Re: [Paddlewise] Teaching Approaches

>     Do the coaches and instructors on the list have any books they could 
> recommend to help  me get information about the various learning style and 
> how best to teach to them? I really love to teach and want to maximize my 
> teaching skills and my ability to effectively teach to the various learning 
> 

   I have read many of the books and articles available on teaching kayaking 
and have not been overly impressed with the actual usefulness of the 
information they contained. I believe I once had an ACA handbook which 
touched on teaching techniques. I no longer have the book, but I seem to 
recall that it was all right. I have two school teachers in my family and 
have chatted with them on numerous occasions, but even that has provided much 
less then you might expect. I think experience teaching kayaking is probably 
the number one way to improve. But it must be done in a way that one 
constantly analyzes their own performance and continues to strive for 
improvement. 
   The company I work for teaching kayaking makes a point of getting their 
instructors together a couple of times each year so that we can sit down and 
analyze how we teach and look for solutions to problems that may have come up 
in past classes. I have found this to be tremendously helpful in improving my 
own teaching style. In fact, I am reluctant to even call what I do "my style" 
since in reality it is an accumulation of everything I have managed to glean 
not only from my own experiences, but from every other instructor I have ever 
worked with. I also believe that a primary objective of every class is to see 
that every student is having fun. Because if it's not fun, then what's the 
point?

Scott
So.Cal.

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