Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
Martian,
There are a few things I have learned while hanging out here. The first is every team is different. They vary in the way they run things, the way the mentors participate, who builds the robot and who provides inspiration. The second is there are always two sides to every event.
I know there are a lot of teams out there where the sponsor engineers and professionals, work on the team and are held to team success as part of their job. That sometime causes friction on the team. It certainly can't help in design decisions and team management. Communication may help so that students and mentors alike know the motivation behind the actions.
I can tell you that I want to win as much as any student on the team. Sorry, it is the goal we are trying to achieve with all this work. I also know, my role is to provide inspiration, guidance, help, support. Sometimes those are in conflict, I am only human, it is a struggle. So I ask my students to help me with that. I tell them their most useful tool is an elbow. If I am doing something they want to do, use it! We believe that working along side our students is the best. We teach, show by example and then step back when they are capable of the task at hand. If you think our robot is mentor built or designed, you would be wrong. Ask our students what they have done on the robot and they will gladly tell you, show you and even help you achieve similar results.
Chief Delphi is a great tool for both adult and student team mates. They can come and see how other teams handle difficult situations and they can ask questions and receive answers to assist them. I will gladly answer questions via PM if they would like. We all want your students to have a great time while in this program.
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Al, I couldn't agree more. I totally love the "elbow" strategy you suggest to your students. I hope you won't mind if I borrow that comment and use it myself.
For me there is nothing so satisfying as having one of my students get to the solution of an issue (or a bug as we like to call it) before I do. [
In fact it happened only yesterday and I couldn't have been happier.] That shows that not only has the student learned how to program but that they are learning how to approach problems and work through the logic to find the solution. That is a big part of what this program is about. I feel that a student who can control the process reflects better on me than me being the one who is controlling the process directly. It is not about me being right, it is about solving the problem.
Of course it is also important to teach the students to consider the opinions of others with experience. That is about respect. My personal philosophy is that respect is earned... and, of course, that you will not get respect if you do not give respect. This is a 2-way street and applies to both students and adults. I also feel strongly that no one is perfect (most definitely including me) and therefore we all make mistakes. The key is to recognize them when they happen (if for example you jump to a conclusion or are a bit too snippy with a retort), apologize to the person who was affected, and work to change that behavior. I continue trying to do that every day... always a work in progress.
One final note: Remember that you can adopt this philosophy but you cannot force someone else to. And you cannot control their behavior, you can only work on your own. So do that and hope that it will rub off on those around you. I know that I personally have come to the desire to be that person by looking at the examples (both good and bad) that I see around me.
This doesn't solve your situation but it is a good life lesson... and that is at least part of what FIRST is about.