1. Unit 7: Preparing for a NAUI ITC
Preparation and training
The ITC experience
The measure of a NAUI Instructor
Instructor Materials: Teaching notes, NAUI Standards and Policies Manual.
INTRODUCTION
Attention step: NAUI Instructor courses are challenging even for those who arrive prepared. Those who aren’t are likely to be surprised and disappointed.
Importance or Value: Attending a NAUI Instructor course is typically an investment of money, time and much effort preparing to succeed. Learning how others have prepared and benefiting from the experience of others who have preceded you is what this unit is intended to accomplish.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
Student Materials and Conduct: note taking material, text and workbook, and your undivided attention
Body: See presentation slides.

2. Student Performance: By the end of the lesson you will be able to:
State the prerequisites to qualify for entry into a NAUI ITC.
Explain the commitment necessary to be successful at a NAUI ITC.
State the value of and choose a diving mentor.
Describe the type of diving, teaching and supervisory experience needed to prepare.
State what water skills and performance level will be required.
Explain the pre and post ITC knowledge requirements are and ways to achieve them.

3. Prerequisites for an ITC
18 years of age
Scuba Rescue Diver certification
Certification or verified competency in CPR and First Aid
Currently certified NAUI AI, NAUI DM, or NAUI PREP Course graduate within previous 12 months
At least 50 logged dives, varied in environment, depth, and activities
Unconditional medical approval within the previous 12 months
NAUI ITCs are designed to create knowledgeable, capable, professional diving leader/educators, able to carry on and augment NAUI’s leadership in recreational diving instruction.
Prerequisites for an ITC
18 years of age.
Scuba Rescue Diver certification.
Certification or verified competency in CPR and First Aid.
Currently certified NAUI AI, NAUI DM, or NAUI PREP Course graduate within previous 12 months.
At least 50 logged dives, varied in environment, depth, and activities.
Unconditional medical approval within the previous 12 months.
Preparation to only minimum published requirements will probably not be adequate to ensure your success.

4. Preparation Paths to success Preparing for success Time and commitment
Mentors
Paths to Success
NAUI Standards and Policies establish many paths to the ITC.
Preparing for success
NAUI’s Standards and Policies Manual clearly defines the requirements, and Instructor Candidates must focus their efforts on meeting them. Acceptable performance of specific skills and acquisition of more than adequate knowledge must be attained prior to attendance for success to be achieved. Minimums are not intended to be NAUI members’ final goals.
The ITC is only the beginning. Preparing to instruct and being a NAUI Instructor are ongoing processes that last throughout a career.
Time and Commitment
You must be strongly motivated to attain instructor certification.
Sufficient time must be devoted for judgment to develop in an aspiring leader, and to develop the confidence, determination, and attitude you will need. Becoming a skilled leader is the result of an unhurried maturation .
Mentors
A mentor’s experience, and your trust in it, will help you focus your training on your goals. Their advice on necessary diving experience, supervisory training activities, and your relative ability will help you assess and enhance your readiness to develop into a viable ITC candidate.

5. Preparation (continued)
Experience
Diving quantity and quality
Supervised diving experience
Experience supervising and teaching
Experience
Experience is key to success at a NAUI ITC and as a NAUI instructor. It takes planning and judgment to select appropriate activities, time and commitment to complete them, and help to properly evaluate and benefit from them.
Diving Quantity and Quality
A diver preparing for an ITC should seek as great a variety of experience as possible. Accumulated certifications and dives are not by themselves qualifications for leadership. It is the depth of experience that prepares a person for a successful ITC and for being an effective and capable teacher of divers. Use every dive as a chance to perfect your skills, increase your ability and acquire knowledge.
Supervised Diving Experience
Diving under supervision with specific training goals usually results in quality experience and increased diving acumen. Reaching objectives, accurately selected as necessary to improve performance, will always result in greater improvement than just making dives.
Experience Supervising and Teaching
Gaining experience supervising divers is just as important as your personal diving competence. No text can replace guided field experience under a NAUI instructor. Although teaching scuba is the most beneficial preparation for an ITC, other teaching and supervisory experiences are certainly applicable.

6. Preparation (continued)
Academic knowledge
NAUI Instructors must know more than they teach.
NAUI Instructors must be able to tutor in diverse subjects.
The ITC will help you develop teaching ability, but you must come prepared with the subject knowledge.
Academic Knowledge
We strive to know more than we teach. All NAUI instructors are expected to be completely conversant in physics, physiology, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and other areas of applied science as they pertain to diving and instruction.
NAUI instructors regularly help others develop an understanding of the practical applications and effects of various scientific principles related to recreational diving. Instructors must be able to effectively tutor in disciplines as diverse as the basic computational skills needed for dive planning and basic cardiopulmonary function.
It is necessary to gain the skills necessary to teach in scuba-specialized areas of academics. The ITC will help you develop teaching ability, but it is important that you be prepared in advance to make the most of the instruction you will receive.

7. Preparation (continued)
Leadership water skills
Exceptional water skills are the hallmark of a NAUI leader
Category #1: swimming skills
Category #2: skin diving skills
Category #3: scuba diving skills
Leadership Water Skills
No candidate without excellent diving skills can be successful at a NAUI ITC.
Leadership level water skills means “demonstration quality” performance: comfortable, seemingly effortless skin and scuba diving.
NAUI leadership courses require participants to develop proficiency in a variety of general and diving-specific water skills.
Category #1: Swimming Skills
Viewed by a competitive swimmer, NAUI leadership swimming skills would be described as easy and not even a warm-up for a regular workout. Viewed by an intermediate but active swimmer, they might pose a challenge.
Category #2: Skin Diving Skills
The skin diving skills are similar to the challenge of the swimming skills. Relaxed, smooth performance and the stamina that come from regular scuba diving, breath-hold diving, and snorkeling activity changes them from obstacles to an invigorating exercise session. Breath holding is a skill that can be developed through relaxation and practice.
Category #3: Scuba Diving Skills
Preparing to complete the scuba skills required for evaluation is a process of: breaking complex performances into component parts, practicing the parts under supervision with corrective review, becoming completely comfortable with each part through repetitive practice, and polishing your performance to “demonstration quality.”

8. Preparatory training Preliminary training Final preparation
NAUI Assistant Instructor, Skin Diving Instructor, or Divemaster
Final preparation
The NAUI Instructor Preparatory (PREP) Course
There is no better preparation for an ITC
Diagnostic and prescriptive
Provides coaching in skills and academics
Evaluation of personal readiness
Mandatory for non-NAUI Leaders and recommended for all
Preliminary training
Success in a NAUI ITC will be directly related to the amount of leadership ability you have acquired through experience and formal training. By progressing up the certification ladder, continually refining your knowledge and ability, you will learn about leadership. The instructors with whom you work will help you develop your own leadership style as you observe theirs.
Final preparation
The NAUI Instructor Preparatory (PREP) Course
There is no better final preparation for an ITC. A NAUI PREP Course will help you accurately assess your qualifications.
The great advantage of a PREP Course is its diagnostic and prescriptive purpose. Participation yields aid, advice, and insight without the threat of failure. PREP Courses are designed to provide prospective ITC Candidates coaching on the skills and academics that are expected for instructor certification and an evaluation of their actual readiness. PREP Course attendance is mandatory for ITC participants who are not certified NAUI Assistant Instructors or Divemasters, and it is strongly recommended even for those with such credentials.
The criteria, rating forms, and five-point grading system used for evaluating presentations are identical to those used at an ITC. PREP attendees receive written and oral evaluation of their ability to meet required ITC performance levels.

9. The ITC Experience Content Benefits Schedule variations Commitment
Candidates are continually taught, tested, and assessed. During a typical course, swimming, skin diving, and scuba diving skills, as well as diving knowledge, teaching techniques, effective public speaking, and presentation are all practiced and appraised. Candidates focus on learning how to teach skills and information. The process assesses and strengthens candidates’ every mental and physical ability.
Benefits
For many, the ITC experience is the best opportunity they’ve had to literally immerse themselves in diving. Candidates’ enthusiasm and the synergy that develops among them and staff often give rise to new approaches in diving instruction. Such material is often spread throughout NAUI and the recreational diving community.
For most participants, it is a rich source of personal satisfaction and growth. Many lasting friendships and professional relationships are forged in the crucible of an ITC.
Schedule variations
ITCs vary in structure. Options include: accelerated eight or ten-day courses, courses spread over several long weekends, and extended internships spanning a college semester or a full diving season.
Commitment
Candidates fare better when they commit themselves totally to improvement at an ITC.

10. The Measure of a NAUI Instructor
The “Loved One” concept
The Measure of a NAUI Instructor
“Loved One”
Instructor Trainers and Course Directors authorized by NAUI Worldwide Headquarters to conduct instructor level programs have one overriding consideration in mind that must be satisfied by each graduate they recommend as applicants for membership.
It can be stated as a deceptively simple question that must be answered with an unequivocal “Yes!” for each new instructor course graduate:
Would you allow this person to teach your loved ones to dive?

11. End of Unit 7 Preparing for an ITC
Preparation and training
The ITC experience
The measure of a NAUI Instructor
Transition Statement:
Your journey to instructor status will be as unique as you are. Your experiences will affect you deeply on a personal basis, maturing your judgment and profiting you even as you enjoy them. Judge yourself against your own standards as you strive for your goal. Your talents and sincere effort will likely lead you to success. As you progress up the training ladder set a pace that maximizes your potential as a leader and educator. Wisely seize every opportunity to gain leadership experience. Interact with mentors to hone skills and techniques and to extract diving and supervisory wisdom. Broaden and deepen your diving knowledge. Physically and mentally prepare to enjoy and benefit from your ITC, and you will undoubtedly find it an enriching and life-enhancing experience. All NAUI members look forward to your joining.
Review of Main Points: See this presentation slide.
Emphasize Key Points:
The Measure of a NAUI Instructor
Ask Students for Questions:

12. Student Performance: By the end of the lesson you will be able to:
State the prerequisites to qualify for entry into a NAUI ITC.
Explain the commitment necessary to be successful at a NAUI ITC.
State the value of and choose a diving mentor.
Describe the type of diving, teaching and supervisory experience needed to prepare.
State what water skills and performance level will be required.
Explain the pre and post ITC knowledge requirements are and ways to achieve them.
Restate the student performance statements as questions:
Unit 1- The Zero Accident Goal- Instructor Notes