AAAAAARRRRRRGGGG!

FIRST General Forum
1

Sorry, I just had to vent a little frustration.

Although this is my 4th year in the FRC, I am teaching at a new school this year and have started a new team. Unfortunately the dynamics with this team are vastly different from my previous team, and it’s driving me crazy!

With 1437, I was one of 3 teachers involved and we each had our areas of expertise. One teacher handled all of the “Business” of the team–fundraising, PR, sponsorships, and working with vendors. Another teacher handled the “Mechanical” subteams – drivetrain, chassis, etc. That left me to focus on electrical, pneumatics, and programming–all areas with which I had some experience. We did all work together, contributing to all areas, but we each had a primary focus.

This year, 2 of the 3 teachers who were “definitely” going to be a part of the team have backed out, and while the 3rd has been a great help with his fabricating experience, he’s also a rookie to this and is still feeling his way through the process.

So, this has put overseeing all aspects of the team/build on my shoulders. I think where my stress is coming from, though, is that this doesn’t let catch mistakes before they are critical, and I can’t spend as much time teaching this team of rookies with the amount of detail I would like. As an example, we finally got around to testing our drivetrain last night, but as soon as we turned it on, the circuit breakers started popping. Now we get to spend a day trying to figure out where our short is, and although I believe it is in the power distribution block, it’s the fact that this could have been avoided that frustrates me.

Well, as I said–I just needed to vent a little frustration. Thanks for “listening.”

2

Hehe, its always good to vent frustration, just make sure its not on your kids. They are all relatively new to the program and what needs to be done, so they should be able to make some mistakes. And i congradulate u on your continuation of the FIRST spirit. Teams are short on teachers now-a-days and you keeping it alive gives us all hope. Thanks again :slight_smile:

3

No, it’s definitely not at the kids. And making mistakes is an important part of the learning process–how can you learn to troubleshoot if someone steps in and corrects a problem immediately? And it’s not even an angry frustration–it’s just that I know how much good FRC can do and how fun it is at the competitions and I don’t want them to be disappointed by having a robot that doesn’t work. I know we’ll get there, but sometimes you just have to let off a little steam. :slight_smile:

4

All teams have intrateam issues now and then. Just because you don’t have the time to explain things in as much detail as you would like doesn’t mean that the students are not learning. Sometimes it is better to teach them with just letting the students read about how to do something and then let them go and do it… Even if it is wrong. They will have had the experience to go and do it, and after that they will know what they did wrong and so they won’t do it again and will try something new.

5

Hieb, something that I’m just coming to realize this season is that nothing in the FIRST motto limits the whole inspiration and learning thing to just the students. Things happen, and you may end up with a lot more on your shoulders than you planned. As I’m sure you know, this isn’t something that is unique to FIRST, so it’s a pretty realistic life experience. I’m working with my second team now, and there is definitely a huge difference between them and my first. However, the only important difference is my level of sanity. Everything else, the learning and inspiration, is the same in quantity. We all (students and mentors) are just learning different things than we used to. If you concern yourself with maintaining your sanity and focusing on the learning and inspiration, the whole “building a robot” thing just kind of falls into place, for better or worse. I think you and your students will learn just as much from building a short-circuited distribution block as if you’d taught them to do it right in the first place, even if it puts you a little behind schedule. Best of luck! :slight_smile:

6

In my …8 years now I have worked with… 5 different teachers now. I have had 4 different assistant teachers in the past 4 years. It gets tought re-training new teachers every year.
The main key is that we have a very experienced base of students & some mentors that have been with the team since 2000. I don’t think I could deal with this with a rookie team… a true rookie team.
Call on those around you & see if you can get some experienced mechanical parents to help with the build. See if you can get someone from school administration to help you with the fundraising & other stuff. You would be surprised to see how much help you can get it you ask.

7

I talk a lot about mentor burnout in the presentation I gave at kickoff - http://first.wpi.edu/Workshops/index.html - Mentor Recruitment and Retention. Sounds like you could use some help - at least try and get some mentors on board who can help with the non-engineering logistics side of the team to offload that responsibility from your shoulders.

8

I’ll definitely check out the presentation, but burnout isn’t likely for several reasons:

  1. I love to learn and figure out how things work, and I think I get as much (if not more) out of the challenges each year as the kids do.

  2. I have an obsessive personality, and I’ve been totally obsessed with FIRST since my own rookie season.

  3. Finally, most teachers have a moment (or hopefully several moments) in their career where they can look back to and say “This is why I teach” and when burnout appears possible it’s those moments that pull us through. One of those moments for me came after my rookie season: we had competed in the St. Louis regional and placed somewhere around 38 or 39 out 52 teams and were done. As we were unloading the robot back at school, one of the freshman was just standing there with a look of total awe and pride on his face and said “I can’t believe that WE built this.” It was a school that a lot of people have written off, and he was a student that a lot of people had written off, but we were able to give him an experience I know he will never forget. Any time I think about throwing in the towel I can think back to that moment and know that the long hours, the sleepless nights, and even the frustrations are worth it. To touch the lives of students is why we teach, and FIRST provides an opportunity like no other to do just that–touch lives.

So, no burnout here. Just a need to take a breath before we get back to building.

9

First let me say THANK YOU for putting all your time and energy into a program that will benefit students in ways you will never know. Then let me say…Dont stress your self out…its not all about the robot.

We ran into issues like this with our FLL team. No one knew what they were doing…mostly me…we did the best we could and at the competition our goal was just to get points on the board. They scored 16 points in the first round and felt like they had jumped the moon. Its not about winning its about the journey to get there.

When you get really exasberated make a list of all the things your kids are learning:
How to work as a team
How to network with other professionals
How to work power tools they have never touched before
How to write a press release
How to troubleshoot and problem solve
How to win gracefully
How to lose gracefully
How to scout
How to speak to adults in interview situations
How to speak to kids they don’t know and never would otherwise
How to fundraise to get what they need
That being a geek can be really cool
That college isn’t out of reach
That they can do anything they set their minds to
That you are proud of them even if they don’t win anything

My last piece of advice is to look for some college mentors and parents to help you out. I couldn’t live without my college students, they do all the technical stuff. I have also had parents step up to make banners, travel arrangements, cook dinners, collect forms, check deadlines, fundraise etc. Last year I tried to do it all myself and found out this year all I had to do was ask. Parents for the most part will do what you ask them to …once you remember to ask.

Good Luck, Dont go crazy and let us know if we can help you

10

FIRST suffers greatly from Murphy’s law

you’ll get use to it, or have psycotic episode, which ever comes first

sometimes when stressed out sometimes it helps to just start laughing

11

I know where your coming from. I went from spending four years as just one of many mentors helping out on a veteran team to starting my own team last year. What an eye opener! I was the only one who had any previous FIRST experience. Luckily, I was able to recruit a couple of very good mentors. Despite our frustrations, we had a great season. Hang in there - this year our team has made huge strides and my workload has been cut down quite a bit as I’ve been able to assign responsibility to other team members. I’m amazed at how much the students have been willing to take on to help out. This year, my second-year students have been able to help out the new students (and mentors). Good Luck!

12

Heib,
I think its great that you are able to draw on that story for inspiration :slight_smile: If we could all step back at stressful times and realize why we do this, this would be a much easier thing to do!

Unfortunately, the role of team leader comes with having to train and retrain people year after year. Its your dedication that is what gets the team through, though. Would it exist without you? maybe. But it wouldnt be the same. Can you still make a great team without those other teachers? Heck yeah. Students will amaze you. They can teach each other, learn from each other and help take some of the load off. I realized last year I was getting stressed. So we spent a TON of time building a REALLY strong leadership team this year, and they are amazing. It was a lot more work on my part, but they have grown so much and I know they are the future of this team, and maybe in a year or so I’ll have more time for mentoring!!

As for not spending as much time with the students, I know exactly what you mean. I say all the time that I miss “just being a mentor”. I love getting my hands dirty, adjusting the drivetrain, wiring up the electronics, or even programming it. Luckily with my history in FIRST I have dabbled, and often been forced into all different aspects of the team & robot… and that may even be why even with my BSEE, Im a systems engineer. While it is often more fun to get right in and directly mentor students, I’ve found my kick lately in mentoring mentors, or developing our leaders. Yes I still jump in and tighten chain when there are only 3 of us left at 11:30 at night, or show a student how to crimp wires when their mentor had to leave… but to some degree the team leader has to let the team run, make its own mistakes and learn from them. These last few years I have been little more than just the team leader… I dont get to mentor much, but the interesting thing is because Im one of the ones “always” there, the kids still feel really close to me, and thats where those moments that carry you through come from too!

13

On our team, we have a few mentors (this is our second year and the teacher that started this called on her extended family for help) and this year we actively recruited parents to help, in design, build, fundraising, snacks (yes, snacks. Kids use a lot of fuel if they are working hard), and those who promote visibility in the neighborhood. Look to your student’s parents for help. You will probably find some who would love to spend the time with their kids on something that both will enjoy.