rookie question about planning your schedule

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Now, if students on your team still must study, I'd do one of two things:
1. Let them manage their own time between school and robotics. It is really individual to each student which of his/her priorities matter more.

Absolutely not. Here on Team 237, grades come first. If you are even starting to fail a class, then you are red flagged on the team and privately taken aside by one or more advisers and talked to..
If grades continue to fall, you are off the team until you can raise them back up.
We want the kids to participate on the team, but if grades are suffering it's a case of tough love to kick them off.
It's unfortunate if you are that student, but we find it works well.

We also have a higher expectation than any other club and sport at the HS from our students. I'm not sure of the exact grade that we require, but I believe it is a grade or half a grade above most other clubs. We are very proud of that too by the way. I'll try to find out the exact grades later this week if anyone is interested..

Family too.. like KathieK said.. yeah.. Family..

<me>Smiles, nods and walks away...</me>

I have been guilty more than once for participating in a team activity over a family one, but that was my choice. And I got yelled at by my family.. kiddingly of course, but oh well..

[RbtGal1351]

Ha!!!
OUR FINALS ARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!
so our school's weird... it's awesome!! no finals to study for over xmas break and no finals to worry bout during build period!!
*nya nya nya nye!*

[...but as all teams prolly realize, all our grades still fall..cuz we're starting new topics semester 2.. hehehe its funny to the teachers reactions too...]

<edit> o, and i definately agree about the other teammates helping u w/ ur hw. half of em hafta do the same stuff anyway, so ya might as well do it together. lil robotics study session. </edit>

~Stephanie

[Franchesca]

Grades do come first. Think about it ... FIRST doesn't graduate you from HS ... your performance in class (your grades) do.

Its all about the individuals striking a balance between their school work (finals, hw, cw, etc) and robotics. For example, in my team we have finals coming up next week so we don't have to worry about studying over the holiday brake, however we do start build season the same time that we start a new semester (brand new classes). Its hard to balance the two. And some people can manage it ... others can not. Personally, the way I see it is: if you can manage being in robotics as much as you can and still get A's or B's (or whatever is your norm) -- that's GREAT!! However, if you are there all the time during build season but your grades are D's and F's ... you don't need to be in the team at all.

Make sure that you stress to your team the importance of keeping up with their grades and concentrate on them first.

[Denman]

here in the uk, we dont have exams until june (plus if you are resitting you do them in january... but that is so few of us...).
Schoolwork first, family seconds. Friends third, Robotics Fourth.
However, during the last week, robotics tends to come on top for the dedicated ones (no offense intended / dont email me complaining) it seeems to be the more clever people who do the building and that sort of stuff anyway and thus do not need as much revision. The only work i have got during that time is a coursework project for my electronics, and the electroncis teacher is one of our mentors