Wednesday, March 11, 2009

First day was OK







Alright so last night I had my first official night of work.
Lemme just give you a run-down of what happens there.

First session is 30 minutes long, what happens is a bunch of kids come into our pool area and about 3/4 are excited to get into the water. 1/4 of them are crying there heads off to the point of wanting earplugs to save your poor eardrums.
There are about 5 or 6 teachers that have an average of 4 kids each. That's about 25 kids under the age of 6.
Talk about stressful.
There are 3 guards on duty during the first session, and I'm one of them.
What guards do is basically just walk back and forth making sure the little people don't let go of the wall and drown. Most of the kids were ok, but there was one who refused to put a backpack on.
Backpacks are there to help the kids so they don't drown, die, and leave the school liable. What they are is basically foam on a strap.
But this one kid would not put it on, his mom was over there trying to get it on him and he just wouldn't.
So, if you guys know me, you'll probably know I don't like getting myself into other peoples business.
His mom was there. He was ok.
But then the session started and I got anxious. I decided to impress the boss by being proactive.

Wrong decision.

Instead of helping the mom, the kid got scared and started dashing away... not wanting him to get lost in the people I followed him.
I felt like a stalker... the poor kid kept looking back like I was going to eat him alive.
After I saw where he was going I stopped and lead his mom in that direction.
Not doing that again.

So then the second session is the older kids. About 6 and up.
In this group there is a level system... Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Levels 4-7.

No newbie has ever gotten Levels 4-7.
What Level 4-7 is, is just kids that basically know how to swim, but just need technique help.
Apparently, my boss thought I was good for the job.
There are two lanes and two people. The other guy was a guy who has been there for a long, long time, so I thought he'd help me.
Nope.
After he gave me a lane of 5 kids he took the other lane and left.
I then looked at the rambunctious kids and had a...

PANIC ATTACK

I told them to do a 25 freestyle. And they did. Then my other boss saw me and sent one of my buddies over to help, cause she works there too.
That was good.

No, that was better than good.
That saved me from mass destruction.

Third session finally came around and I thought I'd be guarding again.
This is another group of under 6 year olds, and they do little drills that I don't know of. I was planning to watch and learn.

Did I?

Of course not.

I was designated my own group.
Thankfully, I only had 3 kids.

I felt bad for the girl teaching next to me, I kept asking her what to do, haha.
I got through the night though.
Thankfully.


So over all, the first day was ok.

Now tomorrow I have to do it all over again...

3 comments:

  1. Wow that insane! I'm not sure if I could do a job like that with little screaming and all that............

    But, I sure you'll get better at it after you do it more :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It will get better!!!! : ) I've been teaching for...well... a long time and every year I'm amazed at how I grow. At least your fiascos will keep the rest of us smiling. : )

    anna b

    ReplyDelete
  3. Marissa-
    Haha yeah, it's fun sometimes, but hard others
    Anna-
    Hahahaha, I"m glad I could make someone smile :)
    Emma-
    Your very welcome:)

    ReplyDelete

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