Sunday, May 06, 2007
Brrrrrr.....
I've been out of the rain for four hours, and I'm still chilled.
NLS Precert and Recert, taught at UBC during the May/June Aquatic Workshop, but scheduled to run in the outdoor pool due to shutdown in the indoor pool.
Candidates: 12 registered, but only 11 showed up. First day included a woman who got her NLS to work as a swim coach, but her skills sucked. We both agreed that she wasn't ready for the recert. Second day included an experienced guard who was allowed to register for the recert-only, and had some minor unpolished moments but was mostly good.
This is the only recert I can remember from the last couple years where ALL the participants could do the physical standards without problems. Yeah, the swim coach woman had a sucky spinal roll, but she wasn't drowning. And, they were all whiners, but they had the hang of CHEERFUL whining, so it was pretty fun. (oh, and one of them had a GORGEOUS smile, and used it frequently.. ./swoon) (I think I'm going to go see if he's on Facebook, just to see it again...)
Today, all testing: nothing shocking on the written, physical standards were a breeze, I'm still boggled by the non-breathing = CPR vs the non-breathing = AR and a pulse check, so I felt really awkward evaluating the unconscious removal, which is now (was always, but I didn't notice?) done with a second person on the removal.. so I don't really get it. Oh, dammit. I just realized I also forgot to collect the survey forms. Oops. The sims actually went really well, with the exception of one of the goofballs from the UBC staff totally getting hung up in an imaginary missing child being found by his parent, while someone was drowning in the pool... and that the very last candidate to go, managed to fail to demonstrate much ability at all. Guh! 10 minutes after the recert was supposed to end, everyone else has gone to get changed while they finish the major, this person had left the precert an hour early in order to get to work.... and I still feel guilty about failing them. Why is this?
There are two things I dislike about teaching advanced courses. 1 is working with people who don't pass. The second is feeling insecure about my knowledge and my decisions. I can fix the second, and have a specific idea of the questions I need to go to the NLS committee with (where is my FAQ handout on NLS and CPR? to start) so I feel like I have a grip on the new standards and how they are explained and applied.. but the people who fail? Gah. I take it soooo personally... and the candidates can see this, and often comfort me: "It's okay, I don't think I should pass... don't let it bother you..." .. but I don't really understand why that is.
Hm.. maybe I'll use some of these monthly posts to go into some of the things that I know I do and feel, and see if I can get some insight...
Time to head for a hot bath, and get some feeling back into my fingers.
NLS Precert and Recert, taught at UBC during the May/June Aquatic Workshop, but scheduled to run in the outdoor pool due to shutdown in the indoor pool.
Candidates: 12 registered, but only 11 showed up. First day included a woman who got her NLS to work as a swim coach, but her skills sucked. We both agreed that she wasn't ready for the recert. Second day included an experienced guard who was allowed to register for the recert-only, and had some minor unpolished moments but was mostly good.
This is the only recert I can remember from the last couple years where ALL the participants could do the physical standards without problems. Yeah, the swim coach woman had a sucky spinal roll, but she wasn't drowning. And, they were all whiners, but they had the hang of CHEERFUL whining, so it was pretty fun. (oh, and one of them had a GORGEOUS smile, and used it frequently.. ./swoon) (I think I'm going to go see if he's on Facebook, just to see it again...)
Today, all testing: nothing shocking on the written, physical standards were a breeze, I'm still boggled by the non-breathing = CPR vs the non-breathing = AR and a pulse check, so I felt really awkward evaluating the unconscious removal, which is now (was always, but I didn't notice?) done with a second person on the removal.. so I don't really get it. Oh, dammit. I just realized I also forgot to collect the survey forms. Oops. The sims actually went really well, with the exception of one of the goofballs from the UBC staff totally getting hung up in an imaginary missing child being found by his parent, while someone was drowning in the pool... and that the very last candidate to go, managed to fail to demonstrate much ability at all. Guh! 10 minutes after the recert was supposed to end, everyone else has gone to get changed while they finish the major, this person had left the precert an hour early in order to get to work.... and I still feel guilty about failing them. Why is this?
There are two things I dislike about teaching advanced courses. 1 is working with people who don't pass. The second is feeling insecure about my knowledge and my decisions. I can fix the second, and have a specific idea of the questions I need to go to the NLS committee with (where is my FAQ handout on NLS and CPR? to start) so I feel like I have a grip on the new standards and how they are explained and applied.. but the people who fail? Gah. I take it soooo personally... and the candidates can see this, and often comfort me: "It's okay, I don't think I should pass... don't let it bother you..." .. but I don't really understand why that is.
Hm.. maybe I'll use some of these monthly posts to go into some of the things that I know I do and feel, and see if I can get some insight...
Time to head for a hot bath, and get some feeling back into my fingers.
# posted by Christa Giles @ 7:58 PM 
