I understand my principal is a busy man, but unfortunately he doesn’t understand how much first is needed in my school NOW. I was planning on doing train sessions, beginning to mentor Lego League, possibly starting a summer camp, and defiantly finding a company sponsor over the summer. This, however, posses one problem, I NEED THE TEAM BEFORE SUMMER, and while my principal is a great principal, he doesn’t quite understand first is a TEAM not a CLUB, after all the nearest FIRST team is about 30 min away. I have sent out an e-mail to the entire staff for a teacher mentor, unfortunately it needs to be approved by my principal, who is busy with hiring teachers and helping other teams and clubs; I have already talked to him twice, once more is rude. What should I do? Should I start an underground team that will hopefully eventually get to the school? Should I wait it out (its been 2-3 weeks)? Should I begin to get company sponsors and then show my principal how successful I am? In other words help!!!
I’m not exactly sure what your dilemma is, and I find your post a little confusing. My first response, with that in mind is that you need to get yourself organized. If you have an official game plan of what you’re planning on doing, written down on paper, you’ll probably get a more positive response. If you go in verbally saying “I want to do this”, and sending informal emails around, its not as impressive as it could be. My advice is set up a formal meeting with your principal. If you have a teacher mentor who’s committed to helping you, have them come to the meeting as well. If not, go around and ask them personally. It’s easy to glance over an email and not respond, but if your there asking them in person so they can see your dedication and the great aspects of FIRST, it will be more likely that you’ll grab their attention.
You probably shouldn’t sneak around running things alone, especially if you’ve already been told that a teacher is required to oversee your actions. There are plenty of threads around which give advice on how to deal with school administration, and starting up programs like the one you have in mind. Search around the forums and I’m sure you’ll find some more useful information. I applaud your motivation to do something like this and I wish you the best of luck.
thanks… to clarify my basic problems are:
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running out of all teachers i knew i went to e-mail (though your suggestion was the prefred route)
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my principol is too busy to really send out the e-mail or aid my team forming despite me talking to him several times
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by running alone i mean having a “town team” rather than through the school (though yes i’d also rahter do it through the shcool.)
just to clarify and thanks for you responce (it was highly appricated and taken into account)
Getting started at a school can be frustrating but don’t give up. Ask the school board if you can get on their agenda. Get a few other students to join you and do a presentation about what FIRST is and the benefits it brings to the school. If you can get the school board and the superintendant to back you things will be easier. Make it clear to teachers that you approach that they don’t personally have to know how to build a robot, that is what the engineers are for. If you have a brief, clear presentation of what would be expected you will make better progress. Don’t wait to approach companies. If you can go to the school board/principal/teachers with a corporate sponsor already lined up and engineers ready to help it will be hard for them to say no. Good luck.
I haven’t ever been in your situation, but I do have a few ideas.
First of all, I think that you should start by finding a teacher or two that will support you. Personally talk to them and explain what everything is. Make them a little knowledgeable on the subject. (It would probably help your cause a lot if you could find math/science teachers.)
Then you move to the school board and set meeting dates where you can bring in the teachers and other people that might give some positive influence.
The most important part, through doing all of this, I believe, is to make them understand what this means to YOU. There is no better way than being honest, and using personal stories, from you or other people, and give some examples of students who have gone on and have earned their way to jobs in the math/science/engineering/technology fields.
I know that visual aids would help a lot too. Pictures of robots, highlighting the benefits, and also showing the other skills that students would learn, such as being able to interact in a mature way with adults and communicate their ideas and thoughts clearly and confidently.
Visual aids are a key. If our team went to our CDR (critical design and review) and simply talked to the engineers and mentors about our robot and showed them no pictures and indicated no abilities or thoughts that we had, we wouldn’t gain any input or feel that going through this process was valuable. The same applies in your position. You can’t simply speak; you have to demonstrate.
Just my input, and good luck in your endeavors.
I know for us, this is a tough time of year for the team trying to do anything in the school. We are starting our off season of outreach, etc., but almost all of the in-school team stuff should be finishing up in the next 10 days or less.
The students have a lot of demands placed on them with end of the year testing, projects, finals.
The teachers have those same demands on them and those demands step it up a notch in taking priority plus other demands as well.
The administration has those same demands on them plus the administrative things for future as you noted.
Graduation looms.
So, as an opinion, I would say this is not a prime time for starting a team or seeing that it would be a priority from the viewpoint of the administration or the teachers. For one thing exhaustion plays in here. Many people who work in education are counting the days until school’s end and look forward to somewhat of a rest from the schedule/demands. (I realize that schools keep different schedules everywhere so I’m going with what is happening with our school here in Austin right now.)
I’ve also looked at some of the activities that you have listed and those do not have to be done in the classroom environment or the shop. Many principals take some time off during the summer but do keep somewhat of a schedule. You could stop by the school office and speak with the person who will/would know the principal’s schedule then and see if a time could be worked out to meet again to help start the team when things aren’t so hectic and time so demanding in other areas.
And I agree about finding sponsors now and during the summer. A lot of groundwork could be done that would benefit the start up of a team. Good luck with this.
Jane
I know what you mean about the teachers being busy, however the reason for me hoping to get a team now is that I want to train and plan over the summer. I want to be able to show a company why they should sponsor a team not some random kid with ambition, and I also don’t want to make the team a “friends of mine team” I want fair opportunity for everyone. Thanks again for your suggestions, all ideas have been accounted for, and I am working on all of them.
im not part of the organization, but from reading some of the manuals, i’d say take a look at the RINOS documents found on team 25’s website. thats a free wealth of information
To get to the RINOS page, simply click the link in my signature.
Definitely read our Manual for Rookies–it includes some information about how to present this new idea to your school, how to get teachers involved, etc.
Verbal,
As Jane has pointed out this is a busy time for school staff to talk about anything. Having a plan laid out with timelines and needs shows all involved that you have a good idea of what needs to be done and have put a lot of effort into your idea. You might try making a packet that the Principal and other teachers could look through at their leisure. Our team actually approached the school district many years ago with a plan to turn the team into a class. It was well prepared and had the input of some teachers for a class plan and showed the number of hours the average student added to the team. The school board was so impressed they granted the request and now we meet all year long and the students receive a grade for their work. If your principal needs some additional input, Wildstang is available to answer questions and I can communicate with him/her via email to get the ball rolling if you need to.
Our team has been run without a teacher/mentor. It is a parents group, that formed a 501©(3).
Find a company to sponsor, find work space, apply for the NASA grant. That should get you through the first year. Let the principal and school board know what you are doing. Make them aware that this will no at virtually no expense to them. A win-win for all.
I am surprised that a New Hampshire school would not be jumping at a chance to have a team started.
Good Luck
Trying thinking outside your box:
Our county has an education intiative group, made up of influential people in the county. They helped lay the foundation for our team. A few big businesses in the area provide grants to the team to cover regional entrance fees. Mentors are from local employers. The community college gives us a workshop and one of our mentors became an adjunct professor to fill that teacher gap; he donates his adjunct salary back to the team- He also won the Woodie Flowers at Philly this year:) Love You Mr. B! The only thing our school districts give us is during competition season they count our absences as a field trip as opposed to an excused absence. Basically the team is a patchwork of pieces that all come together when we need it to.
Shelbo’s Mom