I just got my instructor cert a couple of months ago and teusday night is my first class. I'm excited, but I still feel somewhat unprepared although I've been going over my lessons for over a week. Any tips out there for my first class?
first class
- Thread starter scuberd
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Angie S
Guest
I'm sure the instructors out there will have their own advice, but from a student's perspective... just keep it FUN! There's so much information to go over and skills to practice, that it can start to feel like work for the students. I loved that my instructor kept a light-hearted attitude. If it's not fun, then why are we learning scuba in the first place, right? I also LOVED it when my instructor would share his personal diving stories.
scuberd:
I must say first that I am not an instructor yet. But I do put on training classes in other areas.
The best advice I can give you is, remember you know more than the people in your class and they will not know if you stumble over an issue or not. Just follow the slides or the Prescriptive Lesson Guides on CD if you are using them.
It is quite normal to be nervous for your first class.
Good Luck
Know the subject! Know the structure of the class inside and out.
I don't need notes or slides. I can reference foreward and backward through the material relating each subject to the next and the last as I go and I can do while I look my students in the face.
I've never been a great public speaker but I can talk to any one on a subject that I know. If I use a visual aid it's to help a student understand something not to tell me where I'm going next.
I don't need notes or slides. I can reference foreward and backward through the material relating each subject to the next and the last as I go and I can do while I look my students in the face.
I've never been a great public speaker but I can talk to any one on a subject that I know. If I use a visual aid it's to help a student understand something not to tell me where I'm going next.
It's a tad late to be asking this question. Your first class is tonight. At this point, you are either ready or you are not. I hope you are.
MikeFerrara:
Wow, this a little harsh don't you think? I am glad you know your material, but everyone has to have their first class and being a little nervous is normal.
IndigoBlue
Contributor
Walter:
Those are my thoughts as well.
If you are teaching for PADI, they will have already laid everything out for you. Presumably as a D/M you saw this format in action for several months, before you joined your IDC.
If you are teaching for NAUI, your course director will have given you his/her own format, as a starting point for you to develop your own. Presumably, as a D/M you saw other instructors teaching their own formats in conjunction with local diving conditions, before you joined your ITC.
Usually a new instructor thinks he/she knows everything, and the first class is the vivid revelation that everything that you have been previously told is not quite true.
I teach from my own format. It is a progression of training that starts with evaluating swimming on the surface, and moves onto swimming underwater, snorkeling, proper weighting, freediving, scuba on the surface, scuba seated in shallow water, scuba in deeper water, tours of the pool, basic skills, emergency skills, open water applications, and buddy diving.
Eventually you will develop your own techniques. Initially you sould probably follow your C/D's advice and formats.
OP
Thanks for your input. I think I am ready, I do know the material very well; however it's like I'm forgetting something, but I don't know what. And I'll try to make it fun 
IndigoBlue
Contributor
scuberd:Thanks for your input. I think I am ready, I do know the material very well; however it's like I'm forgetting something, but I don't know what. And I'll try to make it fun
Just follow your outlines. You should be fine then.
Students love it when you give them real-life stories. They relate to the subject matter better that way as well.
The hard part for them will be staying alert, since it will be at the end of a long day, and they will probably be tired from work all day.
Take a break every hour.
Encourage them to have coffee or cola to stay alert.
Ask them questions from time to time to quiz their comprehension. You will be surprised at how little sinks in from classroom work. The real learning is in the pool, then again at the ocean.
I know some instructors who have made the course so much fun that the students really did not learn anything, not even basic skills. So be careful about the levity and such.
I like to make the class fun as well as challenging. Students usually have fun when they are being challenged and there is success for them.
A little nervousness is normal your first class. I was, you'll quickly find as you lecture, you will begin to insert personal experience into your lecture, things come together as you teach more. Just make sure you have fun teaching the class. You learned how to dive, you learned how to teach, now, you will learn how you WANT to teach it. You'll quickly see what I mean. Don't let some of the above posts scare ya. I'm sure you'll do just fine. You didn't come this far to screw the pooch in the classroom. I've been teaching since august, and I find I can ramble on and on about a subject in the OW diver class and look at my watch and think "Well, I've shure made a mess out of time management", however, my students arn't so worried about time management, and I find they actually enjoying my lecture, thus, no harm, no foul. If anything, I'm making the topics easier to remember. Throw some verbal quizzes in, toss candy at the students who answer right. I've even played "DIVER FEUD" where they take turns facing off against one another with two bells on the desk, they stand there, I ask a question, they race to slam the bell, the student that hits it first gets to answer, the prize is some cheap hard candy and positive recognition for answering correctly, when they answer incorrectly, the class chuckles, the right answer is given by me, everyone has a good time and I've driven the knowlege home and they are the better for it and so am I. I managed not to bore myself to death regurgitating a bland course layout.
Pool sessions are fun too. Point out silly things you see them do, let them all laugh at themselves, then explain to them how to "XYZ" whatever issue there is and do it with a smile. Tell them about other funny things you've seen divers do, your students will remember what you've said. You'll drive home from the class thinking "Oh yeah, I can do this"!
Let me know how it goes.
Pool sessions are fun too. Point out silly things you see them do, let them all laugh at themselves, then explain to them how to "XYZ" whatever issue there is and do it with a smile. Tell them about other funny things you've seen divers do, your students will remember what you've said. You'll drive home from the class thinking "Oh yeah, I can do this"!
Let me know how it goes.
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