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I am currently studying a TEFL course to become and English teacher but the truth is that I already am a teacher but not of English. I am a qualified PADI Staff Instructor. This involves me teaching and certifying students from basic entry level scuba diving all the way up to assistant instructor. I can and have taught during a Instructor Development Course (IDC) but don’t have the PADI qualification to certify the candidates. Teaching diving has the added responsibility of keeping your student alive but with lots of training and underwater hours that isn’t as daunting as it sounds. Yes, I have had emergency situations and problematic students but that is just part of the job. Through my experience I have learned how to teach different types of students in many different situations. Over the many years that I have been teaching diving I have had many good and bad experiences with my students but the good has by far outweighed the bad. I find teaching young children to be more challenging but greatly rewarding. Young children pick up the practical side of diving very fast but they tend to struggle with the theory. When I teach children I tend to break the course up so that I do a bit of theory followed by a bit of in water work. They seem to focus better in short spurts. When in the water children pick up the diving so fast that I would often find myself chasing them underwater to continue training and explore with them later. I once had a 12 year old boy doing his junior open water certificate with me when he decided to go and chase a fish on his first open water dive. Luckily he remembered what I told him about the reuniting drill and we met him again safely on the surface. Once we met he told me how scary it was on his own and will never leave my side again. I guess he learnt a valuable lesson that day. Adults on the other hand are the opposite to children. They don't normally struggle with the theory but they can also bring with them some irrational fears to the water. With adults I can keep a basic structure with a solid day of theory before I hit the water with them. A student might do very well in the theory and not be able to clear their mask once in the water. Sometimes these students can be helped with more work but there are the few that can just not finish the course. By far the worse part of being a dive instructor is when I have to tell a student that they can not finish the course, or they can not even begin for reasons such as being medically unfit. Due to it being something that I don't like to to do I normally take every option I can to try and help the student before I tell them it can’t be done. All in all I have had a great time teaching diving and would recommend it to anyone that has an interest in adventure or just diving.
