Tutoring During the Season

[wireties]

FIRST Team 1296 is thinking of formalizing tutoring resources during the build season. We want to counter-balance the effect of the rigorous schedule on grades. In past years our generous and awesome teacher-sponsors did tutoring on demand but we hope to set up a schedule, inform the parents, identify the difficult classes etc.

I'm sure many other teams seek to help their student members with some academic assistance. Please share some details of your efforts, successes and failures. Thanks in advance for your time!

[Celia]

My team meets six days a week during the build season, so on weekdays we get the second half of the meeting (~2 hours) to do homework. Obviously we all don't quit working and do homework the whole time, but bringing some of your harder stuff to robotics occasionally is a great place to get help. You can usually find another student who gets what you're doing to help you out =)

We have never had a problem with students "overdoing it". No one brings homework every day and does it for two hours each time. We know, like most would, to utilize this time only when we really need it. Our mentor is not a school staff member, so he has no access to our grades. It is up to the students and their parents to know when to skip robotics for the night and focus on homework.

It isn't too formal, but this homework schedule has gotten me out of a few tight spots. Normally a few of us have the same homework, so we might take fifteen minutes to work on it together. Again, it isn't very structured, but it works for our team.

--Celia