By Christian Green

This is the second story in recognition of this year’s PSIA-AASI award recipients. Members are being honored this week at National Academy, in Big Sky, Montana, for their achievements as instructors, leaders, role models, and collaborators in the snowsports industry.

In 1974, Dale Drennan earned her first PSIA certification, Alpine Associate (equivalent to a Level II), in Brighton, Utah. Over the next five decades, she would go on to teach at Brighton; Geneva Basin and Copper Mountain in Colorado; and finally Mammoth Mountain, where she taught snowboarding, and China Peak, where she taught telemark, in California, earning TM3, S2, XC3, A2, SR1, CCED certifications along the way.

Through the years, she’s kept one thing at the top of her mind: the importance of creating a unique learning experience tailored to each student. “A few years ago, I read an article by Horst Abraham [this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient] in which he said a good lesson is when you as an instructor learn along with the student,” she recalled. “In other words, if I taught you, I’d be learning how to teach you.”

A unique learning experience also carries over to group lessons, where interaction is vital, according to Drennan. “If I have a group lesson, I always want to make sure that everybody in the group isn’t just looking at me, but that they also bond with each other,” she said. “If it’s an all-day lesson, maybe they’re even exchanging e-mail addresses by the end.”

Ultimately, Drennan asserted, the goal is also to help people have fun, especially when clients need a break from the world around them.

Strong People Skills Help Build Trust

Over her career, Drennan gradually came to realize the importance of people skills in a lesson. “We didn’t really even name what they were until pretty recently in the association,” said Drennan. “It was kind of implicit, like trying to figure out what makes a good instructor.”

For Drennan, good people skills start with establishing trust. Whether it’s working with a student who’s apprehensive or has anxiety about being on snow or teaching someone who doesn’t trust the instructor because of their appearance, there are many factors to consider.

For example, Drennan recalled a lesson when she was a relatively new instructor. “I had a class of teenage boys, and they didn’t trust me because they didn’t respect me,” she said. “So, I had to ski them down a hard run, and then they said, ‘Oh, well, maybe we can learn something.’”

More importantly, she conveyed that trust is earned by treating each student with respect and showing them that you’re genuinely interested in them. She points to eye and goggle contact and body language as key indicators of respect, along with how she speaks to students and what she asks them to do during a lesson.

“From the moment I meet my students, I try to remember to smile and look each person in the eye,” she said. “It’s extremely important to learn each student’s name as I ask questions about their background and goals for the lesson.” By doing so, she sets the stage for the conversation and ensures that students recognize that she heard their responses to her questions and that lesson activities will address each student’s needs.

As she gets into the lesson, Drennan tries to create an “upbeat, fun learning environment by encouraging students to explore movements together via guided discovery, paired practice, and group problem-solving,” she said, adding that she “also aims to spend time giving each student individual feedback and encouragement.” Finally, she focuses on maintaining a relaxed demeanor, while also being confident, fun-loving, and enthusiastic about what she’s teaching and what her students are learning.

Although there are times when this can be challenging, Drennan affirmed that managing your own emotions is another important people skill. She recalled that shortly before a large group lesson several years ago, she got in a minor car accident. She took some time to remind herself that it was just a fender bender, and no one, including herself, was hurt. As a result, she was able to put her emotions aside until after the lesson.

There are also times, she professed, when an instructor might have a difficult student or even a conscious or unconscious bias. Here, too, emotions that arise as a result also need to be managed accordingly.

Likewise, it’s critical to help students with their emotions. “The other crucial people skill is just trying to help people manage their emotions, especially if they’re afraid,” she said. “[For example], working people down a hill, or realizing that some types of terrain aren’t good for someone, or trying to pick things that will work for whatever emotional state they’re in.”

Growth Through Education

When conversing with Drennan, who earned her first master’s degree, in geology, in 1978, her passion for education is apparent. “I really love teaching and working with students both on the slope and in the classroom, just helping people learn,” she said. “And one of my favorite things about PSIA is I’ve learned so much about teaching.”

During her time as a member of our association, she’s served on the Rocky Mountain and Western Regions’ education staffs, the Nordic Task Force, and the Cross Country Task Force since its inception in 2010. Recently, she played a leading role in helping to develop a workbook and three online learning modules to help members prepare for the association’s cross country assessments, which were inspired by the alpine movement analysis E-learning module.

“Instead of testing people, I discovered that once people go through a workbook, they learn what they need to know,” she said. “So, Patti Banks, Debra Willits, and I sat down and created a format for that style of learning. And then we made that E-learning module, which helps people prepare for certification, especially those who don’t have a trainer at their area.”

Drennan is so passionate about education that, after volunteering to teach English as a second language, she went back to school in her 50s to get her TESL certificate and take linguistics classes. Her professors and classmates then helped convince her to take literature classes, which eventually led to her getting a second master’s, this time in English, at the age of 62.

This experience was the catalyst for helping to change Drennan’s perspective on teaching. Having a background in biology and geology, she was used to the process of labeling things in the natural world to make it easier to understand concepts and pursue the truth. Admittedly, she never read much fiction, because, as she said matter-of-factly, “It wasn’t true.”

“As I read various novels, I began to realize that the voice of the characters often expressed thoughts and feelings – and their ways of viewing the world – that I had experienced but had never put into words,” she said. “Moreover, the reflections and ideas that my fellow students shared in class discussions provided additional insights into the emotions and situations expressed in the piece of literature we were reading.”

She added that writing papers also helped her discover new vocabulary and ways of expressing herself, which made her curious about concepts she’d never considered. Additionally, as mentioned, her training in English has helped her author workbooks, produce e-learning courses, and revise and edit PSIA documents.

“All this personal growth has contributed to not only understanding myself but understanding others, including my students in my ski lessons,” she said. “In a sense, the students are the books I’m ‘reading.’”

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The Educational Excellence Award recognizes members who authored or helped develop educational materials or resources related to teaching snowsports or the snowsports industry. Learn more about the awards and how you can honor members who have made an impact on our industry.

Read about this year’s other award recipients:

3 C’s Award: Grace Center do Ouro