FINALLY!
I've been chomping at the bit to get started with the NAUI DM course for about a year and a quarter. Last night, we actually had the first classroom session! I've *officially* started!
2007 was certainly not a waste, of course. I went along on every checkout my LDS did, and I learned quite a bit -- the boat briefing certainly isn't going to be a problem. :biggrin: I've built my observational skills, and I've certainly grown in my people skills. (I'm a teacher and a total *ham* disguised as a complete introvert, apparently.) Watching students in the water has been quite enlightening, and I'm sure it will be all the more so when I take on more responsibility than that of just a certified diver on the same boat. I couldn't help but enjoy it when they asked me to watch but not say anything on the boat the last trip so the instructor candidates would have to do everything without help. (I've *absolutely* got *tons* to learn, but you won't get blown O-rings, rigs bungeed to the rail, or unsigned boat manifests past me, at least.
)
Anyway, I'm humbled by reading the Leadership text and the Standards and Policies manual. It's certainly sobering to see how far you have to go to be who you *will* be. Still, it's ever so liberating to *finally* be underway. Now, all those things I've done my best to learn will actually mean something (although I'm the type to want to have learned them even if simply for academic reasons).
Oh, and after seeing this forum here for *ages*, I finally have the right to post in it! :luxhello:
I've been chomping at the bit to get started with the NAUI DM course for about a year and a quarter. Last night, we actually had the first classroom session! I've *officially* started!
2007 was certainly not a waste, of course. I went along on every checkout my LDS did, and I learned quite a bit -- the boat briefing certainly isn't going to be a problem. :biggrin: I've built my observational skills, and I've certainly grown in my people skills. (I'm a teacher and a total *ham* disguised as a complete introvert, apparently.) Watching students in the water has been quite enlightening, and I'm sure it will be all the more so when I take on more responsibility than that of just a certified diver on the same boat. I couldn't help but enjoy it when they asked me to watch but not say anything on the boat the last trip so the instructor candidates would have to do everything without help. (I've *absolutely* got *tons* to learn, but you won't get blown O-rings, rigs bungeed to the rail, or unsigned boat manifests past me, at least.
)Anyway, I'm humbled by reading the Leadership text and the Standards and Policies manual. It's certainly sobering to see how far you have to go to be who you *will* be. Still, it's ever so liberating to *finally* be underway. Now, all those things I've done my best to learn will actually mean something (although I'm the type to want to have learned them even if simply for academic reasons).
Oh, and after seeing this forum here for *ages*, I finally have the right to post in it! :luxhello:
(Plus, I only went full-speed for half of it, plus or minus -- I can work up to full speed for a full 450, I'm sure.)
