Notes to Principals/Administration

[AndyH]

As I was talking to our administration today, I realized that they really don't have any idea how important and hard-earned the FIRST awards can be. (They just don't have a context for what the Chairman's Award, Woodie Flowers, GP, etc... mean.)

I'm not sure about other schools, but our principal reads any positive notes he gets from parents, etc, to the entire staff at the faculty meetings.

I was thinking that maybe we could work on our own homework - getting the word out to our schools to give FIRST teams the recognition they deserve!

Here's my proposal -

If teams that win awards think it would benefit their cause to have other teams write thank you notes or congratulatory comments to their administration, just post the contact information here. Anyone who has time could take a few minutes to write that note and put it in the mail. I'd like to start by getting the word out to administration of teams that won in St. Louis. That way I can talk about my experiences working with the teams. Other teams could write letters for their regionals. I hope that we can help educate the schools about what the kids are doing and how hard they are working!!

Anyone???

[fredliu168]

That sounds like a fantastic idea!

[Phyrxes]

Sounds like a good idea especially for those school based teams attending a regional that they unable to have an administrator or two to attend to see their students interacting with other teams/mentors/volunteers/VIPs/etc.

[Jimmy Nichols]

That sounds like an awesome idea.

[LLM]

Great idea, AndyH!

Team 1108, Panther Robotics, would love for our administration to hear about the benefits of FIRST and what it takes to be honored with a regional award. It would be nice for them to hear it from someone other than our team!

We will be happy to do the same for anyone who posts their contact information here.

Thanks again for coming up with this wonderful idea!

Our contact info:

Superintendent Dr. Rod Allen
1115 East 303rd
Paola, Kansas 66071

[Corey Oostveen]

Really good Idea!

But I think it shouldn't be limited to just when your team wins awards, it should be whenever you think the kids deserve some recognition for the great things they have done.

People have been so programmed into thinking that ranking is what matters. When in fact ranking is not the most important thing.

Administration's need to see that even if a Robot places in last place at a competition it doesn't mean they are an unsuccessful team!

The classic WF line, that Most of the Important things happen before the competition.


I love the idea!

[AndyH]

I totally agree! There is so much more to this program, and those things can be more difficult to articulate. It's easy for administrators to understand, "We brought home this cool winning banner," but not so easy to explain that we didn't rank well, but we accomplished so much more. I hope that hearing it from other teams/schools will help with that message.

Team 1098 would be thrilled to write a letter for 1108! Our kids have talked about your team several times, and they'll love brainstorming all of the things that they remember.

I'll post a copy of the letter here when it is done just in case anyone wants some ideas.

Of course, we don't have to limit it to one team writing a letter - let's send several.

By the way, the contact information for Team 1098 (the little robot that had the Superbird car body) is -

Rockwood School District
High School Administrators
c/o Dr. Craig Larson
111 East North Street
Eureka, MO 63025

The kids were most proud of our Woodie Flowers Award winner Tim Emerson, helping other teams with programming, and the articulated chassis of our robot.

Teams, keep posting addresses here. Don't be afraid to ask for recognition! You've earned it!! It could be good for the current team, and good for the future of the program in the schools, especially as budgets decrease and districts are looking for places to make cuts.

[Siri]

Sounds like a great idea! 1640 would be happy to write letters for both 1098 and 1108, and I know many other teams that deserve the recognition if they are interested.

Team 1640 would also appreciate letters to our school board and/or principles. We recently won the Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award at the Chesapeake Regional. (We're a small team in a large district, and the administration doesn't necessarily "get" what it means to win regional engineering awards.) Thanks!

Attn: Ms. Jane Bertone or Mr. Norman Long at 126 Wallace Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335.
Attn: Mr. Paul Hurley at 50 Devon Drive, Exton, PA 19341.
Attn: Mr. John Nodecker at 445 Manor Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335

[LLM]

AndyH, we have a letter ready to go to your district. Would you like to preview it first?

[LLM]

Hello, 1640! Your letter is next! Send one to each individual listed? Congrats on the Rockwell Automation Award! Anything else you'd like us to mention?

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by LLM

AndyH, we have a letter ready to go to your district. Would you like to preview it first?

Hello LLM from Team 2468 in Austin, Texas

I think this is a great idea. One of my students had the idea of writing up a press release for each regional we had participated in. He wanted to then follow-up by sending it to local newspapers for each team who won an award at the regional. He is working on getting local newspapers for each team over the next week.

Can you post your letter either here or the CD-media section.

We won the Xerox Creativity Award for Dallas this year. Our high school and district administration were very excited.

Norman

[AndyH]

Originally Posted by LLM

AndyH, we have a letter ready to go to your district. Would you like to preview it first?

Thanks!! This is really fun! It was very kind of you to take the time to write a letter for us. We certainly don't need to preview it, though I would love to have a copy to show the students.

The letter for 1108 will be in the mail on Monday. We'll post it here, too. It might help other teams get some ideas to get started.

Team 1640, we're on your letter too. This is neat, because we're researching and learning about teams we've never met.

[LLM]

We have a team meeting on Sunday afternoon. We will work on a little research for any team whose address is posted by then, and try to get letters out early next week. I really don't have a template letter, but will work on one over the weekend and try post it by Sunday. It would help us if teams would, in addition to awards, mention anything else they think that their administration needs to hear to help their cause! Anything to help more district administrators to "get it".
Congrats, 2468! You are on our list!

[Siri]

Originally Posted by LLM

Hello, 1640! Your letter is next! Send one to each individual listed? Congrats on the Rockwell Automation Award! Anything else you'd like us to mention?

Thank you! No need for one team to send all four letters, though we would appreciate it if eventually everyone on the list got one (from different teams are fine). Our team's been through some tough attrition with four moves and a school strike last year, and the medical sabbatical of our only teacher, etc, and we just want our administration to know we're still trucking! Thanks so much.

2468, you're on our list too! This is turning out to be a great way to learn about other teams.

[Siri]

Panthers, you letter is done and will go out tomorrow! 1098 and 2468 will be done shortly.