Extra Work Pays Off

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.


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Going Under The Knife

It occurred to me this afternoon that I didn't write yesterday like I normally do and I'm sincerely sorry for that.

I'll be honest, I don't have a reasonable excuse as to why I didn't post, but the truth is that I was very busy and it simply slipped my mind.

I've been having one of those weeks where I feel as though I'm drowning in work and my thoughts when in reality, there wasn't all that much that went on. 

I guess that it was a heavier week for me on the mental side of things.

Whenever I get stressed out about work, I hit this point where I'm so stressed out that I can't even bring myself to do work anymore. I sit there doing nothing which wastes a lot of time, stressing out about everything that I have to do or what will be done and I no longer feel as though I have strength to function.

I didn't have much school work this week. I don't think that I had any, to be honest.

My mind has just been completely occupied with the thought that I get my wisdom teeth out tomorrow.

I might've mentioned it before on here, I can't really remember, but I'm terrified for tomorrow.

I wrote this post over the afternoon/evening. I started writing at around 4:30 before I had to leave to go to my sports practice and I only got home at around 8:30. Before I actually got home, I stopped at the grocery store to get anything soft.

I'm stocked up on smoothies, pudding, jello and applesauce.

As the night went on, I knew that I was nervous, I had butterflies in my stomach. Now I feel as though there's a boxing fight happening in my stomach.

I know that people get their wisdom teeth out everyday, but this is my first surgery and I'm scared.

I don't know anyone else who got their wisdom teeth out, so I don't have anyone to talk to about this. 

All I can suggest for anyone read this who could be scared about something is to talk about it.

Talk about whatever you're scared about with a friend, parent, teacher or anyone you feel comfortable with. Not only will it help calm you down and break down the situation bit by bit, but you will feel a weight lifted off your shoulders.

Once again, I'm very sorry for my late post, but I hope you all understand!


One More Girl, no longer online

School And Cameras

I've never been one for being in pictures. I would always try and find a way around it, such as stalling for as long as possible, volunteering to take the picture, anything to avoid being in the picture itself.

I love taking pictures, though. As cheesy as it is, I love the idea of a story, a moment or a memory being captured in a single frame for the rest of eternity. Cheesy, I know, but it's true. It's an amazing thing.

Something that I don't think should be allowed is that teachers at schools have the right to decide to put the "No taking pictures at all" rule aside and make us, the students, film ourselves on iPads to record something for the class even though we clearly don't want to be.

Earlier on during the school year, my math teacher wanted us to film ourselves, and whoever else was in our group, reviewing a subject that we learnt and solving a problem that we made up on our own, related to that problem. She also stated that EVERYONE had to be in the video so that everyone could get marked fairly on it, even if you only see a person for a few seconds. Although she didn't say it,she implied that if you didn't talk in the video, you would lose points,

What happened to the no filming/picture rule? Why can teachers defy it? How did other people like me feel, being forced to partake in a video they don't want anything to do with?

I was lucky enough to have a doctors appointment at the exact date and time that I was supposed to be filming this video in math class, so I was able to avoid it.

Although I knew I could manage to avoid it, the idea still of having to do it still bothered me.

Another thing that my school does, it could be described as an end of the year banquet, where some students are recognized for academic achievements or their impact on a sports team.

For that event, the school wants pictures of every student to put in a PowerPoint slideshow, and I remember that last year, there was a teacher in the doorway that would stop the students that they didn't have pictures of. You had to go through that doorway, because it was the only one that lead to the locker area and all the classrooms. She kept stoping students to get a picture, and yes, I was one of them.

I simply refused to have my picture taken and I walked away to no longer be in the camera shot.

This year, they started doing it sooner, so during the math class before we started to film (the one the day before), my math teacher was going around and taking pictures of all the groups.

Once again, I really didn't want to be in a picture, so I got up and moved to the side wile she took the picture.

Because of that, I got called a buzzkill and boring by a guy that was in my group, and my teacher agreed.

At what point are you allowed to say that to a student who's uncomfortable with you taking a picture of them?

Why do teachers get to break this rule and not respect the decisions and privacy of a student?

It makes them hypocritical.


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