, it looks like there will also be TMSCA events scheduled as normally planned according to their posted calendar.
Since the competitions are resuming, I figured I’d give you an update on the status of the website. As always, I will be uploading my automated generated Middle School and High School Number Sense exams on a weekly basis. Additionally, I have received a slew of corrections from a handful of e-mailers about already-generated tests that I plan on correcting in the next month. Finally, I believe I have found a good technique to start recording individual number sense tricks videos which I will post to Youtube and cross-link them on this site.
As always, if you have any questions on how to approach problems or whether or not a trick exists for some more recent questions, you can send me an e-mail at:
Lastly, a few things that are going on in my life since my last posting:
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- Celebrated my 10-year work anniversary with Boeing
- Received a “Meritorious Award” for a new invention that I’m currently working on getting patented
- Spent a stint frantically trying to figure out how to work-from-home and juggle daycare closures for my 3 year-old
- Had a second child (!!)
- Set a goal for 2020 to run every street in Salt Lake City. After 700+ miles, I’m about 80% done — you can follow my progress on Strava here (taking a little breather the past few weeks due to the prior bullet point)
- Started-up tutoring Algebra II and Pre-Calculus online for local area students. (I have been considering maybe offering short 30-minute Number Sense tutoring sessions using the same online approach — let me know via e-mail if that might be something worthwhile to do)
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That’s about it for me! Expect a little more frequent posting now that things seem to have settled down a bit.