Tuesday, August 11, 2015

What you learn being an instructor

This past weekend one of our more advanced students subbed in for one of our instructors when we could not find another replacement instructor. 

This is a student who we have been encouraging for quite some time to teach, adult beginners in particular. She has always avoided the topic, so we were all pleasantly surprised when she volunteered to teach the 8 lessons with 21 students of all ages in a sort of marathon immersion teaching course. 

Her debrief commentary was too good not to share:


Lindsay

What I learned this weekend:
1. Teaching kids and adults is very different. I am not good at teaching little kids. They make me nervous with their mouth breathing, whining and saying they can do things they can't do. 
2. It was exhausting. Erika, Angela, Elizabeth and Fiona do not stop moving from the time the first client arrives to the time the last client leaves. NOT counting all the barn chores and office work they do before, inbetween and after. 
3. I learned a lot about the horses from watching beginners ride them.
4. I was better at describing things then I thought I would be! People’s ponies did what they asked them even when introducing a couple new (to the rider) concepts.
5. Turns out after years of being a student, I have an encyclopedia of analogies in my head. Who knew?
6. It was very rewarding to see a smile on a student’s face when they did something they didn’t think would work.
7. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so hard as the three times I had to get on one of the horses to see if there was actually something wrong or if it was 90% rider error. Thank you Scotch, Kasper and Captain for not making me look like a jerk.

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