| |
| |
|
If you're unable to read this e-mail please click here
|
|
|
|
| |
ASA Bearings Newsletter If you're unable to read this e-mail please click here |
|
|
|
| |
To help better understand the ASA curriculum we have created one-page graphical images for both the ASA Student Course Curriculum and the ASA IQC Curriculum.
|
|
|
|
| |
Each student course or IQC Instructor Qualification Clinic after the first course or clinic requires all of the arrowhead lines leading into it as pre-requisites for that course or clinic.
|
|
|
|
| |
Lenox Grasso, ASA Instructor Coordinator |
|
|
|
| |
We recommend that instructors wishing to attend an IQC plan in advance. It takes time to register for a clinic, have your application processed, and your materials mailed to you so don’t wait until the last minute. We recommend starting the process at least 6-8 weeks in advance of the clinic. Many of the clinics also require considerable preparation and study. For example, the ASA 201 IQC examination bares little resemblance to the ASA 101 examination. Day shapes, sound signals, and advanced knowledge of navigation lights are topics on the examination. Also, it’s not entirely multiple choice. Much of the exam is narrative as in “Describe the general contents of the Notice to Mariners”. Or, “Refer to this Coastal Waters Forecast from the National Weather Service to answer the following questions”. In many aspects, it closely resembles a USCG Captain’s examination. Expect to do charting with traditional instruments on the ASA 203/205 IQC examination. Also, the ASA 211 IQC requires a lengthy application process involving letters of recommendation and an invitation to attend the clinic. One cannot just simply register to attend it like a normal IQC. So, please plan ahead. It’s not just your application alone that we have to process, register, and send out materials, but multiple dozens of others just like yours.
|
|
|
|
| |
Lenox Grasso, ASA Instructor Coordinator |
|
|
|
| |
Sometimes we hear from students who have failed courses with questions about what to do next. As an affiliate you should have a plan of action in place for students who, for example, fail ASA 105. Have a re-test available for your students a month or so later and let them know this. Also, make sure your students understand that they cannot enroll in ASA 106 until 105 is successfully completed. Being scheduled for a 105 re-test still means that 105 is incomplete. In another scenario, if you offer an ASA 101, 103, 104 bundle and a student fails 103 but not 104, that student’s 104 certification will not be entered into the ASA Database until 103 is successfully completed.
|
|
|
|
| |
Lenox Grasso, ASA Instructor Coordinator |
|
|
|
| |
When it comes to “destination” courses (or “edu-vacations” if you will), where students can learn to sail in an exotic locale, it is important to have a strategy to prepare your students/customers, well in advance of their arrival. It should be clear as to the nature of your ASA 101 and 103 classes, and especially as to the nature of your ASA 104 and 106 cruises over multiple days and nights. This preparation should include the development of a syllabus and structured lesson plan that embraces and adheres tightly to the ASA curriculum. It should also alert students that they may not always be in “vacation mode”, but will have to interact with an instructor in a classroom setting, and probably with other students aboard.
Further, inform your students/clients, well in advance of their arrival, of the nature of the general sailing, wind, and weather conditions in your teaching area, the living arrangements aboard your yacht, particularly if any of your students will live aboard during any of their time at your academy/club/school, and of your specific expectations and requirements of their behavior as their instructor, skipper, and after-hours host. These should not be multiple pages of material that go unread, but one-page rapid bullet points of information. Have your students sign it as having read it and agreed to it. Some students may expect luxury accommodations with room service and instructors who cater to their every whim, so you may want to dispel them of any such notions ahead of time.
Finally, you should develop procedures and protocols to handle difficult, disruptive, or dissatisfied students to mitigate any misunderstanding or undesirable behavior. This may extend to refunding a student’s tuition and having him/her disembark at the nearest port convenient to both him/her and yourself. This seems to be somewhat of an increasing problem, and how to handle such situations is, of course, up to each affiliate. And from time to time, it is a good idea to review the ASA Instructor’s Code of Ethics to remind us that our conduct as ASA instructors is fitting and favorable to ourselves, to our affiliate, and to ASA.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Coming Soon: A New Instructor Teaching Aid
|
|
|
|
| |
ASA is developing a new set of laminated cards for instructors (and anyone else who wants them). These cards, developed by ASA and Kenneth Quant of Broad Reach Marketing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are a beautiful re-tooling of Peter Bull’s exceptional illustrations for the ASA 101 textbook, Sailing Made Easy.
Lenny Shabes, Cindy Shabes, Charlie Nobles and Ash Ashbaugh dreamed up this idea last October at the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, after an instructor there revealed that he cuts out illustrations from the textbook and glues them to cardboard to serve as teaching aids in his ASA 101 classes. The set will likely be nine two-sided cards, with about 50 images that are clear enough to see across the cockpit of a keelboat while underway and/or in a classroom setting. They are organized in a way that instructors present the material to their students.
Look for these colorful cards soon. As an instructor, you will wonder how you ever managed without them!
|
|
|
|
| |
Everyone here at ASA extends our warmest wishes to our affiliates and instructors for a Happy Holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyeux Noel, Frohliche Weihnachten, Sheng Dan Kuai Le, Kala Christouyenna, Mele Kalikimaka. Buon Natale, Merii Kurisumasu, Blithe Yule, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Natal, Milad Mubarak, Joyous Kwanzaa, and Happy Winter Solstice, to extend these greetings in just a handful of ways. And a Happy New Year.
To our affiliates in the Hurricane regions, we wish you a continued speedy recovery and a 2018 sailing season with only fair winds. Thank you for your continuing support of ASA. And Happy Holidays.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Useful links for Instructors & Affiliates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
