Greater Latrobe Senior High School
Senior? Yes
Elite top 100? Yes
Letters of recommendation: Letter of Recommendation 1, Letter of Recommendation 2
When I began teaching swim lessons for the Aqua Club, I did not know what I was getting myself into. Being the youngest sibling, I never had the chance to interact with younger children. The children I taught varied from three year olds who have never swam before to twelve year old lap swimmers. It took time for me to adjust my teaching styles to such a large variance of age and skill. When it came to younger and newer swimmers, I learned how to build trust in relationships. Since most new swimmers are nervous or scared, having them know that they will be safe with me is important. When it comes to older more experienced swimmers, the relationship of trust must still be built, but it lies in trust of my expertise. I frequently push my older students to try new and unfamiliar things, and having them trust that what I am showing them is safe and doable is crucial.
Through teaching lessons, I have also learned to accommodate my instruction styles to different types of learners. Some swimmers learn best when ideas are spoken and described to them. Here, it is most efficient to use comparisons to things they are most familiar with. For example, instead of teaching the breaststroke arm movement as “a pull up the chest and a shoot forward,” it can be described as “scoop the ice cream with your arms and push it forward.” Others learn best when they can see what is going on, and I show this by demonstrating the concept. Regardless of how skilled the swimmer is, verbal encouragement is incredibly important. Teaching lessons in a negative manner with no encouragement or optimism does not yield any results, and that can be applied to many other aspects of life.
Overall, teaching swimming lessons has impacted me more than any other job or volunteer work. Though lessons, I attained leadership and social skills that are significantly different than those used when interacting with peers or adults. I have learned to implement creativity in both my lesson plans as well as methods of teaching. Being able to see my swimmers grow and progress to the point where they graduate lessons and can swim in The Aqua Club is incredibly self fulfilling. Not only have the students learned from me, I have learned greatly from teaching them.
In the future, I intend to continue teaching the community about my passions. As I am majoring in engineering in college, I plan on joining clubs and organizations that host events for younger students introducing them to STEM fields. With my knowledge from teaching swim lessons throughout high school, I will know how to interact and effectively teach children, even if the lesson is not on swimming. My goal is to ensure that my services I provide in the future will educate the community that is and will become and future of society.