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Water Safety InstructorWater Safety Instructor (WSI) is the Red Cross designation for a certified swimming teacher. The De Anza class description is:
Designed to train instructors in techniques of teaching swimming strokes and related skills.
De Anza College offers the four unit class, P.E. 28G, each spring quarter.
A typical schedule (early April to June) is Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 8:20 p.m. and a few to-be-announced Saturday mornings. The evening sessions will meet sometimes in classroom PE673, on the backside of the locker room building, and sometimes at the swimming pool diving well.
Based on feedback from instructors and industry experts, the newly revised American Red Cross Swimming and Water Safety program for 2009 has been updated to make it more effective and easier to teach. Updates include:
The latest techniques and biomechanics from USA Diving and USA Swimming.
New distribution of swim skills throughout the levels to help reduce bottlenecks and optimize skill acquisition.
Three new Preschool Aquatics levels to better meet the developmental needs of younger children.
Water safety and drowning prevention skills built into all swim levels as a major focus of learning.
More information to help instructors incorporate participants of varying ages and abilities into standard swim classes, including those with disabilities and other health conditions.
Prerequisites
The De Anza catalog lists a prerequisite of P.E. 26C. You do not actually have to have taken the De Anza 26C class, you just need the swimming skill of an intermediate level swimmer.
The Red Cross lists these prerequisites:
(Many instructors will review or even teach some of these before the pre-test. At De Anza we have more time for the class and do expect all our students will know butterfly, for example, and we expect that students may not have Red Cross style stroke mechanics.)
  
Be at least 16 years of age on or before the final scheduled session of this course.
Have successfully completed Fundamentals of Instructor Training. (This is included in the De Anza class.)
Demonstrate the ability to perform the following swimming skills:
1. Swim the following strokes consistent with Stroke Performance Charts, Level four
Front crawl (also known as freestyle)- 25 yards
Back crawl - 25 yards
Breastsroke - 25 yards
Elementary backstroke - 25 yards
Sidestroke - 25 yards
Butterfly - 15 yards
2. Maintain position on back 1 minute in deep water (floating or sculling).
3. Tread water for one minute
Texts
 
The minimum required texts are: (most copyright 2009) American Red Cross (ARC) Water Safety Instructor's Manual with CD Rom, (Water Safety Instructor’s CD-ROM Contents) American Red Cross Swimming and Water Safety Manual (this had no index, so I wrote one: Swimming and Water Safety 2009 index), ARC Water Safety Handbook, Longfellows Whales Tales K-6 educational packet and ARC Learn to Swim booklets: Raffy Learns to Swim, Waddles in the Deep.
What is there to the class besides learning to teach swimming strokes?
Besides teaching basic swimming skills, starts, turns and diving, there are special sections on support techniques for infants and children, parent and child aquatics, pre-school aquatics, basic water rescue, learning and development, class planning, class organization. Customizing the program includes customizing for disabilities, for adults, by integrating fitness components and with games and water activities.
Students make written lesson plans and teach the lessons to other students in the class. You might want to read: Fifty ways to praise your swim students.
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
Gail Godwin
Do I have to be a lifeguard to be a WSI?
No, but many places that hire WSIs require that they be lifeguards as well and you can take both classes spring quarter at De Anza. Anyone with the swimming skills required for Water Safety Instructor should be able to pass the lifeguard prerequisite swim test.
Is it true I can earn seven (or even more) Red Cross certifications in De Anza lifeguard training?
 Lifeguard Training and/or Shallow Water Attendant and/or Basic Water Rescue; First Aid; Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for the Professional Rescuer; Automated External Defibrillation; Waterfront Lifeguard; Administering Emergency Oxygen; Epinephrine Auto Injector Administration and Bloodborne Pathogens: Preventing Disease Transmission. (Relax, we've got eleven weeks.)
P.E. 28A is the De Anza lifeguard training class. For information about it click on these links:
Lifeguard Training
Lifeguard Training FAQs has a description of the prerequisite swim tests The last person to finish the prerequisite test Fall quarter 2004 was a 115 pound woman. She ended up with the highest "A" in the class and earned all seven certifications. People who are taking the class at De Anza to get a lifeguard certification will have time to practice the prerequisite test as we will mostly concentrate on first aid and CPR at the start of the quarter. The swim test will not be officially given until at least two weeks into the quarter.
More students qualify for financial aid than use it or even know they qualify. There are enrollment fee waivers you can apply for online. For all the details go to: http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/financialaid/index.html
For more info about WSI taught at De Anza College go to the website of the instructor, Rich Schroeder, at:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/schroederrich/classes/course1
You can read the curriculum, (course outline or course content, usually designed by a division then reviewed and approved by the college) for any De Anza class at: http://ecms.deanza.edu/deptoutlinespublic.html
Also of interest:
History of swimming section
History of lifesaving
How to pass a Red Cross written test
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