PSIA-RM Ed. Staff Training

Here are some reflections from our time at Arapahoe Basin. We spent two days covering some of the changes to the assessment processes, as well as looking at the National Standards. There has been so much work that has been behind the scenes of these standards and many other resources that accompany the standards.

This was my first time leading a education staff training. I am not going to lie. I was a little nervous. Some of these assessors (aka examiners) were leading exams/assessments when I was 2 or 3 years-old!

The main goal of the training was to learn how to use or interact with the assessment criteria. In other words, how to use the tools so I gave a teaching segment. I performed a demo and used the Level 2 process where I had two “students.” I set up a task that was essentially synchronized skiing. One student needed a little more tactical focus whereas the other one needed a mechanical focus. At one point, I asked one of the “students” - “What do you need from me?” He said, “I need you to get out of my way!” And got out of the way I did. We then used the unified assessment form to score what a candidate would have received. We spent the afternoon looking at movement analysis and the next morning we spent time on the technical understanding portion.

It was a great learning opportunity for me. Because how you set things up and what you say matters. I remember saying that my peers could “pick me apart” and what I meant by that is if I didn’t nail something, please let me know via the scorecard. The unintended effect it had was that everyone went to the negative. What was not so good in the teaching segment versus what was positive. This was a key learning for the entire group at large and me, especially.

It was a great event with some good snow, a couple of rocks here and there. I learned a ton and I am excited to put some of those learnings into my clinics!