zulu 0 #1 June 8, 2004 This is for instructors to recognize students they feel are the students of the week or weekend. This thread serves to, 1. Acknowledge the student on their performance in an open forum and help intergrate them into the skydiving community 2. A way for instructors to explain their techniques on teaching a particular subject. Out of 4 students I had last weekend 5 June, my student was Clark O'Neil from The Skydiving Place, NC. We performed 2 dives teaching him tracking, barrel rolls, and front docking. Clark performed commendably on every dive and we always had enough airtime to do what ever he wished to do. Clarks strongest technique is the ability to become stable very fast once he exited the aircraft. Good Job Clark One of the techniques that I have used in teaching is the art of simplicity. I only give the students 2 task to perform, and we plan for 2 more if there is time. We dirt dive it, and then have the student explain to me the whole dive to include our emergencey procedures should we have to use them. Who are your students of the Week or Weekend? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
peek 20 #2 June 8, 2004 A very nice idea for a thread. I hope it lasts a long time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mustard 0 #3 June 8, 2004 Three weeks ago on Saturday, I taught a First Jump Course to 8 students. One person, Sarah, wanted to pay for everything right then, and we encouraged her to wait until she had made a jump or two. Well, this weekend, I went out of a CASA with Sarah on her 16th jump, quite a few past her graduation off AFF, and she shined, as usual! She swooped for a long time and almost made it to me before she broke off on her own awareness and tracked away. Sarah has become an integral part of the Drop Zone in three weeks, and it's kind of hard to remember what it was like around the DZ without her... I expect her to be counseling others before the summer is over, about how to integrate into the scene and how to exploit the available resources. Sarah Gjertson is my pick of the week. *** DJan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MakeItHappen 15 #4 June 10, 2004 Quote This is for instructors to recognize students they feel are the students of the week or weekend. This thread serves to, 1. Acknowledge the student on their performance in an open forum and help intergrate them into the skydiving community 2. A way for instructors to explain their techniques on teaching a particular subject. Out of 4 students I had last weekend 5 June, my student was Clark O'Neil from The Skydiving Place, NC. [snip] Who are your students of the Week or Weekend? I see the validity of recognizing the achievements of individual students. It is a good thing to say 'way to go' to someone that excels. However, the context that you presented this in, may inadvertently say to the lesser achievers something akin to 'you ain't shit. Try to do better next time etc' Your quote of 'Out of 4 students… blah blah blah' says indirectly that the 3 other students did not have accomplishments that were worthy of mention. For instance, if one of these students had finally passed a release dive, after several repeats, they could perceive your comments as ' What am I? Dog meat? Just cuz I'm not the bestest or fastest learner - does that mean I'm not worthy of recognition? Geez - it's where you come from and what it took to get there that means anything. Not a natural ability or inside track to success.' Students need a cooperative environment, not competitive. They need to freely exchange their ideas and thoughts on jumping. Students tell each other things that they won't say to instructors. Now, if there was this 'Okay I'm not gonna help you out cuz I wanna be Student of the Week this week' environment, you may find that the support students give each other diminish. At Nationals, I see a lot of cooperation in dive engineering and very little 'We're keeping our engineering a secret.' Skydiving is something people do to challenge themselves. It rarely has anything to do with an extrinsic validation process, especially in the early stages of student status. I think extolling the accomplishments of all students would be a better methodology. .. Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bodypilot1 0 #5 June 10, 2004 Bravo. My thoughts exactly! -www.WestCoastWingsuits.com www.PrecisionSkydiving.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyyhi 0 #6 June 11, 2004 QuoteI think extolling the accomplishments of all students would be a better methodology I am not an instructor but still a student of skydiving (though I have 100 jumps. . .I will always consider myself learning). We now have little league baseball where they don't keep score, non-competitive soccer, etc, because someone is afraid that little Johnny will be hurt if Sarah gets praised and Johnny doesn't. Life is competitive. The way they want us to raise our kids now does not prepare them for the "real world". Okay, off my soapbox. Zulu was not saying put down the others. . .only praise the outstanding students of the week. . .you know who they are. . .sometimes there is more than one.________________________________________ Take risks not to escape life… but to prevent life from escaping. ~ A bumper sticker at the DZ FGF #6 Darcy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zulu 0 #7 June 14, 2004 Ed and Makeithappen, I understand what your saying. My intentions are not to make the other jumpers feel any less. The very fact that they try this sport is praise in itself. I only wanted to devise a genuine way of commending students. Darcy thank you for understanding my point. Every student that I have talked to about this have seen it from your point of view as well. Now I ask you all how can we devise this thread to commend the students in the most positive way possible without the feeling of being less of an achiever? I ask you this simply because I would like to see it develop into an asset to the community on both sides. zulu Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alan 1 #8 June 14, 2004 QuoteNow I ask you all how can we devise this thread to commend the students in the most positive way possible without the feeling of being less of an achiever? How many of our students will actually come here (Instructors Forum) and read what is said? Might I suggest that the internet is only a means of sharing information, good or bad, and that if we want to commend our students, we do do it in person after the dive. It has worked for me for the last ten or so years. After every dive, with every student, I emphasize the positve aspects of the dive and what they have learned. Later in the debrief we talke about what could have been done better and how. If anything went wrong, we also discuss that and what could have been done to prevent it. I try to relate almost everything to safety, both the students and those around them. Some listen and learn. Some don't.alan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tspillers 0 #9 June 17, 2004 I would say we had 2 students of the week. Aggie04 - transition dive - she and I were on the step of the 182. She turned to check and sat there waiting for the inside instructor to get into position. I could almost feel the look on her face of anytime your are ready. She had an awesome skydive. The other isn't on here I don't think. He has a very slow fall rate (low 100's) and when he gets tense he gets flat and spins (sub 100). He finally has perevered through the AFF protion and is now on coached dives. The light is coming on. Todd I am not totally useless, I can be used as a bad example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
