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He has told us, that the wife may not let him do this again next year. This is clearly not because she has an issue with FIRST. She also thinks that FIRST is one of the best things that could happen to our school. But since there is not nearly enough teacher support at our school, FIRST may fall through the cracks. I will do my damnedest to keep 1075 alive, however I fear for the worst. I dont like to point fingers, but if FIRST falls through at Sinclair, it would be the fault of every other teacher in the school.
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If it falls through the cracks without a fight, it's not the teachers' fault; it's the team's fault. Teachers have every right to have lives outside of school; you do know this, don't you? As unbelievable as it may sound, FIRST is not everyone's dream. Trust me, a teacher who doesn't care is bad to have on the team, and a teacher who is unhappy but still volunteers because he feels obligated to is even worse.
So, how are you going to keep your team? We almost lost our team last year when our head teacher announced he was stepping back. Originally, he was going to leave entirely, but we managed to convince him to attend one meeting a week (he later switched this to two half meetings a week). We had one other teacher who handles finances who attended one meeting a week. We tried finding additional teacher support, but were told we should wait until school started in the fall and see if any of the new teachers would help out. We didn't want to wait that long. Now, we knew we couldn't have a meeting without the proper chaperone and a robot is not going to get built with the equivalent of two meetings a week... so we went to the parents and adults for support. Me and three other parents went through the security check and TB testing to become official volunteers for the school system. That took care of the chaperone issue. Parents stepped up and helped out with other tasks the teacher would have normally done. There are still some things a teacher needs to do, administrative stuff, but if it is just a few small things, you should be able to find a teacher to do that.
So check with your school to see if they would allow parents to volunteer as official chaperones and then get your parents involved. A lot of students were not happy with the idea of their parents being heavily involved. I wasn't even sure about it because I remember all too well the fights that occurred in Little League baseball due to parental involvement. But it meant the difference between the team existing or not and we all agreed it was worth a try... and it was worth it, the parents have been wonderful.
Heidi
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