Reflections on Teaching

There are many ways to teach people. I take the approach of; show you, show me, do one, teach one, teach me, and again, and again....now theoreticals. I like to have people think, this is when the learning imprinting takes place in my experience. You've got a foundation, now you've got a structure, a context to apply it to if you will, as you work within these confines, you see who looks outside the box, and who just accepts it.

An out of the box thinker is what I have been labeled. I enjoy the label as it gives me liberty to say things out of the ordinary, or that others are not willing to say. It also lets me present some of the more outlandish ideas, expecting to be able to settle on a middle ground, or be pleased and get the idea to go forward.

The type of training I went through for the last few weeks was as usual, but so laissez-faire as to be....weird. Structure is what I'm accustomed to, however I function very well without it. There was structure, but it was at the whims of the weather and fatigue of the participants.

I got to see how my way of doing things is better and worse than others. Positive and negative feedback was given in proper proportions, and real learning occurred.

Scuba Instructor training is not like any other type of training. There is a specific formula to teaching people to scuba dive...but you can move various parts of the formula around to suit the student, the instructor, or the circumstances, but you still must maintain a particular order, and building process. There must be the foundation before the other components, otherwise you're set for failure.

It takes special people to do this, and while it might seem like the dream job, it's still a job; I's have to be dotted, and T's crossed; missing any could lead to the end of a beautiful career, being too cavalier and overly-confident can be your demise.

I was going through the Instructor Development Instructor Trainer portion of the courses. The step you take before Master Instructor, and then Course Director. Our joke in my house was that we had no idea what I would do with 'my second life' when we moved. Looks like it found me instead!!

No matter how hard I try to go back to what I did before here, it doesn't work out for me. Resume after resume, application after application - nothing. Yet scuba keeps coming and coming, dragging me along to sights unseen and depths other never consider. Without realizing it I've dove 10 or 12 times in a week and not all of them are teaching, there's fun in there too.

I do truly love watching when people 'get it'. The satisfaction of seeing someone's world change for the better is worth the tired days, sunburns and little food when you forget to pack a lunch.

Well, it looks like more diving in my future, and if things keep going well, more research too. There's a beautiful world out there that most people only capture as a background for their beach photos, or the baseline for a sunset. I intend to bring as much of that world to view as possible. Let's see what we can see.

This way, please, Sir.

Leave only bubbles!!