TIme off?

[lemiant]

I know that a number of teams go to as many as three regionals as well as the Championship. How do you get the schools to let the students have that much time off?

[Akash Rastogi]

Usually, the students who get to travel to that many events are also pretty engaged in their school work. I never considered events to be "time off" because you really have to either get work from teachers beforehand, hand in assignments before leaving, or work out a due date that is after you return from the event. So, its not really "time off."

[Joe Ross]

I know that a number of teams go to as many as three regionals as well as the Championship. How do you get the schools to let the students have that much time off?

While a few teams did go to 3 regionals and championship, even less planned on it. As of December last year, there were 5 teams registered for 4 events. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=986297&postcount=208

[Tom Ore]

141 went to 3 district events, 10,000 Lakes, MI state, and the championship in St. Louis - 6 events.

[the man]

We just ask nicely and in advance. Our school has never cared they know that extracurricular some times demand some time for events. Our marching band takes 3-4 days (total) to go to state and nationals events.

[EricH]

How about not having all of the students go to all of the events, or all days of all events? For example, let's say that you have 30 students and 3 events (2 regionals + Championship). Regional 1 is your "home" regional, Regional 2 is your "away" regional.

Regional 1, everybody goes to. It's close. Maybe half the team shows up late-ish on Thursday, the other half shows up late-ish on Friday, something like that. I've been known to not be at a regional until lunchtime Friday, or to take off early on Thursday and show up late Friday to deal with schoolwork.
Regional 2, between 15 and 20 students go to the event. Choose however you need to.
Championship, 15-20 students, but preference is given to those who did not go to Regional 2, or who are critical to the team's operation.

This is assuming, of course, that the school objects to every student going to every event. If they don't have any objection, then take as many as you want to to each event.

[lemiant]

How about not having all of the students go to all of the events, or all days of all events? For example, let's say that you have 30 students and 3 events (2 regionals + Championship). Regional 1 is your "home" regional, Regional 2 is your "away" regional.

Regional 1, everybody goes to. It's close. Maybe half the team shows up late-ish on Thursday, the other half shows up late-ish on Friday, something like that. I've been known to not be at a regional until lunchtime Friday, or to take off early on Thursday and show up late Friday to deal with schoolwork.
Regional 2, between 15 and 20 students go to the event. Choose however you need to.
Championship, 15-20 students, but preference is given to those who did not go to Regional 2, or who are critical to the team's operation.

This is assuming, of course, that the school objects to every student going to every event. If they don't have any objection, then take as many as you want to to each event.
I was just talking about mission critical members (drive team, pit crew, scouting and Programing), we live in a place where bringing 30 kids to all of our regionals could get expensive.

[EricH]

I'm not entirely certain you read me correctly. I did NOT say that you should bring all your team members to all your events.

What I said was that not everyone has to go to every event. This does include mission-critical members. You should have a backup for every one of those, just on general principles. And if you have to due to school objections, the backup should go instead of the primary.

[rachelholladay]

How about not having all of the students go to all of the events, or all days of all events? For example, let's say that you have 30 students and 3 events (2 regionals + Championship). Regional 1 is your "home" regional, Regional 2 is your "away" regional.

Regional 1, everybody goes to. It's close. Maybe half the team shows up late-ish on Thursday, the other half shows up late-ish on Friday, something like that. I've been known to not be at a regional until lunchtime Friday, or to take off early on Thursday and show up late Friday to deal with schoolwork.
Regional 2, between 15 and 20 students go to the event. Choose however you need to.
Championship, 15-20 students, but preference is given to those who did not go to Regional 2, or who are critical to the team's operation.

This is assuming, of course, that the school objects to every student going to every event. If they don't have any objection, then take as many as you want to to each event.

If I understand you, this is basically how we do it. Our school doesn't really object to us bringing students, but they would rather have students in school if they can. They have no problem with our home regional, our principal has even come to the Saturday portion the past two years, and they also have no problem with CMP if we make if because its the world championships. However they arent generally that happy about a second (away) regional, so we try to go to one on our spring break (like we did in 2010) or, unfortunately, not go to a second regional (like we did in 2011).

[Tom Line]

While a few teams did go to 3 regionals and championship, even less planned on it. As of December last year, there were 5 teams registered for 4 events. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=986297&postcount=208

Yes and no. Pretty much every Michigan team that went to nationals Competed in 2 district evens, State Championship, then Nationals. 5 of those competed in 3 district events.

A bit apples and oranges I suppose, since a district only takes 1 day away from school as opposed to 2 days (a fact which those mentor who work appreciate very much, I assure you!).

We've never had any problems with students getting the time off school for an official school event though.

[smurfgirl]

My team has usually only done two official events in a season; I believe it's only once that we've done three. I usually end up at around three regionals per year. Even so, there are ways to help with missing time, some of which have already been suggested:

- Don't send every person to every regional. Train people to be able to play multiple roles so that you don't have to rely on a single person for something - this way they don't have to be at all of the events.

- Go to at least one local (non-travel) competition. This eliminates extra days off for travel time. Also people can come late or leave early (do you really need 30 people there on Thursday for the practice rounds?) to eliminate the amount of schoolwork missed.

- Plan competition dates strategically. Don't plan your events two weeks in a row if possible. It's easier to make up missed work if it's spread out, rather than missing several days of school two weeks in a row. Also, try to find an event that overlaps with time off from school, like spring break, a holiday day off, or a teacher inservice day

- Notify teachers about absences and ask for work in advance. They're more likely to be understanding if they have notice, and it will be easier for you to make up the work before you leave rather than on Sunday night when you get back exhausted from not sleeping for three days. We all know that no one actually sleeps when they're at robotics competitions. :)

I went to three regionals this year and only missed three classes in total. It's possible to manage robotics and your school work!

[cpeister]

Our school doesn't really mind us missing class. Although some of the teachers were a little unhappy by the time our season was over, they knew we were still getting a lot out of the days we missed.

This year was the first year we have done 3 regionals. We have always done Waterloo and GTR, which are always back to back, so we didn't think anything of doing 3 in a row. Well after doing week 4, 5, and 6 regionals, and CMP, we were all pretty exhausted. I don't think the team will ever do this again.

For the Canadian events, we generally send a pit crew down Wednesday night or Thursday morning, and then the rest of the team comes down Thursday night or Friday morning. We take everybody that wants to come to every event. By the time we got home from the championship, several of our members had missed 10 days of school in 5 weeks.

We all were writing tests the day before, and day after events, and stayed mostly caught up in our work. A couple students even wrote tests in the hotel at events.

You can stay caught up while missing school, it just takes effort. Personally, I stayed caught up in English by reading a novel on the bus heading to Buckeye, and another heading to St Louis.

[Tetraman]

Back in the day, our mentors asked us to prove in one way or another that we could make up the work we would miss during events - usually by getting a signature from the teachers, confirming that we contacted them about the absense and obtained the make up work. Now, it's a little bit more hindged on the student to get the work made up and finished on his or her own time and take responsibility for having to make up the work or do their work on the trip.

174 does play the regional events like "time off", though, as we like to see the events as a time for celebtration and rest. Students will usually prepare themselves for a hard Sunday of catching up, and those that know they can't spend the time are smart enough to do work during the trip.

It does help that a bigger team means we can split the team up and send (for the most part) the 9th and 10th grade kids to Finger Lakes Regional and the 11th and 12th grade kids to the more distant travel regionals we go to. Seniors can go to both if they want to, as well as key student leaders from lower grades who have been bathed in the art of pit crew or other trades.

[Billfred]

We put it up to our students for our events (two that we registered for, then Championship). Some of our team members made all three events, others skipped Championship, and some only made it to Palmetto.

[treffk]

My team has only ever competed in 2 events in one school year, the GKC and championships. While I was in high school, the school requires a field trip form with all teachers signatures for days missed due the day before you leave. They even require that for college visits.

I know 1108 gets out of missing school time by scheduling their regional during their spring break. As I'm sure many teams do this or plan one of their regionals this way.

[Katie_UPS]

Because robotics is educational, my high school treated it like a field-trip. You have to get signatures from teachers and the like. Also, students who aren't doing so hot in school are generally told they can't go by parents anyways.

If you can convince your high school to treat it thusly, you're in good shape. Also, many sports-teams members (at least in my state) have to miss school for State Competitions (or even normal competitions). If that's a similar story, mention it... any respectable school administration shouldn't say that sports can miss class, but something like robotics can't.