Do any of you have problems getting teacher support during robotics? I had to do alot of convincing and promising to get teachers to sign my form allowing me to go to robotics regionals, and they generally thought that it was distracting me from my work, and didn’t like it…
How do you guys deal with this sort of thing?
my teachers are cool about it. We even persuade some of them to come and watch if the competitions are close by.
That’s not to say that cathing up after you get back isn’t a biyatch, though.
*Originally posted by Aonic *
**Do any of you have problems getting teacher support during robotics? I had to do alot of convincing and promising to get teachers to sign my form allowing me to go to robotics regionals, and they generally thought that it was distracting me from my work, and didn’t like it…How do you guys deal with this sort of thing? **
Last year last minute some robotics’ students didn’t have very good grades, and teachers balked mightily at signing. They weren’t really familiar with robotics.
This year all our publicity paid off. We made sure we were in school bulletins, school newspapers, school yearbook, local papers. The teachers over and over again already knew about our awesome program and happily signed and wished the students best of luck.
I personally have had similar issues with teachers. However, it was more of not willing to support me in classwork or class deadlines due to robotics.
I find it best to explain the program (and yes, this could take a while) then ask for help. Explain to them the demands of the program and school. More than likely, with a little background information about FIRST, they’ll be willing to help. If not, try to compromise with the teacher and set some ground rules.
For me, I explained to my teacher the FIRST program (would have helped to have some info on the team and all…) and requested an extension on a project. Turns out, my teacher chose to exempt me from it.
Hope this helps.
Most of our teachers have had robotics students before (at least in the more advanced classes), so it’s usually not too big of a problem. One math teacher doesn’t really appreciate it, but she’s had almost every student on the team at one point or another, so she understands.
I’m a teacher that thinks FIRST is absolutely wonderful for the students. This was our first year in the competition. We will be competing next year as well.
I incorporate the project into my pre-engineering class. We work on the project during school and after school. I have so many kids wanting to take my pre-engineering class next year just so they can work on the project. I can’t believe some of one have problems with teachers not wanting you to participate.
You have to look at it from the teacher’s point of view. AP exams are getting close and a lot of teachers are trying hard to prepare students for the exams. And then some kid, who may already be behind, comes as says “hey do you mind if I miss 2 or three days of class?” What do you expect them to say? “Hey, sure. I’ll be happy to see you fail this exam because you missed critical review sessions.”
It’s not just the kids on the robotics team who get this either. I see plenty of kids who want to miss class to go play basetball or Lax or a ton of other sports. Plus the kids who miss class because they are travelling with Debate. It can disrupt a teacher’s planning and mess up the rest of the class if too many people miss too many days of class.
The important thing is for you to do your part. If you are behind in your school work, regardless of why, it is up to you to catch up. Teachers generally do not give extensions because “there was a hockey game last night” so why should they give you an extension because you were in the machine shop late?
Now I love robotics and FIRST. I’ll give a kid some slack from time to time for FIRST or even football. But don’t make a habit of it and expect me to carry you.
We caught a bunch of flak from our teacher who runs the team at the last meeting… Cuz one of the kids on our team gave a teacher the excuse of “I didn’t have time, robotics is taking up all my time!” and so the teacher brought it up at a staff meeting and we all got a talking too…
I dont know about you guys but at our school our math department are facists… all they care about are their classes. Because of them all of our convocations for the rest of the year are cancelled…and they almost canceled our last one on drunk driving that actualy had a positive impact on our kids for once. Most of them dont really like the robotics team cuz it leaves kids as walking zombies during the build season…and we miss alot of school because of it.
If you are a walking zombie during build season you are planning badly. Why do so many people think that working hard and long is better then working smart? I don’t get it.
I told my team last year, when I was in charge, that if I found out they were using FIRST as an excuse to miss school or school work they would be off the team. That should be a standard rule in my opinion.
My teachers are all for it. Since we won, everyone likes it. But if I had horrible grades, then they would oppose it.
Hmm … I’m usually a walking zomby after a physics lecture (my teacher can get … well lets just say ‘uninteresting’ at times). A couple of sleepless nights machining/programming can be just the refreshment needed to get through another day 
Anyway, it sure does seem that the trips are closer together this year. I’ve missed almost a week of school already last month and now Houston is coming up. But there are ALWAYS going to be conflicts like this in life – and I see yet another benefit of FIRST is that it gives students the opportunity to practice time management. Will some students fall behind in classes? Sure; appropriate measures should be taken, and they’ll learn from it hopefully.
I don’t know, maybe I’m somewhat different from some other people. I tend to do better if I don’t listen to my teachers (but then again, maybe that says something about them :))
One of my teachers still refers to it as “the rocketry team” whenever we tell her we have to miss a day…
Once again, my schooling is interfering with my education.
Our schoolboard, TDSB, won’t let any school trips go to the States, so we won’t have your teacher down there, however, we won’t be affiliated with our school:D
None of my teachers had a problem with it. Even with lower grades now, most of my teachers are alright with my missing class to go on the Physics/Trig/Precal Six Flags trip. (Mmm… an entire Friday at Six Flags instead of in class.)
I mean, I’ve got a ‘capable of better work’ from three teachers on my last grade report-- one of those being horticulture. HORTICULTURE! That’s when you know you need to bring up the grades. But then again, my lit teacher lectures out of Sparknotes, and the World History sub didn’t teach, so now that those teachers have switched out, I’m ready to work again…
I think most of the teachers at my school are willing to let students miss class for extra activities, as they’re usually a good learning experience. Well, all the teachers save one AP US History teacher…
*Originally posted by Caleb Fulton *
**Once again, my schooling is interfering with my education. **
How true is that…
Personally… I don’t even tell my teachers I’m going to be gone. 
*Originally posted by Caleb Fulton *
**Once again, my schooling is interfering with my education. **
to quote Mark Twain…