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Instructor Techniques Workshop (ITW).
In order to get over to the firearms unit in my department you have to have at least two certifications. The first being ITW and the second being FIW (Firearms Instructor Workshop). I’ve got the FIW certification as of 2008 so I only needed the ITW class.
ITW is needed to teach anything at the police academy. My interview with the Firearms division is coming up and I needed to get in this ITW class. Long story short, a few phone calls were made and I got into the class.
As it stands, 4000+ officers are currently employed by my department and the class is only held twice a year with a maximum occupancy of 15 officers.
Day 1
Sitting in the computer lab in a dimly lit room, I sat in the front row mostly because I can’t see well in dim lighting and wanted to miss nothing.
The first instructor was a LT who talked about Sexual Harassment as it relates to teaching for the first 2 hours. This was only one in a string of classes that would project the image of extreme liability in every action you took.
After those first two hours were up we had another instructor come in. She was going to be the lead instructor for the duration of the two week course. She made us one by one pull a piece of paper from an envelope and one by one stand in front of the class to give a 1 minute presentation on the topic listed on the paper.
When it was my turn, I stood up, grabbed a random paper from the envelope and read the words, “WINE”. Knowing nothing about Wine aside from it being White or Red, I did what any rational person would do; fake it if you must but look good.
I started out with giving my name and unit and proceeded to talk about Wines origins and how it related to foods, the use of the old barrels to make beers, ect.
I did fairly well compared to most of the class, where some people stood up with something as simple as given a minute speech on ‘Dolphins’ or ‘Football’ and they couldn’t get past their names..
After that we had basic instruction on the ‘hows/whys’ people listen to instructors and whatnot.
To close out the day we had another woman come in and talk about presentations for two hours. You know, things like how to open and keep interest in a topic.
Sometime next week I’ll have to give a 50 minute Presentation on a topic of my choosing. I was mulling around giving a lecture on “Ways to survive the Post Nuclear Zombie Apocalypse” but decided I’d be better off with a “History of Rifles” topic as I could bring in some rifles of mine and at the very least show and tell.
I’ll let you know how day two goes.
Day 2
Same as Day 1.
Day 3
I had to give a 5 minute speech today on Louis Armstrong. I made a short power-point presentation in 15 minutes and ended up actually presenting for what seemed like only a few minutes but turned out to be… 17 1/2 minutes.
Yea, apparently I talk a lot.
The instructor said I have a melodic voice and sound like I’m telling a story which kept everyone engaged even though I was almost 3 times over my time limit.
Skipping to the last day.
My presentation on the ‘History of the Modern Rifle’ went very well. I spoke for 53 minutes without a hiccup and will be going back to the Training Bureau Monday morning to see how soon I can start teaching to get the hours required for my certification to become active.
Sooner I get all this done, the sooner I can get over to Firearms Full time.
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