Top 7 Tips for Wonder League Coaches
You’ve Registered to Be a #WLRC Coach … What’s Next?
Our coaches come from all around the world, and are teachers, parents, librarians, and after-school facilitators all volunteering their time and energy to bring coding to life through the Wonder League Robotics Competition. Thank you for signing up to be a Wonder League Coach! We thought we’d address some of the common questions in case you’ve just joined this year’s competition:
Tip #1 — Registering: This year, you need to complete our WLRC Registration Survey to register your team(s). This survey is editable, so please begin it as soon as possible, and you can update information at any time. Make sure to hit SUBMIT at the end of the survey and you will receive a confirmation email with the edit link (contact us via Edmodo messaging if you have any problems). Do watch our video about registering.
Tip #2 — Community: Join one or both of our Coaches’ Cohorts on the free communications platform, Edmodo. Here you can find all of the competition materials, plus communicate with the other coaches (and us!). Read this blog article to join a group on Edmodo and to find out some tricks like modifying when and how to receive notifications.
Tip #3 — Resources: We’ve created a lot of support materials in the way of guides and blog articles; including Mission One! All of it is housed within Edmodo. Simply click into your Coaches’ Cohort, your group, which is listed in the left-hand column. Then you will see a tab labeled “Folders” under the colored banner at the top of the page. Take some time to check out these materials, especially the 1-hour recording of our Getting Started with the WLRC webinar and the Coaches’ Guide!
Tip #4 — Gridded Mats: Wonder Workshop is not selling a competition mat this year. Instead, you have three choices: buy it, print it, or make it! Read more about some mat options in this blog article.
Tip #5 — Mission One & Mission Two: Mission One Logbook and Mission Two Logbook has been released. You can find both kid-facing logbooks for kids ages 6–8 and ages 9–12 in the FOLDERS section on Edmodo (see tip #3). Decide on how you want to share the information with your teams. You can:
- Print one logbook per child or print one logbook per team
- Share the logbook digitally by downloading it onto individual devices
- Display the instructions to the whole group at once
We are asking that kids document their hard work this year. Reflection is a key skill! In the logbooks, we have provided graphic organizers and questions to help structure their journaling. However, kids can journal and draw in notebooks or capture their thinking via online platforms (like Google Docs/Slides or SeeSaw). The choice is up to your team. This year, the competition runs for an extended amount of time to give teams the flexibility to stretch out or condense their practice times based on their personal schedules. Each mission should take approximately 12 hours to complete.
Tip #6 — Judging: This year, we are not judging the submissions for Mission One, Mission Two, or Mission Three. Instead, we are looking for “evidence” of teams’ successful programs, plus their planning and reflection processes. For those who want to compete for one of the 1,000 spots in the final Invitational Round (and for a chance to win one of the two $5,000 STEM grant grand prizes), you will have to complete all three missions. If more than 1,000 teams complete all three missions, we will go back and judge just Mission Three’s submissions — full details about the judging criteria will be shared when Mission Three is released. Wonder Workshop then will judge this year’s final Invitational Round.
See the Submission Process & Solution Guide to learn how to submit team’s evidence to Wonder Workshop, as well as find recommendations for judging your teams’ work. Guide found within Edmodo’s resource folders (see tip #3).
Tip #7 — Celebrating: This year, we are trying to invite more participation for Mission One, Mission Two, and Mission Three! Several coaches told us last year that they wanted to participate but not necessarily have the pressure of competition. Therefore, we invite you all to participate in as many of the missions as you want, and then we encourage you to celebrate your teams’ accomplishments, mission by mission, within your community. Check our Celebration Pack, Local Media Kit, and Community Hosting Guide for ideas and recommendations!
We recently also hosted two 1-hour webinars. Check out Getting Started with the WLRC and WLRC Webinar #2. Thank you again for joining the Wonder League! We look forward to your participation.
