Trying to Teach

I opened my eyes to admire the different universe I had entered. It was so quiet and tranquil down here. Sunlight bounced off the tiles and formed beautiful patterns. My body felt a pleasant bliss as I slid about feeling weightlessness. I would have spent another hour there if my lungs wouldn’t have started to protest. With another lingering look, I pushed up and came back to reality.

 

The newly opened swimming pool was jam packed with people during the hot month of June.

The only place empty was the deep side or which I lovingly call, ‘My Side’.

 

As I was exiting the pool I bumped into my former coach. I had pursued swimming professionally in middle school but then COVID came along and forced the swim team to disband. Meeting him after such a long time made me so happy. After catching up, my coach gave me a teaching offer at the pool.

 

So, here I am next week, standing in the Kiddies pool and trying to teach an army of kids how to swim.

 

Volunteering as a teacher I uncovered some secrets. So, here are the 7 secret tactics of teaching.

 

1.)   The Smile

One of the reasons I said yes was because I am going to college soon and my social skills are at level 0. So, this 3-hour teaching will help me interact with people. Also, I find water to be my safe space. I feel more comfortable in water, it acts as my shield and support. Being in my favorite place I am able to greet each student with a wide smile.

This smile gives them a boost of confidence too. The smile acts as an unsaid contract that you are safe with me.

 

2.)   Innovative Pedagogical process

I have always found those lectures fun in which the teachers do something out of the box. Like making us learn difficult formulas with help of a rhyme or performing an activity to simplify difficult concepts.

My swimming coach too had a lot of tricks up his sleeve as he trained us. I especially remember his countdown technique. In this practice while we were performing any tiring exercise, he used to say the last 5 seconds. This elated us but he used to count so slow and make them into 5 minutes.

 

Following his lead, I too coax students to do many things with this countdown method.

Another method I have come up with is singing a song. Kids find it scary to put their head under water, but when told to sing a song inside they do it easily for a longer time span.

3.)   A Master of their Art

I have many times felt as if my teacher knows everything. When my math sir solved such a difficult calculus question, I viewed him no less than Einstein.

Similarly, whenever I show the kids how to dive, or show any swimming stroke, they look at me with awestruck expressions and I can say that their praises make me feel no less than an Olympic swimmer. On their special request I even showed them my butterfly stroke, it is the most difficult stroke but, in their eyes, it was as if Michael Phelps himself was performing it in all his glory.

A teacher becomes an idol for the student because they are near them and appear real to them than races taking place far away.

And I as a teacher really did bask up in their praises with complete pleasure.

 

4.)   The Pep Talk and Praises

During my first slot I taught a few ladies and some girls around my age. As a person grows older, they attain an obnoxious fear of new things.

Little kids are easy learners, just a little push and you have them paddling in no time. But for this slot my pep talks are required more than the swimming lessons. The adults are fast learners but just hesitant to take the first step. Repeated assurances and motivation help fuel their confidence to harness this skill.

Praises are something that both adults and children appreciate immensely. So, I give those away and that too in dozens because I believe praises work faster than scolding.

 

5.)   I got you

Another thing I learned is that people crave support and stability. In water they fear to let go of the wall else they drown. So, I encourage the kids to just reach till me. They let go and I catch them, next time I increase this distance, and carry this on until they do a complete round by themselves. 

It sometimes makes me nostalgic as kids hold onto me tightly, I see in them a little me, holding onto my father with the same intensity.          My tight grip indicates my strong trust in him. And now that I am getting this opportunity to gain their trust, I understand the seriousness of this profession. How I need to teach right and look out carefully so they learn to swim and not the opposite.

 

6.)   The PTMs

I read somewhere that a teacher’s real challenge is not with the children but with their parents. At that time, I didn’t realize it but now that I get daily PTMs this sentence has come to make a lot of sense to me. 

Parents, well their world revolves around their child.

Trust me, I speak this from my personal experience as both my parents are extremely doting. Like on each 15th they get up in the morning as kids on Christmas morning just to read my articles.

Even at the slightest achievement they would shower me with so many praises that I probably swim in them too.

I meet such parents at the swimming pool too, their kid has just got in the pool and they squeal and clap as if the child has landed on the moon.

Then there are the cheerleader parents. They stand on the edge of the pool and tell their child to kick and move their hand this way and like that.

As much as I appreciate their support, I feel that maybe they should just sit back because their teachings were indeed off track. So, I have to rewire the entire process in the child’s mind.

 

Then there are the serious parents. Who wants a swimmer out of their child at the end of the session. They tell me to scold and use some force on the child but then I am not really the strict mode-on teacher. I mean, these kids are learning swimming for fun and not training for competitions so no need to go ‘terminator’ on them.

 

In the end, I guess it’s the parents who are making my social skills stronger by 10.

 

7.)   Tearing up at the Metamorphosis

From the timid kid who was afraid to step even in the water to diving off from the deep end and completing the entire pool stretch. When my first student achieved this feat I am proud to admit that I teared up a bit.

Oh, what can I say, I feel proud and elated at even their little improvements. As they learn another lesson in swimming, I gain this extreme level of pride in being the one to teach them that.

Their smiles and happiness warm me up. And I feel and hope that I might have also made my teachers feel this way sometimes.

 

When the time gets over and they say, ‘Thank You.’ Trust me those two words make all the efforts worthwhile. On these moments I realize that I am at the epitome level of happiness as a teacher.

So, I wave back at my students, ‘Goodbye, teach you the next step tomorrow.’