Confronting my instructor

AngelFuree said:
I was so disconcentrated today by his pen tapping and looking at the clock that I just couldn't teach like I always do. I asked him if he was ok. He asked friendly, "why do you ask?" and I told him I could see his anxiety. He said, "oooh no, I'm not anxious at all! Let's keep going" So I continued, but I couldn't concentrate on the lesson anymore. I was more concentrated on his boredom.
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OK, Sir, here is where you are dropping the ball.

YOU ARE AN INSTRUCTOR. ALREADY. You don't need anyone to teach you to be an instructor. Sure, you need to get experienced at it, and here is your chance. Treat this behavior exactly like a real student. When you have a student who is giving you the body language of being bored or not paying attention, it is your job to correct that.

That may be his objective. Maybe not, but it is your job to find that out.

Focus on his inability to stay with you in the briefings, and if you can't fix the problem, then you go to the Chief Instructor with your "problem student". Maybe he is to much for you to handle. But learn to take the lesson from a bad instructor the same as you will encounter with bad students.

Really, you are an instructor. You only need a "body" to practice teaching specific instrument skills. A young newbe is good for that.
 
:yeahthat:

I kinda agree with that. But I do understand your frustration with paying you or your parents hard earned money to an instructor who doesn't want to be there. By now, you should have the teaching aspect under your belt somewhat. Now all you have to do is apply it to instrument training. You'll figure out that it doesn't matter what way you learned it or how you presented to your CFI/CFII......you'll probably have to present the information a little differently to every student you teach.
 
Whoa, I have to disagree with everything you say here.

You do need an experienced CFII who has had prior experience with teaching instrument students to teach you how to teach Instrument students. Teaching a CFII applicant how to teach instrument students requires previous experience so that they can show the student some common learning retention obstacles involved with learning instrument flying.

Unless Angel's instructor is pretending to be bored to get him used to regaining a student's attention on boring subject matter, it is unprofessional.

nosehair said:
OK, Sir, here is where you are dropping the ball.

YOU ARE AN INSTRUCTOR. ALREADY. You don't need anyone to teach you to be an instructor. Sure, you need to get experienced at it, and here is your chance. Treat this behavior exactly like a real student. When you have a student who is giving you the body language of being bored or not paying attention, it is your job to correct that.

That may be his objective. Maybe not, but it is your job to find that out.

Focus on his inability to stay with you in the briefings, and if you can't fix the problem, then you go to the Chief Instructor with your "problem student". Maybe he is to much for you to handle. But learn to take the lesson from a bad instructor the same as you will encounter with bad students.

Really, you are an instructor. You only need a "body" to practice teaching specific instrument skills. A young newbe is good for that.
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He is not pretending to be the student. He always tells me that we should keep the briefings short. He basically wants me to lecture my way through everything so that we keep the briefing the shortest possible.

There's a difference between having a bored student and having a bored instructor. If you, the student, have a bored instructor, are you really gonna feel like being there with him/her? It's pretty simple, guys.
 
KLB said:
You'll figure out that it doesn't matter what way you learned it or how you presented to your CFI/CFII......you'll probably have to present the information a little differently to every student you teach.
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Ah yes, agreed, but if you remember from your CFI training, I'm sure your instructor provided feedback on different ways to approach topics. Everyone teaches differently, and for that reason, it is important to be exposed to different ways of teaching. There's so much to learn in the instructor courses. I want to be a good instructor. I want my students to say, "I really like Angel as my instructor. He knows how to teach very well." (Don't we all want that?)
 
Whether you're his first student or not is irrelevant.

The relevant questions are whether or not you are learning from him and whether or not you are comfortable working with him.

If the answer to these questions is yes, then stick with him. If not, then don't.
 
tonyw said:
Whether you're his first student or not is irrelevant.

The relevant questions are whether or not you are learning from him and whether or not you are comfortable working with him.

If the answer to these questions is yes, then stick with him. If not, then don't.
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:yeahthat: Kind of.

While every CFII will eventually have their first instrument student, I do find it odd that this instructor's first 'instrument' student (if you will) is a CFII candidate. Going into it, I would have had a question of how is he going to critique Angel's CFII methods when as a Current CFII he himself has never had an instrument student.

That being said, it's your dough. If it is not working out for any reason, it is would be better for the both of you to move on.
 
Are you sure that the CFII can instruct you without meeting the dual given? Just want to make sure that you fully understand the FAR's. FAR 61.195 (h) (3) deals with the requirements at an FAA-approved course.
 
Lemme telll ya something brother!! If your instructor won't do right, at 8:00p.m. at the T.D. Waterhouse Center in Orlando, challenge him to a Hell in the Cell Match -No disqaulification,last man standing, anything goes brotha!! Be sure you have Batista and the Rock as tag team partners!!!(LOL)

But seriously you seem like you got a good one on your shoulders and you got some great advice on this thread, so put it to use! It will work out for you man.
 
FatBastard said:
Lemme telll ya something brother!! If your instructor won't do right, at 8:00p.m. at the T.D. Waterhouse Center in Orlando, challenge him to a Hell in the Cell Match -No disqaulification,last man standing, anything goes brotha!! Be sure you have Batista and the Rock as tag team partners!!!(LOL)
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WTF?
 
My first instrument student was a CFII. I tried to get out of it, but was convinced by management that I should take the student. The logic was that I already knew how to teach and I already knew how to fly instruments. The student also should already know how to fly instruments, so all you have to do is work on is getting them to give instruction.

It ended up being a good experience for the both of us. It actually ended up that the student could not fly instruments at all and I ended up starting over with them just like I would have done with a beginning instrument student. I was able to get him up to PTS, and then he left before we could really start on the CFII syllabus.

If you have a sharp CFI, it is not really necessary for them to do a lot of instrument instruction before they get a CFII student. It is probably the easiest instructor rating to get anyway.
 
dissatisfaction with the school's choice to give me a newly-hired instructor that probably has less than 50 dual given.
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You do realize he still has more experience (he's the one getting paid) than you and at some point YOU are going to be in his shoes having to start somewhere with someone.

Trust me the "training" environment is completely and utterly different than actually getting out there and doing it for real. CFI training really doesn't not prepare you for the day to day realities/challenges of the job.
 
pilot602 said:
Trust me the "training" environment is completely and utterly different than actually getting out there and doing it for real. CFI training really doesn't not prepare you for the day to day realities/challenges of the job.
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:yeahthat:
Very true.
 
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