Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how I had been really slack and not been swimming for ages. I still haven’t done any training, but I have last week done a course that will definitely encourage me to be at the pool more.

I did the Austswim Teacher of Swimming and Water Safety course, as well as the Teaching Infant and Toddler Aquatics. Both pools in the area have offered me training time at their pools, and offers of work are there as well.

I really really enjoyed the course. I have a fair bit of work to do to get my qualification though. This is my long term project I mentioned yesterday. I have about 8 things to do for it.

1. Get a blue card. These are for working with children in Queensland. I have had one for 3 years, but it is due to expire soon so I need to reapply for that.
2. Find someone to supervise my exams. I have a couple of options here, I just need to sound them out and arrange the times, have the exams sent to them and sit them. Of course study will be required.
3. Sit the exams. There is a 2hr exam for each course
4. Do a first aid course. I only need my CPR to complete the course, but it’s been 10 years since I did a Senior First Aid course (not counting the basic first aid I did at a previous job, even that is 2 years ago now), and I firmly believe it’s something everyone should do. So I’m going to get that done and tick it off my long term list as well.
5. Organise 10 hours of training at one pool.
6. Organise 10 hours of training at another pool. It was suggested we get experience at different environments to experience different ways of doing things. I met people from the other pool at the course who are keen for me to do some work with them. This pool is at one of the schools I’m thinking of sending M&M to.
7. 3 Lesson plans. I need to do 3 lesson plans for each course. I have already done one as part of the training on Wednesday, but there are 6 more to do.
8. Get a photo and complete the application form. This is probably the easiest part, so I’ll probably leave it til last.

I set myself a deadline to get all this done by the 19th of October. The “season” officially starts here at the beginning of October, so that will give me a couple of weeks to get my training done, and by then I’ll know some kids, and the pools and hopefully some work will be there for me as well for the season.

I don’t want too much work out of this - more an excuse to get myself to the pool and maybe a few hours work on Saturdays, or during school when M&M starts next year. The great thing is it’s very flexible and I can take the kids with me when I need to.

I really enjoyed the course too. I could see myself maybe doing my coaching courses one day. It’s been great watching the swimming at the Olympics as well, just to see the effects of what we’re teaching, and the reasons behind it. I can’t believe how much I learnt about the mechanics of swimming.

So, would you trust me to teach your kids to swim?