Swimming lessons: a history. And management goals.
While I may still suck at grocery stores (see last post), one thing that I'm good at is teaching swimming lessons. Today a very small girl in my preschool 2 class grabbed my hand and said "When I grow up, I'm going to be a swimming teacher." And I was like "Aw, that's nice, but no one becomes a swimming teacher on purpose. That's where you end up when you get drawn in by the appeal of lifeguarding- the high pay, great team, free pool access, and how it looks on a resume."
What's not to love? So you stand on deck for six months and everything is great, and then all of a sudden they're running a swim instructor course. No pressure, it's also a great resume item, and most of the other lifeguards are instructors- why wouldn't you take the course? Once you've taken the course, well now you're obliged to teach some lessons. And you're okay with that! You're so prepared- you have your lesson plans ready and all of your tips and tricks you learned while co-teaching. What could go wrong?
Then swimmer 1 hits you like a bus. It comes with three fairly relaxed six year olds, one who is absolutely wired and will not listen to a rookie teacher, and that one horrible 12 year old who doesn't know how to swim and also doesn't want to play chop chop timber.
"This is boring."
"Well it's not my fault you can't swim, now is it? What kind of tree are you?"
You're new, you don't know how to manage it. Every student fails the first class you teach. You vow to never teach again. Your manager makes you teach again.
This wasn't supposed to be a miserable post. Teaching gets better! I love it now- I'm currently teaching 10 classes all the way from Preschool 2 to Adult 2 to Bronze Cross. My favourites are Bronze Medallion/Cross and my preschools- something I never thought I would say. Only in August I was planning to never teach younger than age five. Now I trail four happy three year olds behind me for three whole classes. No one has cried yet. Not even me. To be fair, I'm a brand new instructor to this pool. I come with new ideas and games the kids don't know- some instructors here don't even use games (I'm working on it...), so it's easy to keep the kids going.
I have a few instructors now in the 'please don't make me teach again' stage, but I'm pushing them through. I just hope I can support them enough to get them to the point where they can teach comfortably. I always think of the time that a past manager came to my rescue when I broke down teaching a bunch of two year olds, coming into the pool in her office clothing- athletic pants hiked up to keep somewhat dry- to take over, no questions asked, when the stress caught up to me. I liked that manager then, but I appreciate her even more in light of the two most recent managers I've experienced. I just hope that the lifeguards here (and especially the new assistants I'm training from the very bottom) can look back someday and know that I cared about them and was ready to help them with anything they needed. That's the kind of supervisor I want to be. And although I'm happy to be the requested teacher, I hope to bring all of the other instructors to the point that they are equally confident. Someday.
- Aliya
What's not to love? So you stand on deck for six months and everything is great, and then all of a sudden they're running a swim instructor course. No pressure, it's also a great resume item, and most of the other lifeguards are instructors- why wouldn't you take the course? Once you've taken the course, well now you're obliged to teach some lessons. And you're okay with that! You're so prepared- you have your lesson plans ready and all of your tips and tricks you learned while co-teaching. What could go wrong?
Then swimmer 1 hits you like a bus. It comes with three fairly relaxed six year olds, one who is absolutely wired and will not listen to a rookie teacher, and that one horrible 12 year old who doesn't know how to swim and also doesn't want to play chop chop timber.
"This is boring."
"Well it's not my fault you can't swim, now is it? What kind of tree are you?"
You're new, you don't know how to manage it. Every student fails the first class you teach. You vow to never teach again. Your manager makes you teach again.
This wasn't supposed to be a miserable post. Teaching gets better! I love it now- I'm currently teaching 10 classes all the way from Preschool 2 to Adult 2 to Bronze Cross. My favourites are Bronze Medallion/Cross and my preschools- something I never thought I would say. Only in August I was planning to never teach younger than age five. Now I trail four happy three year olds behind me for three whole classes. No one has cried yet. Not even me. To be fair, I'm a brand new instructor to this pool. I come with new ideas and games the kids don't know- some instructors here don't even use games (I'm working on it...), so it's easy to keep the kids going.
I have a few instructors now in the 'please don't make me teach again' stage, but I'm pushing them through. I just hope I can support them enough to get them to the point where they can teach comfortably. I always think of the time that a past manager came to my rescue when I broke down teaching a bunch of two year olds, coming into the pool in her office clothing- athletic pants hiked up to keep somewhat dry- to take over, no questions asked, when the stress caught up to me. I liked that manager then, but I appreciate her even more in light of the two most recent managers I've experienced. I just hope that the lifeguards here (and especially the new assistants I'm training from the very bottom) can look back someday and know that I cared about them and was ready to help them with anything they needed. That's the kind of supervisor I want to be. And although I'm happy to be the requested teacher, I hope to bring all of the other instructors to the point that they are equally confident. Someday.
- Aliya
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