Greetings FIRST LEGO League Oregon,
In today's FIRST LEGO League Oregon Update we will cover these items:
- WiSci Middle School Girls Camp
- Coach, Mentor, and Parent Workshops
- Information Night - Corvallis
- Table Available
- Team Financial Support is OPEN
- Team Looking for 2 new Members in the 97229 area
- The Importance of Good Parent Communication
If you are new to this email or blog this is the place where you will find all of the OREGON specific FIRST LEGO League information. Coaches and team administrators in the FIRST system for the CITY SHAPER season will be added every Monday until March, automatically. Every update this season begins with CS (CITY SHAPER) and a number, that number lets you know which update it is, if you miss an update you can find it on our blog. We are currently in the Pre-Season planning and skill growing part of the FIRST LEGO League Oregon Season!
1) WiSci Middle School Girls Camp
Our goal: Enroll selected 100 middle school girls from Oregon & SW Washington, with particular focus to our Native American girls, for an unforgettable cross-cultural, FUN hands-on experience for 100 girls!
Application is open NOW
More Information
*ORTOP is not involved with this camp. We have been invited to share with our teams, by our sponsor Intel. (If I was still 12, this would be super cool to me. Ok it is super cool to me, but I'm not 12 anymore.)
2) Coach, Mentor, and Parent Workshops
Workshop time is HERE! ORTOP Coach, Mentor and Parent Workshops begin June 1! Now is the time to grow your skills, brush up your EV3 knowledge, and get a refresher on all the aspects of FIRST LEGO League. This is the perfect place to start for new coaches and new parents on any team. All workshops are free and open to the public. We do request pre-registration so we know how much material to bring and if there will be enough attendees to hold a workshop. This is a Teen and Adult only class, no team members! You will get a chance to get hands-on with a LEGO EV3 as part of the workshops.Find all our workshop information here. And the list of workshops here.
*NOTE: There have been some changes to the upcoming Medford workshop. Please see the sign-up page for details.
3) Information Night - Corvallis
Tomorrow, Thursday, May 23rd, I will be speaking at a FIRST LEGO League Information Night hosted by FIRST Force (FRC Alliance). If you know someone within driving distance of Corvallis who would like to know What is FIRST LEGO League, and how they can get involved as a coach, mentor, sponsor, or volunteer, please have them join us! This is not a coach workshop, but we will be holding one in Albany in August or early September, still booking the location!MAY 23rd
6:30-7:30PM
Jefferson Elementary School Please email spartanrobotics997@gmail.com to pre-register for this event.
4) Table Available
A very beautiful FIRST LEGO League practice table is available in the Gateway area of Portland. (seriously, I wish I had room for this one, it's that nice!) - Contact Loren at sutherland.loren@gmail.com if your team needs a table! The table does need a new home BEFORE June 4.5) Team Financial Support is OPEN
ORTOP is honored to once again, through the support of our sponsors, be able to offer FIRST LEGO League Team Financial Support. The application is significantly shorter than in the past, however; that makes each answer even more important! Please take time to read the entire instruction page and to review the Sample Application, before you start your actual application. Volunteers will be given your answers, to review as soon as 20 applications are submitted, or by August 1, whichever happens first. If your team is applying for ORTOP Team Financial Support - Do NOT pay your national registration yet. Many funders do not allow us to reimburse funds already spent on the team.
6) Team Looking for 2 new Members in the 97229 area
Greetings!
FIRST LEGO League team 20540 currently have two openings.
We’re looking for team members with below criteria:
- Grade 6 – 7 in September 2019
- Committed to get work done and deliver results
- Enjoy public speaking and working with people
- Love LEGO and have a passion to learn robotics and mechanics
- Live in Bethany area with zip code 97229
- Can meet for 2 – 3 times a week and work on homework assignments on top of team meetings
- Willing to go through an interview process on May 23rd, Thursday, or a date to be arranged, and deliver a speech to coaches on how you will contribute to team.
If you meet the above criteria and can participate in an interview with your parents on May 23rd, please contact the coaches at below email address:
Xinle Yang email: biajee@yahoo.com mobile phone: 303-532-6187
Thank you for your interest and good luck!!!
*ORTOP is just helping spread the word, it is rare when we have a team with space for new members who struggles to find them. ORTOP is not involved in the team member selection process.
7) The Importance of Good Parent Communication
Parents are the not-so-secret aid or barrier to success for every team. This makes having a good relationship with parents critical part of the coach role. Let's meet the standard parent tropes:
- Hyper-involved parent - you think you hit the jackpot in the parent lottery, but you actually spend half your meeting time trying to reign them in and reminding them that the kids do the work in FIRST LEGO League
- First, get this parent to a free ORTOP Coach, Mentor and Parent Workshop. Not only will they be happy to go, but they'll also get helpful skills and an added reminder that failure is an excellent tool for learning and should be facilitated.
- Next, set clear expectations and boundaries.
- Plan a job for this parent every meeting to keep them busy. They can be a true asset when their energy is pointed in a helpful direction.
- The Perfect Coach's Assistant - they get FIRST LEGO League, they should probably be a coach, they are the person the coach can always depend on and lean on for support. They have great facilitation skills and really listen to the kids. They understand problem-solving, even though they don't understand the intricacies of what the team is doing with the robot or project anymore, they know it looks and sounds good. They always seem to know just the right thing to say to the team to get them back on task or through a rough patch. They have loads of connections to local experts on every possible topic theme imaginable!
- These don't exist in nature, they are the unicorn of all parents.
- If you find one, you are super fortunate - don't break them.
- You can bring many of the other parenting types to this point with patience, good communication, and a lot of understanding.
- Helpful, but Clueless - This person wants to be helpful, but they have no idea what is going on, may appear completely overwhelmed, and needs direct guidance for each task they help with.
- This parent is perfect for small group work. Get them working with a couple kids on research or the robot.
- Treat this parent gently, they are out of their comfort zone in the idea of robotics and a room FULL of kids.
- This is the worlds BEST snack parent.
- Odds are good they are more comfortable with more traditional school volunteering like, fundraisers, school parties, and bake sales; which means they are very creative and can be a huge asset for fundraising!
- This is a great person to help you prep for the next meeting, they are happy to get things ready.
- They are also a huge asset at clean-up time! They will know where everything goes by the end of the second meeting.
- Drop-off, Pick-up Parent - you may never even see this person's face. You might have shaken hands at the orientation meeting, but odds are they didn't show up. You will recognize their car long before you do this parent.
- Take a deep breath before approaching this parent. They aren't ready to get heavily involved just yet. Don't count them out, just use that patience. Start by keeping them informed. An organized calendar with frequent reminders may be the only way you communicate with this parent.
- Start simple, ask for an item at drop-off "Can you bring a trifold board for our next meeting?" "Can you make sure your child has some research on the topic" Maybe even suggest they bring a snack (but don't ask them to serve it, yet).
- This is a great parent to help with carpool to the tournament or to and from meetings. If you need something brought at the last minute, this is a good person to ask.
- Want to Help, but Crazy Busy Parent - This is the most common parent category. Some of our parents are working many jobs just to keep their kid in shoes (have you seen the price of shoes???) Not to mention those tweens and teens start eating enough to support the entirety of a professional athletics team. This parent is super happy to have their kid in robotics because your team is helping ensure their child a better future. They know how important it is to help, but the last time they slept was about a month before their first kid was born, whenever that was.
- It's really easy to overwhelm this parent. They want to help, but they already have mom guilt about how much they aren't involved in their kid's schooling and the pressures of adult life are being held back by sheer will power. Don't be the straw that makes them crack.
- Like the Drop-off, Pick-up Parent, this parent is great at fetching items needed by the team (although depending on their financial situation, you may need to slide them a $20 so they can buy it).
- This person is perfect for one-off tasks. They can probably come 15 minutes early to pick-up or stay a few minutes at drop-off, but it will need to be scheduled in advance.
- Strangely this person knows a lot of people and resources, ask them for a list of contacts when you get a chance.
- Try to chat with this parent at either pick-up or drop-off each meeting. This will clue you in to all the little ways they can help the team.
- This parent is likely to take the day of the tournament off to be there for their kid, they make a surprisingly good chaperone.
- You're my Free Baby-Sitter Parent - The toughest of all parents to find on your team. This parent is super happy to NOT be there while their kid is. They've got plans, adult plans, while you take care of their little angel, who may or may not have any interest in the team.
- This parent is NOT going to stay for a team meeting. They will meet you, introduce their kid and that may be the last time you see them.
- Communicate expectations VERY CLEARLY with this parent. You may need to repeat them, often.
- Use multiple forms of communication frequently with this parent, you can't over email, over text, or send home too many notes.
- This parent is not horrible, they are often willing to buy things for the team, help with away from the team fundraising, and they are a good source for experts. Remember team time is their "me" time, so when you ask from them, ask for things outside of team time. They are often more than willing to contribute, just not during meetings.
Most parents are not all in one of these categories, but cross categories throughout the season, and maybe within a meeting. There is a lot of cross-over on what they can do. Helping is not just a during the meeting time activity - although that always sounds nice. It's important to start a dialog with clear team expectations with all of the team parents NOW. Keep them up to date with everything the team is doing by email. Text to remind parents of team needs and meetings. Don't be scared to set up a Sign-up Genius or a shared document of the team needs and require all parents to contribute as they can.
The more you talk with any of these types of parents, the better your team will function. Your kids will see their parents commitment and passion for the team (even in the little things) and that will build their passion and commitment. Just giving the parents enough information on a regular basis so they can ask their child about meetings and get past the, "It was good, we did stuff" answer can be a huge boost to the progress of any team. Sometimes as a coach, the parents need your help more than the team members do.
Lots of activities are happening around the ORTOP office to make FIRST RISE an exciting season for all. Some venues have already confirmed their return for the CITY SHAPER season and are being added to the ORTOP calendar! However, I will no longer be checking my emails on Sundays, so if you have an urgent issue, please do your best to get it to me by noon or so on Saturday, or you'll have to wait until Monday! Also, if an item is not urgent there may be a slight delay in replay as I am so focused on all we are building I am filing emails for specified reply times.
One more reminder, Monday is an ORTOP recognized holiday, and we're being kicked out of the office, so it's not a good day to reach us!
Best Wishes,
Loridee
One more reminder, Monday is an ORTOP recognized holiday, and we're being kicked out of the office, so it's not a good day to reach us!
Best Wishes,
Loridee
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