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So I had my first "training" session of swimming instructor training with the pool that agreed to take me on. They said that they weren't looking for people at the time that I signed up, but anything could happen by the end of my training (which could go anywhere from 12 weeks to 20 weeks since I do 1 shift a week at the moment due to uni)
Here's some highlights and things I WASN'T expecting:
-All the staff were awesome including the managers. They were really welcoming and even shared a couple of their own training experiences
-A slight screwup occurred when the OTHER trainee arrived. Turned out that she had been working with the group I was due to be assigned to. So one quick switcharound later and I wound up being allocated to one of the groups about midway in the "learn to swim program" which I had done ZERO preparation for. So because of it, I didn't really have a chance to "have a go" with manipulation. I did help lead the kids off though when they were unsure though.
-The class sizes were a lot smaller than I was expecting. In the class that I was doing, you can have a maximum of 5 kids. The lineup was 2-1-0-3. (30-minute classes, I was there for 2 hours, so 4 classes)
-I swear that when they were handing out spines, they gave them to the people in this swimming centre. Absolutely zero complaints from the parents who were sitting on the pool edge about the teacher, no "stage" parents (the type who expect their kid to be the next Ian Thorpe) and in fact, one kid kept messing around so much that her dad told her off and made her sit out for a couple of minutes
-Given the group I was being allocated to, I was expecting much older children (like 9-10 year olds). The oldest kid was around 7-8 years old. I had mostly 5-8 year old kids.
-The trainee shirt that I was wearing in the pool (they have separate shirts for the trainee staff and for the actual hired staff, but both are provided by the centre) was INCREDIBLY warm. Kind of a bonus really
-They really do make a little bit of a deal with the kids when they move up a level. When they move up, the kid is told to go and see the deck supervisor (who is full of win I might add) who will have them stand on the edge of the pool, ring a bell and then announce "Congratulations to <person> who has moved up to <class>"
I will admit, I whooped a couple of times.
I do my second shift next weekend with the class I WAS allocated to originally, so it looks like my class levels will end up being Levels 1, 4 and either 3 or 6/7)
I just need to stop smiling and laughing whenever a kid misbehaves.
Here's some highlights and things I WASN'T expecting:
-All the staff were awesome including the managers. They were really welcoming and even shared a couple of their own training experiences
-A slight screwup occurred when the OTHER trainee arrived. Turned out that she had been working with the group I was due to be assigned to. So one quick switcharound later and I wound up being allocated to one of the groups about midway in the "learn to swim program" which I had done ZERO preparation for. So because of it, I didn't really have a chance to "have a go" with manipulation. I did help lead the kids off though when they were unsure though.
-The class sizes were a lot smaller than I was expecting. In the class that I was doing, you can have a maximum of 5 kids. The lineup was 2-1-0-3. (30-minute classes, I was there for 2 hours, so 4 classes)
-I swear that when they were handing out spines, they gave them to the people in this swimming centre. Absolutely zero complaints from the parents who were sitting on the pool edge about the teacher, no "stage" parents (the type who expect their kid to be the next Ian Thorpe) and in fact, one kid kept messing around so much that her dad told her off and made her sit out for a couple of minutes
-Given the group I was being allocated to, I was expecting much older children (like 9-10 year olds). The oldest kid was around 7-8 years old. I had mostly 5-8 year old kids.
-The trainee shirt that I was wearing in the pool (they have separate shirts for the trainee staff and for the actual hired staff, but both are provided by the centre) was INCREDIBLY warm. Kind of a bonus really
-They really do make a little bit of a deal with the kids when they move up a level. When they move up, the kid is told to go and see the deck supervisor (who is full of win I might add) who will have them stand on the edge of the pool, ring a bell and then announce "Congratulations to <person> who has moved up to <class>"
I will admit, I whooped a couple of times.
I do my second shift next weekend with the class I WAS allocated to originally, so it looks like my class levels will end up being Levels 1, 4 and either 3 or 6/7)
I just need to stop smiling and laughing whenever a kid misbehaves.
Good luck with the training and teaching. It sounds like a lot of fun watching the kids get better at swimming.
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