climbingbetty
Angel Diva
I'm ski instructing this season. Its my first season. It's exhausting, but oddly satisfying despite that. Admittedly, I'm not a super strong skier, certainly not compared to the folks that I work with. (On Sunday we did a ski clinic and I totally fell apart in the bumps. Then I bit it on a black diamond run trying to keep up. It was...embarrassing to say the least ) But I have to constantly remind myself that this is really only my 4th season skiing and already I've skied more days this season than any of the other three! I also have to remind myself that I can and WILL learn to ski better through the clinics and through the process of teaching our guests.
My strengths seem to be more on the teaching side. Last weekend was my first weekend with the 'training wheels' off- taking on my own groups. On Sunday, I was assigned to teach adult 'never-evers.' In the afternoon, one of the girls also assigned to that area had to go home early because she was sick. So after lunch, for my second lesson ever, I had a group of 18 total newbies!!!! My supervisor said he would boot up and come help me that that group. To make a long story short, he was really impressed with how well I handled the group and taught especially consider how new I was. He even pointed this out to several other instructors on the bunny slope as well and they were pretty blown away too.
So now I'm definitely hooked. I just joined PSIA and I want to work toward taking my Level 1- hopefully by the end of this season. I've downloaded and I'm halfway through the Alpine Level I Study guide. I know I need to have 50 documented teaching/training hours. Between my ITC and the last two weekends, I calculate that I have at least 35 of those squared away already. Beyond that, the rest of the path to Level 1 cert is unclear to me though. Are there formal clinics I have to take? I've been combing the website this morning and I see that there is an online course that you have to take for Levels II & III and I'm seeing the requirements listed for them, but not a lot of info on Level I. From the what I can tell, there is a weekend Level 1 exam, you show up the first day, ski and they give you feedback on what you personally need to improve, then Day 2 focuses on teaching. You teach your class, talk about how you handle certain types of students/situations, demonstrate the "Stepping Stones" exercises and the viola! If you're not completely hopeless, you get a pin and your Level 1 at the end of the weekend??? Am I understanding that correctly or am I missing something???
My strengths seem to be more on the teaching side. Last weekend was my first weekend with the 'training wheels' off- taking on my own groups. On Sunday, I was assigned to teach adult 'never-evers.' In the afternoon, one of the girls also assigned to that area had to go home early because she was sick. So after lunch, for my second lesson ever, I had a group of 18 total newbies!!!! My supervisor said he would boot up and come help me that that group. To make a long story short, he was really impressed with how well I handled the group and taught especially consider how new I was. He even pointed this out to several other instructors on the bunny slope as well and they were pretty blown away too.
So now I'm definitely hooked. I just joined PSIA and I want to work toward taking my Level 1- hopefully by the end of this season. I've downloaded and I'm halfway through the Alpine Level I Study guide. I know I need to have 50 documented teaching/training hours. Between my ITC and the last two weekends, I calculate that I have at least 35 of those squared away already. Beyond that, the rest of the path to Level 1 cert is unclear to me though. Are there formal clinics I have to take? I've been combing the website this morning and I see that there is an online course that you have to take for Levels II & III and I'm seeing the requirements listed for them, but not a lot of info on Level I. From the what I can tell, there is a weekend Level 1 exam, you show up the first day, ski and they give you feedback on what you personally need to improve, then Day 2 focuses on teaching. You teach your class, talk about how you handle certain types of students/situations, demonstrate the "Stepping Stones" exercises and the viola! If you're not completely hopeless, you get a pin and your Level 1 at the end of the weekend??? Am I understanding that correctly or am I missing something???