Isn't that always the way? Over the past few days I've been cataloging things I wanted to write about here. And now there are three things I want to talk about, two of them related, the other thing not, but it's put me in a good mood so I'm gonna sing about it.
I got a job yesterday. Weee! I had a swim teaching trial and they were 'very impressed' with me. And I remembered what I love about teaching kids how to swim. Being active, working with kids, the thrill of seeing students get the hang of new techniques. And knowing I'm good at it helps boost the enjoyment a little too, not to mention my ego.
And I've been on a role with my WiP lately, the one that I'll be basing the blog diary entries on when we get to June and NYWM. It's still on the first draft, and it's so enjoyable, yet scary. It's liberating knowing I can go and do whatever I like with my characters and story and I can just edit it all into something nice later. But knowing that's coming also intimidates me, I think "What am I doing, oh god this is awful!"
All I can do is keep going because I know there's something in there. Even if it takes fifty drafts (I really hope it doesn't) to get to the good stuff, I will find it.
Which sort of brings me to my last point. NYWM. Yay! I now have more reason than ever to stick to my initial goals. Despite all the insecurities I may be feeling, I just have to get those entries out there. For audiences to read. I don't have to tell you (knowing most of my readers are writers too) all the thoughts circling my brain telling me I'm stupid for doing this and that it will be really bad and that no one will want to read it.
Enough of the negativity, I'll do it anyway, because now, now, I have been linked to on the NYWM blog. Along with a whole bunch of other participants. So, I have something other than myself to commit to.
And on that note, I'm going to go check out some of the other participants' blogs. Spread the love, go check them out too. :)
ETA: Also, the button on the right side of my page is another link to the NYWM site, but the picture has gone funky for some reason.
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Holy Cow
It is raining, raining, raining here. Swimming Saturday may as well be about swimming in the rain, there is that much water falling from the sky. But no, I will stick with actual swimming.
I said in my Theme Days post that I would post what I have learned each week at my swim teaching job. This week is kind of hard because I haven't learnt anything new. As I write this, I'm realising that there are many important things I learn and relearn each time I teach a class, yet there are rarely any epiphanies. So I will write about something that was brought to my attention this week.
I teach children from two to pre-teen. And one thing that I have learnt is patience, and how to deal with frustration. There will always be those days where I am tired, or the kids are tired (for most people, swim-teaching is part-time alongside study). If I am having a particularly hard day, the one thing I never (one should never) do is tell the kids they are being a pain. Or tell them that their friends or siblings are being a handful. You just don't. There are swim-school coordinators and staff on pool-deck who you can ask to come and watch those classes that are particularly boisterous. And a lot of the times parents are fairly understanding when you decide to sit their child out for bad behaviour. But discipline is not about criticising children, it is about enforcing safety in an equatic environment.
I hope this all makes sense. Kids should be treated with respect. I've come to be very surprised about how well people will respond to a smile and positive encouragement.
I said in my Theme Days post that I would post what I have learned each week at my swim teaching job. This week is kind of hard because I haven't learnt anything new. As I write this, I'm realising that there are many important things I learn and relearn each time I teach a class, yet there are rarely any epiphanies. So I will write about something that was brought to my attention this week.
I teach children from two to pre-teen. And one thing that I have learnt is patience, and how to deal with frustration. There will always be those days where I am tired, or the kids are tired (for most people, swim-teaching is part-time alongside study). If I am having a particularly hard day, the one thing I never (one should never) do is tell the kids they are being a pain. Or tell them that their friends or siblings are being a handful. You just don't. There are swim-school coordinators and staff on pool-deck who you can ask to come and watch those classes that are particularly boisterous. And a lot of the times parents are fairly understanding when you decide to sit their child out for bad behaviour. But discipline is not about criticising children, it is about enforcing safety in an equatic environment.
I hope this all makes sense. Kids should be treated with respect. I've come to be very surprised about how well people will respond to a smile and positive encouragement.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Theme days
So, it's the first day of not-NaBloWriMo. And I want to keep blogging! If the month of blogging did nothing else, it made me realise that blogging is fun. I've always liked reading other people's blogs, but never thought I would have anything worthwhile to say. But thanks to you guys who followed and commented in October.
I have come up with an idea that will keep me blogging regularly. It's something a lot of bloggers already do, but I'm going to borrow ideas as well as start my own. And it will give me (and you lovely readers) some structure to stick to so I can write about the many things I'm passionate about, yet not worry I'm leaving anything out. It will also be a pirate rule (more of a guideline) just so I don't stress. The main idea is to get rid of rambling posts (like this one).
At the moment I don't have one for every day, but here's a list of my ideas thus far:
Wordless Wednesdays: Post pictures :D I got this idea from The Giraffability of Digressions and I'm Not Hannah
The Body Positive Thursdays: A bit wordy, but I wanted a day where I could write about the importance of positive body image.
Fiction Fridays: This was inspired by the idea in my last post, but I realised that with work and current WiPs, I wouldn't have the energy to post to another blog regularly. Hence, a once a week treat for you guys.
Swimming Saturdays: Where I can talk about what I learnt about swimming and the teaching of swimming that week.
Salsa Sundays: This one I won't start for a few weeks, as I've taken a hiatus from salsa dancing until uni finishes this year :( but keep a lookout.
And that's what I have so far. This is going to be fun.
I have come up with an idea that will keep me blogging regularly. It's something a lot of bloggers already do, but I'm going to borrow ideas as well as start my own. And it will give me (and you lovely readers) some structure to stick to so I can write about the many things I'm passionate about, yet not worry I'm leaving anything out. It will also be a pirate rule (more of a guideline) just so I don't stress. The main idea is to get rid of rambling posts (like this one).
At the moment I don't have one for every day, but here's a list of my ideas thus far:
Wordless Wednesdays: Post pictures :D I got this idea from The Giraffability of Digressions and I'm Not Hannah
The Body Positive Thursdays: A bit wordy, but I wanted a day where I could write about the importance of positive body image.
Fiction Fridays: This was inspired by the idea in my last post, but I realised that with work and current WiPs, I wouldn't have the energy to post to another blog regularly. Hence, a once a week treat for you guys.
Swimming Saturdays: Where I can talk about what I learnt about swimming and the teaching of swimming that week.
Salsa Sundays: This one I won't start for a few weeks, as I've taken a hiatus from salsa dancing until uni finishes this year :( but keep a lookout.
And that's what I have so far. This is going to be fun.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Improvement
Just a quick one today because my day has run away from me today. I only just caught it by the hem of it's skirt (like the personification there? Huh? Huh?).
So just wanted to share with you guys something that makes me happy every time it happens. If you're a teacher or a parent, you'll know what I'm talking about.
I got to work today, rushing and panicking and shoveling down a Milo bar because I hadn't eaten anything all day besides two pieces of Vegemite toast, tea and four biscuits. I got down to pool deck, set up what hadn't already been set up by my fellow high-levels instructor and stood at my area of pool deck. Half the kids were there, most of them eager to get going. I sent them off for a warm up while the rest of the class dawdled in, hesitating with the ritual of 'It's too coooold!'.
During the warm up was where I noticed that thing that always makes me do a little cheer, and dance a tiny jig. A student that I have taught since I started swim-teaching two years ago, went straight into the warm up and his freestyle just clicked. He turned his head to the side at the right time, his arms extended as far as they could go - and he didn't stop during a lap!
He's got a ways to go, but this personal achievement is like my/his own little reward. My classes in general went well today. The whole class (of the improving student) clicked with breaststroke arms by the end of the lesson, and my second class managed to make it through more than half an hour of butterfly drills. They are exhausting!
Seeing students progress is one of the best things about my job. Most of the time the progress is so steady that all I can do is keep going and listen to feedback. It's the best thing when the students suddenly seem to 'get it' from one week to the next.
So just wanted to share with you guys something that makes me happy every time it happens. If you're a teacher or a parent, you'll know what I'm talking about.
I got to work today, rushing and panicking and shoveling down a Milo bar because I hadn't eaten anything all day besides two pieces of Vegemite toast, tea and four biscuits. I got down to pool deck, set up what hadn't already been set up by my fellow high-levels instructor and stood at my area of pool deck. Half the kids were there, most of them eager to get going. I sent them off for a warm up while the rest of the class dawdled in, hesitating with the ritual of 'It's too coooold!'.
During the warm up was where I noticed that thing that always makes me do a little cheer, and dance a tiny jig. A student that I have taught since I started swim-teaching two years ago, went straight into the warm up and his freestyle just clicked. He turned his head to the side at the right time, his arms extended as far as they could go - and he didn't stop during a lap!
He's got a ways to go, but this personal achievement is like my/his own little reward. My classes in general went well today. The whole class (of the improving student) clicked with breaststroke arms by the end of the lesson, and my second class managed to make it through more than half an hour of butterfly drills. They are exhausting!
Seeing students progress is one of the best things about my job. Most of the time the progress is so steady that all I can do is keep going and listen to feedback. It's the best thing when the students suddenly seem to 'get it' from one week to the next.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Water!
Yup, today is Blog Action Day 2010. And I was going to talk about it being a precious commodity - which it is, and no one should take it for granted. But it's hard to think like that since Canberra has been inundated by rain this past week and today was the worst! It's brought out the slugs - and I HATE SLUGS! Just thinking about them makes my skin crawl, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sleep tonight for fear that they could be sliming across my window pane. I hate them more than spiders or cockroaches. Seriously, the freak me out.
ANYWAY, because of this, I'm going to talk about being safe around the water. Whenever I find out someone I know can't swim, I never know what to say. It's such an important life skill. Even if you can't swim marathons, it's so important to know how to keep yourself alive if you're ever in an aquatic snafu.
At work, it was Water Safety Week this week, so it coincides with the Water topic quite well. The children learnt how to do safety jumps, and keep themselves afloat, as well as endurance swimming. For the little ones, we teach them to turn to the nearest edge should they fall in.
I'm not sure what the statistics are, but the Austswim organisation once advertised for volunteers to teach swimming in third world countries. We talk about the safety of drinking water, and the availability of water in general. These are important. But what about those children who never learned to swim. Every year all around the world, there are kids who are permanently, seriously or fatally injured because they never learned how to swim.
It is such an important part of a child's physical education, and more parents should make it part of their child's life. What would be even greater is if more Governments - local, state, national and international - could subsidise parents for giving their children the opportunity to save their own lives. The two weeks that ACT schools have for swimming lessons per year is not enough. If you only devoted half an hour a day for ten days a year to something, how well do you think you'd know it?
And lastly, the earlier a child learns how to move in water, the more capable they are at reaching the edge of a pool on their own if they fall in, and the less likely they are to panic when all they have to do is swim a few metres and they'll be in their own depth. Having said this, it is also never too late to learn either.
Lastly (really this time), swimming is fun! So it's a life skill that is also an enjoyable vocation :)
ANYWAY, because of this, I'm going to talk about being safe around the water. Whenever I find out someone I know can't swim, I never know what to say. It's such an important life skill. Even if you can't swim marathons, it's so important to know how to keep yourself alive if you're ever in an aquatic snafu.
At work, it was Water Safety Week this week, so it coincides with the Water topic quite well. The children learnt how to do safety jumps, and keep themselves afloat, as well as endurance swimming. For the little ones, we teach them to turn to the nearest edge should they fall in.
I'm not sure what the statistics are, but the Austswim organisation once advertised for volunteers to teach swimming in third world countries. We talk about the safety of drinking water, and the availability of water in general. These are important. But what about those children who never learned to swim. Every year all around the world, there are kids who are permanently, seriously or fatally injured because they never learned how to swim.
It is such an important part of a child's physical education, and more parents should make it part of their child's life. What would be even greater is if more Governments - local, state, national and international - could subsidise parents for giving their children the opportunity to save their own lives. The two weeks that ACT schools have for swimming lessons per year is not enough. If you only devoted half an hour a day for ten days a year to something, how well do you think you'd know it?
And lastly, the earlier a child learns how to move in water, the more capable they are at reaching the edge of a pool on their own if they fall in, and the less likely they are to panic when all they have to do is swim a few metres and they'll be in their own depth. Having said this, it is also never too late to learn either.
Lastly (really this time), swimming is fun! So it's a life skill that is also an enjoyable vocation :)
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