Jo Kyo/Assistant Instructor Certification

[MBuzzy]

Does your organization or school have any official requirements for becoming an official instructor?

How does the program work at your school? Do assistant instructors teach entire classes or just help out? Also, Do you have different levels of assistant or junior instructors? (Jo Kyo or Kyo Sa, etc)

 

[JoelD]

I was going to chime in on this subject but i noticed you and i are both members of the USSBDMDK Federation so i doubt i know anything you dont already know. ;-)

I will say that at our studio a Jo Kyo does instruct enitre classes when needed. Since there is only one Dan that is of a higher rank than our Jo Kyo (she is a 2nd Dan) there would be no breach in the chain of command (as it were). For example if the Jo Kyo was only a 1st gup then naturally she technically could not instruct anyone of a higher rank than she currently was.

BTW, do you train at Tipp City SBD? If so i believe our instructors know one another. I train under Sa Bom Nim Lisa Kozak over in Akron.

If you are, in fact, a student of SBN Phillips perhaps we will meet at this years Regionals. Soo Bahk!

 

[JT_the_Ninja]

We don't have "jo kyo" certification as such, but all senior belts are expected to be able to help their junior belts if necessary. There are times when even a gup rank will be asked to help a junior with a form, for example, if the instructor needs to split up the class into groups. Of course, the higher rank you are, the more often / likely this is.

As to teaching a whole class, generally if you're at least cho dan you're expected to be able to lead the class in bowing to the flags and stretching out, in the event that the instructor is busy (on the phone, for example). Sometimes I'll be asked to start class and stretch everybody out, and then sa bom nim will just let me teach the rest of the class, giving me basic instructions on what he wants us to practice. Since I'm an e dan, this isn't any trouble. In fact, for a while I was the usual teacher for the Saturday morning 9:30 classes, excepting cases when a sam dan or one of my senior e dans would attend (we have half a dozen sam dans at our dojang).

Now, as for kyo sa nim certification, this is required to own a dojang and be an official instructor. You have to take a special test, which is afaik invitational and only for e dan rank and above. I'm not even thinking about it...

 

[MBuzzy]

For the US Soo Bahk Do Federation, we apply and receive a Jo Kyo package in the mail. It has some articles and some tests. Basically, you do a bunch of reading, finish the tests and then are required to do a certain amount of practical stuff. For example, I have to do 6 introductory lessons, 6 second lessons, a bunch of class warm ups, and a bunch of class assistings. After that, my instructor gives me a test on instructing, signs off and I theoretically get certified.

All Cho Dans and above are expected to be able to assist and help, the Jo Kyo is just the certification. I'm really not sure what all of the implications of it are. Whether it gives you some additional authority or what. I do know that technically, you must be at least a Jo Kyo to instruct an entire class or run a class by yourself, regardless of rank. The newest change, though makes a lot of sense to me. To become a Kyo Sa Nim or Sa Bom Nim, you MUST be a Jo Kyo FIRST, then a Kyo Sa, THEN a Sa Bom Nim, so you have to work your way up. Theoretically learning more at each certification, giving would be instructors a lot more opportunity to learn and get ready for the job. I actually think it is a good program here.

 

[Meghann1965]

In the dojang I train in, I am a member of the CIT program. I actually joined the CIT program as a Cho Dan Bo. I have been training for not quite a year. I am an assistant when the higher belts need assistance. I am never given students who are close to my belt rank to work with by myself. If I work with any of them, I am working with Sa Ba Nim. I usually assist our white/yellow/orange belts and sometimes the green belts.

Meg

 

[MBuzzy]

What does CIT stand for? What organization are you with?

 

[agemechanic03]

MBuzzy already knows how it works here at the Dojang here in Korea, we don't have those. Just our Sa Bum Nim. But he does pretty much let everyone have a chance to teach the lower ranks since we are only here for a year. I started teaching when I was just a green belt. Even as a 3rd thru 1st Gup Red belt, I taught class when he wasn't there and when we have new students (1st day people that is) he has me teach everyone else so he can focus on the basics with them. Although he lets everyone have a chance to teach another student, he really only trusts myself and one other student to ACTUALLY TEACH the whole class if he can't make it.

 

[MBuzzy]

So this leads to the question....how SHOULD it be? Should anyone be able to teach or should it only be certified assistants? Where should the line be drawn? At Cho Dan?

And does being a Cho Dan AUTOMATICALLY make you a good teacher? We deal with this in the military all the time. It is ASSUMED that because you reach a certain rank, you are automatically a good leader. With very little leadership training and regardless of skill and talent.

Do we have the same problem in Martial Arts? There are obviously a lot of teachers out there....are they all good, just by virtue of being a certain rank? Is simply WANTING to teach enough?

 

[JoelD]

Anyone that has been to college is familiar with that problem... I can't tell you how many professors (PhD's) that i have had that were so un-qualified to teach that it isnt even funny. Granted, there are just as many that are fantastic as well. Thats not to say that the bad instructors were incompetent in their field. Quite the contrary. They just had no idea how to relate the information to laymen. It's for that reason that I believe that anyone that is to teach should have some kind of training to do so. Now, I'm certainly not saying that people can't be teaching helpers, vis-a-vis red belts helping out/supervising white belts or Dan memeber heping out/supervising green belts or any combination of senior helping junior. It's how you learn and you could consider it your teacher training, as it were. As a 5th gup green belt i just recently was sent off in a group on my own as the senior and was told to help the juniors. I have to say i was a bit uncomfortable and I probably wasnt very good at it. To me, i feel the more i do it, the more qualified i will be when it comes time for me to attain my Jo Kyo/Kyo Sa certification (which i plan on doing) or just simply being asked by my Sa Bom to help my juniors with their forms or whatever. So, long story short, Say a Sam Dan comes up through the ranks and does fantastic on each belt test and can break 3 boards with a Peet Ch Gi like they were made of driftwood. Lets also say this individual was never asked to help as an assistant in class in the 8 or so years it took him/her to achieve that rank. Likelyhood is, he/she wont make a very good teacher. Again, its not a sure thing that he/she wouldnt be able to, some have a gift for it to be sure. But its probable that he/she wouldnt be a natural. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Meghann1965]

What does CIT stand for? What organization are you with?

CIT is Certified Instructor Trainee.
I belong to the Atlantic-Pacific Tang Soo Do Federation.


Meg

 

[Meghann1965]

So this leads to the question....how SHOULD it be? Should anyone be able to teach or should it only be certified assistants? Where should the line be drawn? At Cho Dan?

And does being a Cho Dan AUTOMATICALLY make you a good teacher? We deal with this in the military all the time. It is ASSUMED that because you reach a certain rank, you are automatically a good leader. With very little leadership training and regardless of skill and talent.

Do we have the same problem in Martial Arts? There are obviously a lot of teachers out there....are they all good, just by virtue of being a certain rank? Is simply WANTING to teach enough?

I don't think that being a Cho Dan automatically makes you a good teacher. I think a certain amount of "people skills" are also necessary to be a good teacher. Anyone can walk in and say "I can teach" but it takes someone who knows how to work with people, who can work with both children and adults and can differentiate between the two.