As many of you already know, I'm a swim teacher.
To become a swim instructor, you have to go through two courses: AWSI (Assistant Water Safety Instructor) and WSI (Water Safety Instructor).
With the courses, you have to do practice teaching just like any other job.
They make you practice teach to become more comfortable in the environment, teach something to a class that isn't made out of other teenagers in the same course as you, learn how to deal with different types of kids/teens/adults and become familiar with how facilities run.
During the AWSI course, you have to practice teach for a total of 8 hours, but for WSI you have to practice teach for a total of 12 hours.
I got my AWSI hours done pretty quickly, but I never actually finished my WSI practice teaching hours.
Out of the 12 hours, I had 5 done, so I still had 7 hours left to do.
While doing my AWSI hours, I already knew a lot of staff members and they all told me that they never really finished their hours either. After already doing 8 hours, it seems a little funny to have to do another 12 hours of the same thing.
I understand if people doing all of the hours if they're uncomfortable being on their own or if they're having trouble understanding how to manage a class, but I felt comfortable with it.
I was intending on doing all of my hours, but when I heard that my course instructor (also one of the figures in charge of hiring for the facility I work at now) was leaving, I quickly dropped off a resume so that he would be the one interviewing me.
In the end, it payed off because I was hired right out of the interview!
Shortly after, I got a text from my friend asking if I could sub for him, so my practice hours were quickly forgotten about.
Since then, I think that I've had about 15 hours of teaching on my own.
However, yesterday I received something in the mail that was telling me that the AWSI program was changing, and I wasnt sure how I'd be affected by it.
I don't have my WSI certificate or badge even though I completed the course because I never handed my practice hours in.
I had to go in today to look for lesson plans from someone whom I'm subbing for on Sunday, but I figured that I could've also get my hours signed off.
When I arrived, all the lifeguards working were out on the pool deck and I didn't want to bother any of them, so I went to the Aquatics office.
I'm pretty sure that my boss would've signed off my remaining hours because I've taught alongside with her, but the only person in the office at the time was the whole pool supervisor, so basically the boss of my boss (or as I call him: The ultimate boss).
He's a nice guy, so I don't feel all that intimidated by him, but I always have in mind that he's the ultimate boss.
I told him that I had a few hours left of practice teaching, but shortly after I got hired, I had a sub offer so I took it and I forgot about them, and seeing as the program's changing, I wanted to see if I could get my hours signed off.
Out of 4 sheets, 3 of them were already signed, so I only needed him to sign one sheet.
He told me that he shouldn't be signing them because I didn't actually do it, and that my course instructor and one the two supervisors who hired me shouldn't have hired me if I didn't have my hours completed but I think that that's when he remembered what I did.
When my friend was out sick and no one knew if he wrote his report cards for his classes or not, I stayed behind at the pool for two or so hours, writing them for him.
It wasn't my responsibility at all, I didn't have to do it, but I did and it was an action that didn't go unforgotten.
Although he never mentioned that, he still signed the papers.
I wouldn't have been fired, but I possibly could've been told not to take any more shifts until I finished the hours.
I offered to finish them, but he told me that there's no point because I've been in the water so much already and I'm already teaching classes.
In the end, the papers were signed, but I'm going to be careful for the next week or two. If he does call me and says that he wants me to finish the hours, then so be it, it's not the end of the world.
I am thankful that he did signed the paper for me, but he did it fairly. He knows how I teach and he knows that I don't feel uncomfortable in the water and that I'll do whatever I can to help the kids learn and move up, so it wasn't as though he didn't give it a second thought.
Either way, extra work payed off for me big time today.
I'm not implying with this post that you should skip out on work, this post was to show that doing something extra can not only help you gain experience (for me it was writing report cards), but it can also add a good word or two to your name.
One More Girl, no longer online
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