[otakootie]

In accordance to con-going, I've had some trouble with school. Obviously, you can't call in cosplaying. But you don't want to miss most (or all) of the first day of the convention, and you don't want to use your sick days (what if you get sick?)

I ended up compiling a permission slip of sorts. It basically states what anime is, what manga is, what cosplay is, and what Acen is. It then goes on to say that you're requesting friday off to participate in an "educational and culturally rich" experience.
Basically, it's asking your school to treat Anime Central like a Field Trip, excused absence.

Something to know is that, when I approached my school with it, they told me I needed a teacher's signature. Kind of to prove that this trip might actually help me advance in a particular career field. So, if you have any art or business teachers you're cool with, that would be a good place to go.

They also told me that it would take one of my college visit days. Juniors and Seniors at my school get two of those per year. If your school doesn't offer anything like that, I'm not sure how the officials will react to the proposition. BUT it's always worth a chance.

If you want the original document, just give em your email and I'll send it to you.



EDIT: After talking to one of the higher-ups, I was told that the use of the Acen logo isn't... Uhm... Right.

If, in anyway, I have violated any rules here, I'm very sorry. I'm also not sure if this is in the right place. Just trying to be helpful. ^^;

I hope this comes in handy for someone.


UPDATE: I got the day off. Completely excused. Needless to say, I'm quite happy about this. Woo!

This post has been edited by otakootie: 11 April 2012 - 11:24 AM

[Dark Spellmaster]

Might be a good idea to get MAPs or someone from the board to certify this so that a school won't assume it's something fake that friends made the person. But sounds like a good idea.

[-JUNK-]

Ah when I was in High School it was either fill out papers and say it was a Cultural Convention or just skip/ have parents call you in sick.

[Leech]

a few years ago i broke my perfect attendance at school so i could go to ACEN, and it was all worth it

[STVO]

My last two years of high school I was able to attend ACen, but I don't know if any of my teachers would have bought into this, lol. If it does for you guys, great and good luck.

[otakootie]

Dark Spellmaster, on 13 March 2012 - 02:54 PM, said:

Might be a good idea to get MAPs or someone from the board to certify this so that a school won't assume it's something fake that friends made the person. But sounds like a good idea.

Yeah, thats why I mentioned at the bottom that I have no intention of harm and blah blah. I hope I'm not overstepping any boundaries, like by using the logo and stuff. I'm not sure how I would go about bringing it up to "the board" though. xD

[Dark Spellmaster]

otakootie, on 13 March 2012 - 09:26 PM, said:

Yeah, thats why I mentioned at the bottom that I have no intention of harm and blah blah. I hope I'm not overstepping any boundaries, like by using the logo and stuff. I'm not sure how I would go about bringing it up to "the board" though. xD

Purplegoddess is a member, maybe shoot her a pm about it?

I've called in sick, or claimed family funtion. Going to be fun getting out of work this year as I have to miss till about one pm. T>T

[GITS SAC Motoko]

That's kinda neat--but wait a minute....your school gives you sick days? So you have limited days that you can call in sick? I have never heard of that before. O_o. Or unless you are referring to jobs.

I only went to ACEN once in high school--my senior year. All my classes that were important (my AP classes) were in the morning so I just waited for those to be over and got a early release form. (I got to the con by 1PM) and it was awesome! I just said I had a dentist appointment and I strutted out of school. :3 You could maybe try that and not have to use a day your school/work gives you if they don't approve you leaving.

[linlindesu]

Usually you can just ask your parents to call in for you ( as long as they are ok with you skipping that day you are fine )
I went to acen all my years of high school and as long as my grades were decent I got friday off. ( The one year I didn't.. longest class say ever)
But if you need this permission type thing from your administration, I'm pretty sure they will just be happy that you were so professional about the whole thing .

[GITS SAC Motoko]

linlindesu, on 14 March 2012 - 08:50 AM, said:

Usually you can just ask your parents to call in for you ( as long as they are ok with you skipping that day you are fine )
I went to acen all my years of high school and as long as my grades were decent I got friday off. ( The one year I didn't.. longest class say ever)
But if you need this permission type thing from your administration, I'm pretty sure they will just be happy that you were so professional about the whole thing .

My mom did said that to me. She's like "if you get good grades I'll let you ditch early for ACEN." hahaha THAT motivated me to get good grades for sure. XD

[Dark Spellmaster]

GITS SAC Motoko, on 14 March 2012 - 08:42 AM, said:

That's kinda neat--but wait a minute....your school gives you sick days? So you have limited days that you can call in sick? I have never heard of that before. O_o. Or unless you are referring to jobs.

I only went to ACEN once in high school--my senior year. All my classes that were important (my AP classes) were in the morning so I just waited for those to be over and got a early release form. (I got to the con by 1PM) and it was awesome! I just said I had a dentist appointment and I strutted out of school. :3 You could maybe try that and not have to use a day your school/work gives you if they don't approve you leaving.

My first highschool did have a number of sick days per semester (five to be exact) and my college gave it as limited to 3 missed days per class. So if you missed the class three times then you'd be in trouble unless you gave in some sort of excuse.

Sadly, at said above highschool unless you submitted a form weeks in advance, your leaving early for any appointment was seen as a full sick day.

[otakootie]

GITS SAC Motoko, on 14 March 2012 - 08:42 AM, said:

That's kinda neat--but wait a minute....your school gives you sick days? So you have limited days that you can call in sick? I have never heard of that before. O_o. Or unless you are referring to jobs.

I only went to ACEN once in high school--my senior year. All my classes that were important (my AP classes) were in the morning so I just waited for those to be over and got a early release form. (I got to the con by 1PM) and it was awesome! I just said I had a dentist appointment and I strutted out of school. :3 You could maybe try that and not have to use a day your school/work gives you if they don't approve you leaving.

They aren't punishment free sick days, per say. we have 9 days per year that we can just have our parents call in sick and not have to present a doctors note afterword. After that, this juvenile detention program gets involved (if you have too may over, that is), and thats where I'm at. I just got off an essential probation period where, if I missed too much school I got locked up, so even though I'm technically off it now, they're going to be a lot more willing to put me right back on.

[Washu Takahashi]

I'd be wary of using that, because if they say no and then you have your parents call you in sick, they'll know you aren't really sick For me, I had to beg my mom to call me in sick so I could go. She promised me I could skip Friday at school on my senior year, and she stuck to her promise ^^ Last year I actually had a job though, and just claimed I had a wedding to go to...it wasn't totally false. I DID have a wedding to go to...the next week...lol. But now all my coworkers and boss are my facebook friends, so this year I'll have to fess up and ask for the day off to go to the con. But my boss is a super cool guy and will gladly give me the day off since he finds my interest in anime so amusing (And I'm an engineer, not like a McDonalds employee or something...not saying my job is above any other, just saying that even people with stable more-important-like jobs can still get the day off ^^)

[Dark Spellmaster]

I work at a college, and happen to teach a class on the same day as Acen, so I have to go in late to the party due to the fact that my class is on that day. I'm trying to see if next spring it can be moved to a thursday in the day rather then a Saturday or friday.

[rrtycoon2]

One of the nice things about College is that if you need to be absent on a particular day, you don't need to go through the whole calling in sick or making an excuse hassle (explains why so many people ditch classes compared to high school).
On the flip side, the timing of this year's ACEN convention lands right around finals week for many people (myself included) meaning that convention time may have to be sacrificed for cramming time. Guess it's a bit of an overall give and take situation (although I hope to do more taking than giving for once).

As to the idea of claiming ACEN as a cultural or artistic learning experience, I think you actually make a very valid point. There is a great deal that can be learned in a convention environment, perhaps beyond even the artistic and cultural and into the psychological (putting a large group of people together with a common interest readily apparent to each individual creates a mindset that leads to vastly different interactions and grouping than one would likely encounter with a group of people that could only choose who to interact with based upon conventional "first impression" conditions).

You might want to make sure, though, that you don't have to write a 10 page paper on your visit afterward.

[MasterHavik]

Well, my anime club is just giving our numbers to or adult. But that's for only Sunday. I could use something like that. But my school gets out at 1 on Fridays, so I might just go to school and stay there for the whole day. After the day is done. Go home and change and put up my school stuff. I'm trying to get the people who are going on Friday to form as a group.

[auhsojsivart]

Speaking as a high school teacher, this is a pretty great idea. I love that you showed initiative and created a document that looks somewhat official.

If a student of mine were to present this to me, I would sign it for sure. However, I would ask them to write a 2-3 page paper about their experience at ACEN as an assignment to make up for missing whatever work we were going to do that day.

This post has been edited by auhsojsivart: 02 April 2012 - 11:52 AM

[MasterHavik]

auhsojsivart, on 02 April 2012 - 11:51 AM, said:

Speaking as a high school teacher, this is a pretty great idea. I love that you showed initiative and created a document that looks somewhat official.

If a student of mine were to present this to me, I would sign it for sure. However, I would ask them to write a 2-3 page paper about their experience at ACEN as an assignment to make up for missing whatever work we were going to do that day.

You kidding, right? I hope you are.

[Sapphy]

MasterHavik, on 02 April 2012 - 03:47 PM, said:

You kidding, right? I hope you are.

I doubt it, if you mean the whole "writing a paper" bit. The student it marketing ACen as a cultural learning experience when it's really just an excuse to go hang out and party with like-minded people about Japanese cartoons. Kind of like how I, in high school, founded my school's anime club on the same basis when all we really wanted to do was watch anime and meet other nerds like us.

Having the kid write a paper in exchange for getting to go to the convention on a school day is more than fair.

[MasterHavik]

Sapphy, on 02 April 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

I doubt it, if you mean the whole "writing a paper" bit. The student it marketing ACen as a cultural learning experience when it's really just an excuse to go hang out and party with like-minded people about Japanese cartoons. Kind of like how I, in high school, founded my school's anime club on the same basis when all we really wanted to do was watch anime and meet other nerds like us.

Having the kid write a paper in exchange for getting to go to the convention on a school day is more than fair.

Well, I'm glad I don't go to his school. While this guy's idea isn't bad. It's better for, Friday, to just go after school or miss that day. I plan to go after school, since my school gets out at 1 on Fridays.

[Dark Spellmaster]

I have to agree with auhsojsivart on this one. 1 to 2 page paper isn't really a bad idea, and honestly you can brag about neat things like:

What's the difference between Seiyuus (Japanese voice actors) and their American Counter parts.

Or

Folklore in Anime and Japan, there's a panel there.

or

The cultral hit that is Cosplay.

or

How an Anime Convention is organized.

or

How has Anime influenced American culture now.

etc.

There's a ton to write a short paper about.

[Naoya Toudou]

My boss is pretty cool. i told him id been planning an occasion for months now and that i just need this day off. havent taken off the whole year ive been here so he was pretty cool about it lol. as for saturday class acen luckily fell right in the middle of the perfect spot. week after my presentation is due and week before final day XD so im just taking off lol.

[MasterHavik]

You got a good boss bigfoot.

[Dust]

Urg~ I have to miss most of the first day because I can't get out of school DX. I'm in a group with my school's anime club....If we get there around 8....Hmmm.

This post has been edited by Dust: 03 April 2012 - 11:58 AM

[Naoya Toudou]

MasterHavik, on 03 April 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

You got a good boss bigfoot.

I know lol. he is a really good guy, i owuld talk about walking dead with him alot lol. and my co workers back int hier early days were into anime so i really do love my job environment.

my user name is actually Naoya Toudou XD Bigfoot underneath my pic shows how often ive posted lol

[Voxx]

Wow. When I was in school I rarely took any days off, but for Acen you really just need to take one day off. My Mom called me in sick. I guess I was lucky. In college, I just told the professor that I would be off. One year I had a final on one of the days and I scheduled to take it early. For work, I make sure I request the days off in advance and they always get approved. I've never had a problem taking any days off for Acen.

This post has been edited by Voxx: 03 April 2012 - 12:22 PM

[MasterHavik]

Naoya....sorry about that man. Where do you work? Can I get a job there?

Voxx: You are the man with the master plan.

[auhsojsivart]

I wasn't kidding. I teach high school English and would definitely make sure my student wrote a paper for some credit if they brought this to me. It's not a punishment; it's an opportunity to learn.

[GITS SAC Motoko]

auhsojsivart, on 08 April 2012 - 09:14 AM, said:

I wasn't kidding. I teach high school English and would definitely make sure my student wrote a paper for some credit if they brought this to me. It's not a punishment; it's an opportunity to learn.

honestly, you are being super understanding with that. I would do anything if I could write a paper about ACEN. That's like a dream come true. Getting out of school work about other stuff and writing a paper about ACEN? That is to me the better end of the bargain--hmmm real school work or do an ACEN assignment? I wish teachers were more flexible with that kind of stuff. I really like that idea though.

[JediNight]

I got into conventions the year after I graduated HS, so I never considered the whole getting off school thing. Certainly there could be a way you could frame the experience to possibly get an excused absence. Maybe agree to write up a short essay about some cultural things you learned at various panels?

Otherwise you could always bite the bullet and show up after school on Friday. But Acen being a major convention there is already a lot of interesting stuff happening during the day Friday unlike smaller cons.