I’ve been doing a few things towards my Continual Professional Development lately.  Being an Approved Driving Instructor you are responsible for ensuring that you remain up to date with changes in the industry and keeping your mind open to any fresh ideas that come along.  It can be easy to sit back and do things the same way year in year out, and apart from the occasional “check test” of our ability to teach, there is no one out there chasing you up, or sending you along to courses to ensure you are still at the top of your game.

I’ve been reading a book by Ian Edwards of eDriving Solutions called,  Can Drivers Really Teach Themselves?  It’s about coaching and a Learner Centered approach to Driver Education.  I haven’t read it all yet, but so far I’ve picked up the need for breaking down barriers to learning, and the importance of self evaluation.  many instructors, (myself included) will say, “well I’ve always coached pupils, it’s good use of leading questions.”  Which it is but we can all look a bit deeper for new ways to question, to lead, or to coach our learners into thinking and finding the correct answer or solution to the problem they face.

I’ve also taken on board information from various sources about hidden disabilities such as Dyslexia, Autism, Aspergers  and Dyspraxia.  I’m not going into any details about these conditions, mainly because I don’t know enough about them and I intend to learn more about them in the future. But my feeling is that we have developed the need to put labels on everything.  X cant do this because they suffer from Y and you need to have Z skills to be able to deal with it.  We are all individuals, we all have our problems be they buried away and hard to find, or easier to see.  But hidden or clear they still have an impact on how we learn and how we perceive things.  Whatever label you put on things there is a learning barrier to overcome, it’s just a question of finding a way round, over or through that barrier. What works for one student may not work for another, so you have to look for a new or different way to communicate the required information in a way that works or makes sense to the individual you are dealing with at the time.

I had a lady pass her test today on her 1st attempt and it’s her learning experience that has prompted me to write these things down. This lady has been with me for a little over a year, and she could probably of passed her test sooner.  She wasn’t difficult to teach.  Her ability to learn the required skills to become a good driver was very good.  Her problem was self belief.  Experiences in her past have left her reluctant to accept that she can do anything new, or that she can do it well.  Over the past few weeks I noticed that she seemed to be accepting that she could do it, and today on her test when she was struggling with her nerves I heard her say to the examiner, ” I know I’m a good driver.”  Well that was it for me, I knew she was going to be ok.

It’s been quite an emotional day.  I’m always happy when my pupils pass, but sometimes one comes along that really makes you feel you have made a difference, and all your efforts have been worthwhile.

I have thought in the past about changing to teaching in an automatic car, but have always been apprehensive about doing so because of the lack of demand. I have taught 2 people to drive in automatic vehicles and really enjoyed it. But what has to change and how do we convince new drivers that Automatics are the way forward?

I’ve been reading up about hybrid and electric cars this week. Like many motorist I didn’t know that much about them, and I was inspired to find out more after some interaction on Facebook with a driving instructor who teaches in a Toyota Prius (a hybrid car).

Most common thoughts about electric cars are that they lack performance and what if you run out of charge?  Both of these concerns were dispelled by watching Robert Llewellyn’s You Tube channel Fully Charged.   Electric cars are not slow, and why would you allow your car to run out of charge?  Do you allow your car to run out of fuel now?  Obviously it’s far easier to fill up at a petrol station when running low, that it currently is to charge an electric car, so for that reason I would not currently consider an electric vehicle.  You can’t be doing driving lessons, and find you’re low on charge before you have finished your days work.

A hybrid car on the other hand seems to me to be a lovely idea.

• It uses less fuel
• you don’t have to charge it
• you pay very little or no road tax
• many are exempt from London Congestion Charge

Reading up about the technology on manufacturers websites such as Toyota and Honda, and also the reviews by Robert Llewellyn on Fully Charged , it’s easy to see they are the future, and the way forward.  Basically a hybrid has an electric motor and a fuel engine to drive the car.  The battery charges itself using the energy the car creates.  The less power you require, the less fuel you use.  If you are driving around slowly in towns and cities, the vehicle will run on electric only, but as you demand more and more power, the vehicle will begin to use fuel to maintain the performance you expect.  Other facts I have picked up are they require less maintenance and can happily do 300,000 miles.  But sadly they are very expensive to buy.

Like all new things lets hope the prices come down over the coming years as they become more popular.  But as a start it would be great to get more motorists into automatic vehicles.  I’ve started talking to my pupils about their choice to learn to drive a manual.  Most like the idea of an automatic, some don’t understand how an automatic works and once I have explained it, they too like the idea.  Why have all the extra work of choosing and engaging the correct gear when the car could be doing it for you?  But all of my students so far agree that it’s best to pass in a manual so they have that option.  They think that, because that it what we tell them.  Automatic is a genuine option, the best option for future cars and not a lazy way out.

Why not check out Robert Llewellyn’s show Fully Charged.  He has  lots of reviews on there of the latest Hybrid and Electric cars.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fullychargedshow

As a responsible driving instructor I always try not to use the same roads day after day.  It’s not very entertaining for me to be driving around the same areas all the time and I am crucially aware that using the same areas that are popular with driving instructors is very annoying to the residents in that particular area.  Where I teach people to drive, we have a perfect training area.  It’s a lovely quiet housing estate with wide roads, and very few parked cars; gentle slopes for beginning hill starts and clutch control; lots of roads that link up making it ideal to teach junctions without going round and round in small circles.  You are able to come out onto the main A road for a short distance to introduce traffic lights and more traffic, then turn back into the estate further up.  It’s not a small estate and the residents are mainly elderly.  Until the recent change in test routes, these roads weren’t even on driving test routes so there’s not much chance of getting in the way of a driving test when you are teaching the basics to a new student.

Today I was using this training area with a young lad on his very first lesson.  We had several goes at moving off and stopping successfully and it becomes inevitable that at some point you have to turn a corner.  We attempted a quiet left turn into a side road,  all very safe, no traffic or pedestrians about.  Unfortunately as is often the case on the first go at steering he got a bit muddled, wasn’t steering enough and to make matters worse he pushed the accelerator too.  With a few quick instructions from me he got off the accelerator, and got his steering under control, all be it that we were on the wrong side of the road we had turned into.  I pointed this out and he began to come back nicely to the correct position on the left.  Unfortunately he pushed the accelerator too hard again and shot across the road too quickly so I had to step in with my dual brake and clutch, bringing the car to a stop with the front near side wheel just on the kerb.

I’m aware that this sequence of events to many will sound horrific, dangerous, maybe a bit comical and stereotypical of a learner driver.  This chain of events can be viewed very differently to many people.  My pupil was a little scared by how hard it became to co-ordinate the controls of the car, he had managed moving off and stopping in a straight line beautifully.  Just adding to that steering around a corner at very low-speed in first gear suddenly became very difficult to do.

My perception of the incident was very different.  Firstly I was aware before anything went wrong that there were no other road users around.  Therefore when my student managed to regain control of the steering I already knew that having straightened up on the wrong side of the road, although wrong and potentially dangerous, was causing no harm at all because there was nobody there. Secondly when the student, on trying to correct his road position, inadvertently pushed the accelerator too hard, I was ready and quick to bring the car to a halt, having already assessed that there was still nobody around to cause any harm to.

The resident who was in her garden at the time saw things very differently and came over to tell me so.  I’m sure to this lady who was quietly working in her garden, my car sounded very much out of control and scary.  As we were only in first gear the engine revved up very loud when I used the dual control clutch to prevent the car completely mounting the pavement.  Unfortunately despite my best efforts to reassure this lady that I would never allow an accident to occur, and I was able to take control of the car, I think this lady had seen one too many learners today and needed to let off steam saying people shouldn’t be allowed on the road if they can’t drive and that someone is going to be killed soon.  I partially agreed saying it would be wonderful to be able to teach the basics of car control off-road, but sadly there are no such facilities available.

We all had to learn to drive somewhere, and I completely understand how frustrating it must be for the residents who live in these ideal locations that attract the driving instructors in their droves.  But what is the answer?  Several years ago I used to take part in pre-driver training at two local secondary schools.  This proved excellent for the 6th form students to learn some basic car control skills on playgrounds and tennis courts.  Having a large area to be able to teach moving off and stopping, and steering techniques to all 16 or 17 year olds would be great so that when they begin to drive on real roads they know what they are doing.  Unfortunately its a luxury very few instructors have access to.

When you don’t own your own horse it is really hard saying goodbye to the ones you have been working so closely with.  Over the past five and a half years, I’ve watched the two geldings I was working with grow up and develop into, fine, very well-mannered horses with bags of potential.  Their mum, who lives with them is adorable, her two sons tower over her now, as does the filly who joined the tribe nearly two years ago.  I’ve learnt so much in that time about handling young horses, general horse care, and field management, which I really enjoy, also my riding has improved enormously thanks to all the lessons I have had, mainly with an instructor called Tim Brier, you never stop learning, and especially when bringing on a young horse the lessons are essential.  I still consider myself to be quite a novice, but I have learnt a lot and am happy to take my knowledge further into a new challenge.

As I said at the start of this entry, a break from horses would be the best thing right now as I have a lot on at the moment with moving house, school holidays and my youngest daughter Zoe starting a secondary school in September.  But browsing through some online horse adverts late one night last week, I came across a lady near Sittingbourne, who has three young Friesian horses, and needs help bringing them on.  They need some handling, grooming, getting used to being led,  all the general things associated with young horses.  The 2-year-old is getting ready to be backed, the other two are only yearlings and need to get used to being led, especially the colt.  It’s a nice casual arrangement, not as demanding as what I was doing before.  I can go when I have time, so I have said I can go over there on Mondays and Fridays as these are usually my days off.

Today was my second visit.  I groomed and led the 2-year-old.  He didn’t want to walk for me at first, he’s only used to being handled by his owner who has had him from birth, so naturally he wasn’t keen on taking orders from me!  It’s hard getting used to new horses, he has a cough at the moment, and I was a bit unsure about how hard to be with him, especially with the owner watching.  I’ve always been taught that there is no point trying to pull a horse to make it walk, the horse is stronger and you can’t make it move like that.  Unfortunately that appears to be the way this fellow is learning, so no amount of me standing by his shoulder asking him to walk on, giving the odd flick to the quarters with the lead rein was going to work!  That is something we are going to have to rectify.

Then was the turn of the colt who is only a one year old.  He didn’t really lead at all and it took a lot of coaxing and tugging to get him the short distance through the gate to the field next door.  Just in the adjacent field they have a “cage”, I don’t like to use that word but its the best way to describe it.  It’s made up of some 8′ high metal barriers, arranged into a circle which is about  10m in diameter, the idea being you can “free rein” the horses in there.  This is not a term I’ve come across before, and googling it just now didn’t help either, like I say I am still quite a horse novice in many areas.  Basically, once in there you can let the horse trot round the circle, the same as lunging but without having a rein attached .  You stand in the middle and get the horse moving by swishing the lead rein behind him.  If any horsey people read this I would love to hear your comments.  In my opinion, the plus point to this was, it got the colt moving forwards.  On the negative side:

1. I feel this develops more fear in the horse rather than trust towards the human that is chasing it around.
2. You are closed in a metal cage with a 14.2hh one year old Friesian horse.  Not too safe for me.
3. The horse at times gets too close to the fence, because he’s trying to get away.  Not too safe for the horse.

I would like to say at this point that at no time was the colt upset or scared by this training method.  After one or two circles I let him stand so I could approach him, as I was concerned he wouldn’t trust me to go near him.  It was the first time he had done this and I wasn’t going to let him get upset.

After that I did some normal leading, to take advantage of the fact that he had been moving forward nicely.  I was really pleased that I got him walking on from the shoulder rather than being tugged, and I hope to continue this on my next visit and also get the 2-year-old doing it as well.

Getting used to how people do things differently is the problem rather than getting used to different horses.  I intend to give it a go for a few visits and see how things develop.  I still need to find my feet there, it’s very different from the last place which was so perfect in many ways, it makes it a tough act to follow.

There are times when he needs to use the car still, for instance if he is going out somewhere with our daughters, of getting shopping, or DIY bits, the sort of thing you can’t carry on a motorbike.  This can present a very small problem it has to be said, if I need to go somewhere at the same time, say to go and take care of the horses, so we thought it a good idea for me to learn to ride the bike, so on these odd occasions, I can use the bike when he needs the car.

So Sunday afternoon, the four of us went to the scout hut.  Mike had some packing to do for their forthcoming camp, Zoe took her bike down to have a chase about on in the woods and around the camping field.  I gave Lauren, our 13-year-old a driving lesson on the field, it’s a fantastic opportunity for her to have a go at controlling the car in safely whilst not being old enough to drive.  It’s all off-road, on private land and she is able to drive the car around and get used to clutch control and steering.  We did clutch control exercises, steering between a row of trees and benches, and reversed between them too.  Lots of fun!

Then it was my turn to try out the bike!

Mike talked me through what to do.  It’s very confusing!  The clutch is in your hand instead of your foot, and the gears are changed with your foot instead of your hand!  The thought of taking a motorbike out on the road after only a couple of hours practice is terrifying to me!  I was doing pretty well in 1st gear.  I was balancing and turning nicely around the car park, but getting into 2nd was scary, it felt too fast and I was soon running out of room across the car park.  There comes the next complication!  You have a front brake operated by your right hand, like a push bike, and we all know you never just pull on the front brake because you will go over the handlebars.  (Can you see where this is going)?  You also have a rear brake which is operated by the right foot, similar to applying the foot brake in a car.  I took the bike up onto the field, so I had much more room to play with to practice gear changing, stopping and starting, and I was doing quite well and feeling a lot more confident with what I was doing although each step required a lot of thought and wasn’t coming that naturally at all.

Mike did say be careful because the bike wouldn’t have as much grip on the grass.

You see it started to get a bit too fast (probably 20mph max)  And I was on a very slight slope with the intention of having another go at getting into 3rd gear on the next straight.  But I thought “Oh no I don’t like it”  It was beginning to feel out of control, and each time that happened I sensibly decided to stop and start again.  But this time I panicked and I’m pretty sure in my efforts to get the bike to stop I just applied the front brake, causing the bike to lose grip on the grass and over we went sideways.  I’ve got a nasty graze on my arm, which goes to show that even on grass at below 20mph you should be wearing proper safety clothes.  And Mike’s lovely new bike has now got a broken indicator lens and a crack in the headlight casing.  I felt so bad for damaging his bike, thankfully it was nothing mechanical and it is running fine.  And it is also going for its 1000km service on Tuesday so the timing was good there, at least it will be thoroughly checked over.

I have to say, my experience of not being able to stop, start, and change gear, successfully on the bike has renewed my sympathy for my car learners when it comes to these matters.  When you have been driving for years, these things come naturally, and even as an instructor you know it’s a hard skill to acquire but can still maybe not see how hard and scary it is for some people.  Often a learner will say they would be better in an automatic because they can’t grasp the clutch and gears.  And I have to say my first thought with the motorbike was, this would be so much easier if  it were a twist and go.  But of cause the best thing is to persevere and improve you technique, most of us get it eventually, and I know with practice I would be fine on a motorbike, but I don’t want to be damaging Mike’s lovely bike again in a hurry, or my arm come to that!

I think 4 wheels or 4 legs (on horseback) is most definitely the way forward for me for the time being.

Today I am in bed ill so am using the opportunity to update my blog.

Work

I worked hard to prepare for my diploma exam in May.  It went ok, I wasn’t as well prepared as I would have liked to have been but I gave it my best shot on the day and hopefully I did enough to pass it.  I should get the results sometime in July so fingers crossed.  Apparently the format for the Diploma in Driving Instruction Exams is changing from next year.  It was mentioned that the exams will be more web-based which may be easier.  I was too focussed on the task at hand to find out any more details that day so will have to make some enquiries about it.  For some reason, information about the Diploma never seems that readily available.

I’m reading Roadcraft at the moment, which is the police driver’s handbook.  It’s really well written, full of excellent driving information and is a good read for any driver looking to improve their driving skills.  I have been recommending it to my students who have been doing Pass Plus lately.  I’m really pleased that quite a few of my new drivers have been taking the opportunity to do the pass plus scheme.  It’s a huge incentive that Kent County Council will pay £60 towards the cost of the scheme for new drivers, but unfortunately only for those aged 17 to 19.  It’s a shame that age bracket isn’t a bit wider.

Horsey Stuff

The youngest horse that I look after is growing up fast and is absolutely beautiful.  She is 2 years old now and in need of a bit more work and handling, she has a good brain in there and needs to put it to a bit of work.  Chief and I are slowly overcoming our fears together.  We are sticking to walk and trot for the time being, I’m not quite ready to try cantering again yet, as that is usually when he throws in a buck and pulls his head down.  There have been a couple of bucks lately anyway which have done me good, as I have sat well and kept my hands up and therefore, Chief’s head up too.  We work with our instructor Tim usually once a week and have been doing some lovely work, over poles and some dressage moves like leg yielding and shoulder in.  Last week we were also working on encouraging him to stand nice and square.  We discovered that when Chief comes to halt, he leaves his offside hind leg back so with a bit of right leg I was beginning to get him to bring it up in line with his left hind leg.  Bless him, he loves to learn new things and is really pleased with himself when he achieves something new, but his little face when you ask him to do something different, you can almost hear him saying, “but I don’t understand what you want me to do”!  We had a lovely hack out last week too, he was a very brave boy, not really spooking at anything, he was accompanied by his younger brother Maverick, and I think he likes to try to be braver as he’s the eldest, but Maverick is rarely scared of anything anyway!

Family

Lauren has just done her end of year 8 exams and I’m sure she has done very well in them.  The school gave them an excellent timetable with plenty of revision time.  Zoe also helped Lauren revise at home too.  We are awaiting the decision of the Appeals Panel as to whether Zoe will be able to join her sister at the Grammar school in September.  Places are very limited and unfortunately Zoe did not do well enough on her 11+ exams to gain a place.  We have presented evidence to show that Zoe is more than capable of achieving good results from a Grammar school education and can only wait and see if they are able to put her in.  If not Zoe has a good school to go to in September and will do well there.

Mike has sold his car and now used a motorbike for work.  He loves his bike!  It’s saving us a lot of money financially and with a bit more practice under his belt he will be able to start thinking about taking his bike test for a full bike licence.

And we will also soon be moving house!  We have lived in our house for nearly 19 year and it has served us well.  It’s a 2 bed terraced and was our first home, so it will be sad to leave it, but in our new home the girls can finally have a bedroom each and we will be away from the main road in a nice quiet location, nearer to the girls schools for September, with a drive and garage instead of the on road residents parking that we currently have.  Bliss!

I’ve started getting back into a bit of studying over the last couple of days.  If I want to sit any exams for my Diploma in Driving Instruction this year I have to apply for them by mid February.  I telephoned and requested the application pack yesterday so I should be able to apply on time.  I hoped to do two modules this year but have been so surprised by how hard they are.  I started studying for module 1 which is all about legal obligations and regulations, not making much headway with that I changed to module 5.   Teaching, practices and procedures.  This I thought would be a bit easier as I know how to teach and the practices and procedures involved.  It’s a bit like wading through mud!!  While I understand what I am reading I don’t seem able to take it in, and transfer it into my own words on paper, when going through the sample questions.  It’s becoming very frustrating, especially when what I am reading about is how people learn, and applying different teaching practices for different people.  This I can manage no problem in the car when I am teaching people to drive but trying to do the same thing to myself  from the Driving Instructor’s Manual is driving me nuts!! I am now thinking that a quick look at the literature for module 4 may be my best approach, this one is entitled; Driving theory, skills and procedures.  I really do want to sit at least one exam this year or I think I will end up not completing it which would be a shame as I have passed one module already.

My car has had a little service and a couple of good jet washes!  After all the bad weather and road conditions it has had to put up with over the last few weeks, it thoroughly deserved it.  The amount of dirt and grit that came away from right up under the wheel arches was amazing, poor little car.  I am so pleased with its performance through the bad weather.  I had lots of snow to drive through to get to the horses, up and down hills, and untreated country lanes to negotiated and it didn’t let me down.  Although driving in ice and snow is best done in the highest gear possible, my little KA was having none of that.  If I put it in 3rd, it was just going too fast, even without any acceleration, so I had to keep it in 2nd and sometimes 1st to keep the speed down. Now I’m desperately trying to look after the wheels and suspension, there are just so many deep potholes around, and try as I might, sometimes you just can’t avoid them.

I’m off to see a production of Godspell tonight with my daughters.  One of my pupils is in it at his school, and I’m a big fan of musical theatre so I said I would love to go and see it.  So very much looking forward to an evening of entertainment.

What a two weeks it has been, but I am quite pleased with my efforts so far.  Despite the awful road and weather conditions I got to the horses at least twice every day.  Well I would wouldn’t I?  There is no way I wouldn’t get there somehow.  I had to leave my car at the top of the hill near my home, to make sure I could get there by car each day.  The rest of the journey I could keep the car going, but that first hill I just couldn’t get up, usually because there were other cars in my way, and once you stop that’s it, you just can’t get going again on a hill.

The boys have been out the whole time bless them, but they’ve not got hungry or cold, in fact I have probably been feeding too much although I have tried really hard not to.  The snow at times in their paddock got to a foot deep in the bits they weren’t walking on, but mainly where they were walking it stayed at about their ankles.

The girls have been couped up in their stables, but cozy and warm.  They have been so good despite not being able to come out very much.  When I have turned them out for a while they have still been very good, especially the youngster, who I was concerned about turning out.  But she has a chase about and didn’t slip at all, cornering better than she usually does, her balance is improving.

Pushing wheel barrows loaded with hay and water has been back-breaking!  Especially trying to get through deep snow!  But now it is nearly all gone, which brings the arrival of the mud!

Dave will be home in 3 days time so my stint of responsibility is nearly over.

I had to cancel all my work last week because the roads were just too dangerous for learning to drive.  I like to get my learners to try driving in these conditions, but not at everyone elses expense.  Travelling about by road has been treacherous for any driver, I’ve found you have to be really confident and determined to get your car through some snowy roads, and putting a learner on the road too just isn’t fair to the motorists who have to be on the roads.

This week has been a little better.  I did two driving lessons on Tuesday, and found a relatively safe side road for both my students to try driving through some slushy snow, stopping and starting in it.  But trying to find anywhere to do manoeuvres was almost impossible, so we mainly drove on main roads, and the one way system in town.

Today was better still.  The only problem with the roads now is they are falling apart!  Potholes everywhere. My first student today is nearing her test.  We had a chat before we set off about what to expect on our travels as a result of the weather.  She correctly came up with puddles from the thawing snow and potholes in the road, and I was very impressed with her observation when it came to identifying the potholes and avoiding them where possible.

So back to normal now hopefully.  Full diary tomorrow and Saturday,  try to recoup some of the earning I lost last week.  The joys of being self-employed!

On the 12th day of driving my instructor said to me;

12 red lights;

11 knocked down pedestrians;

10 broken windows;

9 burnt out clutches;

8 cancelled lessons;

7  buckled wheels;

6 failed tests;

5 new pupils;

4 smashed up cars;

3 bumped curbs;

2 flat tyres;

and a stressed out driving instructor!

Bless them, well done girls xx