Show Notes:

Related Resources:

• AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Page
• SPI handbook (2024)
• EP 20 – Everything SPI 01 – Professionalism and Risk Management
• EP 29 – Everything SPI 02 – Site Selection & Group Management
• EP 34 – Everything SPI 03 – Current SPI Eval System with Andrew Megas-Russell

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday! This is your host, Ting Ting, from Las Vegas, and welcome back to another episode of the Everything SPI series. Today, Spencer and I will be discussing the important topic of Teaching and Curriculum Design. Both Spencer and I are thrilled about this episode.

We’ll start by discussing the types of courses that can be taught utilizing single pitch terrain. Then, we’ll dive into our guiding principles, RACK and FIRE. We’ll use a case study to explore the “F” in FIRE, which stands for Formulate, in detail.

Both Spencer and I are AMGA certified Rock Guides and SPI Providers. We co-taught an SPI course back in October 2023 and found that our teaching style was quite compatible and complimentary. Therefore, we decided to do this podcast series, Everything SPI, to create supplemental material related to the SPI programs.

Spencer and I both have deep roots in climbing education. We have over 20 years of field instructing experience and are confident that we can provide valuable insights. We also recognize that the field of climbing instruction is dynamic and we can’t possibly know everything. So, if you have any questions, feedback, please reach out to help us improve. Now please enjoy!

Things We Talked about:

• What can we teach utilizing single pitch terrain?
• Guiding principles – RACK (Risk management, Ask questions, Collect information, Keep it simple)
• FIRE Overview (Formulate, Implement, Reflect, Enhance)
  • Formulate:
    • Who are the students? Define ratio, prerequisites. (Potential trouble here, students’ level are quite different)
    • Course goal, objectives, outcome. Set priority.
    • Structure/visualize the day and write/prepare lesson plans
      1. Progression and regression (make sure we have the flexibility to scale up and scale down)
      2. Divide and conquer, break the whole course into different sessions and classes. Utilize overlaps, so people practice new skills based on the foundations of learned skills.  Many times less is more
      3. Hands on practice and mini evaluations – Give students ample opportunities to get hands on. Ask questions to encourage reflection and self-evaluation. Also build in mini evaluation (this will help instructors to know where students are at and when to push to the next phase).
      4. Time management (check back with priority list) 
    • Pack/gather gear
      • Client harnesses/helmets/shoes
      • Program ropes (how many??), etc.