How to become a Red Cross instructor "If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others."
Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894)
Becoming an American Red Cross (ARC) Instructor has three or four steps, depending on which area you live in.
The first is to have a current ARC certification in the subject area you want to teach. You need to be at least 17 years old. (One exception is Water Safety Instructor, the swim teacher certification, for that you must be 16 years old.)
Then potential instructors take the class Fundamentals of Instructor Training. FIT is usually a one evening 4 to 6 hour class with the following goals:
Introduce instructor candidates to the history, structure and activities of the ARC.
Prepare instructor candidates to teach ARC specialty courses to diverse populations.
Teach instructor candidates the policies and procedures of the ARC to ensure course consistency, quality and appropriate reporting.
FIT includes a section on course modification for the Americans with Disabilities Act and how to administer an oral exam.
Once you pass FIT you have a year in which to take an instructor class. Once you become an instructor, if you keep up your authorization, you don't need to take FIT again to be able to become an instructor in another area.
Steps 3(&4) are to take the instructor class in the subject(s) you want to teach. The first session you will be tested on the skills (for example, Adult CPR) to see if you understand the material well enough to complete the class. (Some ARC chapters make this testing a separate step before they enroll people in an instructor class.) A little recent review/practice would be wise. Recent lifeguard training graduates from De Anza College who have become CPR instructors tell me that there were one or more people at each of their instructor courses who were told the first evening they needed to learn/practice their skills more. The first session you will also re-take the written test for the material you want to teach.
The rest of the sessions are mostly devoted to each candidate teaching parts of the course to the other candidates. Sometimes the Instructor Trainer, who teaches the instructor class, will let candidates know the subjects they will teach in advance. Sometimes they must come prepared to teach any of the parts of the course.
As an instructor candidate or an instructor you don't 'wing-it'. The instructor's manuals are quite complete, with listings of what to do next, be it show a section of video, read material to the class, have a brief discussion, work from the student workbooks, or practice a skill.
Finally there is a multiple choice instructor's test.
Why become an instructor?
My De Anza lifeguard training and first aid/CPR classes usually have lots of teaching assistants. Each group of graduates who appreciate the help they got from their TAs has a few who go on to be TAs for the next group(s). They tell me that they do it because:
It's fun.
It's prestigious.
They want to pay back the people who helped them by helping the next group.
It can help them get into their next college, or help get a scholarship.
They learn a lot and develop more self-confidence by teaching.
When they get jobs it helps them to recruit staff.
Most teaching assistants do not become ARC instructors, but those who have the time to become an ARC instructor in at least CPR can be co-instructors for a class. Any resume benefits from this kind of volunteer work, especially for those who also volunteer at the Red Cross chapter.
Certainly it's not for the money, as De Anza does not pay TAs except in classes with huge enrollments.
Statistically, people who are in clubs, teams, student government, or acting as TAs do better in school and are more likely to graduate and/or transfer than the average student who's just another student.
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At De Anza, the Water Safety Instructor (swim teacher certification) class includes the FIT class. Info about becoming a Red Cross certified swimming teacher at De Anza is at:
Water Safety Instructor
By arrangement, people who do well in the lifeguard training class can become Lifeguard Instructors, which includes CPR Pro instructor.
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The schedule of Santa Clara Valley chapter instructor classes is at
http://chapters.redcross.org/ca/scv/instructortraining.html
The phone number for the Santa Clara Valley Red Cross for class registration is 577-2178.
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