TIme off?

[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.