I suk....

[Flying Pig]

....at teaching weather.  I am teaching a 20hr Private Ground School and I did my 3hr block tonight on weather theory.  As we all know, the minimum 20hrs is barely enough to even gloss over everything.  I know the material but good grief....Im putting myself to sleep teaching the class!   10 min breaks every hour and an occasional 2 min Youtube video about something cool and flying related seems to be about all I can do.  i think maybe what I could do next time is break it up and not do it all in one sitting.  But then jumping around seems tough. 

Any ideas?

[bosshawk]

Don't worry, Rob: aviation weather is about as exciting as watching paint dry, until you encounter it in the air.  Then, it gets really exciting, as you well know.  Weather theory is just plain dry, unless you happen to be a meteorologist(sp?).  Get through it as well as you can, unless you can persuade somebody from the NWS at Hanford to come up and help you.

[bflynn]

There isn't really a way to make weather exciting - you can be fairly well assured that your students will probably not need your lesson for quite a while.  You're breaking them in, making them aware of what they need to know.  You aren't teaching them everything they need to know about weather in 3 hours.  Their flight instructors and their experiences will take them further.

If you covered these points, you've done a good job.
1) What the FAA will cover on the written test
2) What they really need to know to not be lost when their instructor talks to them about it
3) What they need to be safe(r)

Ultimately, you need to teach them enough to get them in the air and for them to safely use their certificate to learn more.

[sparks]

When I ran a ground school the really snoozer was the session on regulations. As you noted even the teacher was dozing!
You're doing everything to keep them interested so slug away. Theory sprinkled with the YouTube application examples are as good as it gets. It's hard to do that with the FARs.

[Flying Pig]

Its amazing how little you can cover in a 20hr Ground.  We do it one night over 8 weeks.
When your teaching it, your really understand how "minimum" the FAA standards are.  I make it a point to tell the people (25 in this class) that in this ground we are going to concentrate on aerodynamics, weather and X-Ctry flight planning.  We spend about 2 hrs on requirements to become a pilot and regs the first night, two nights on aerodynamics.  A night on Weight and Balance, then the last couple nights are performance planning and X-Ctry flight planning.  Then for the last night, I assign them a X-ctry problem and an aircraft and walk around the room while they put it all together using weather and all their tools.  I have previous "flyable" weather already printed out in the event that the weather that night is IFR.  I dont want them cheesing out saying they cant fly!   Everyone seems to like it....but man o man.

When I start I make sure to tell them at the beginning that this course will be a broad overview with concentration on just a couple of topics and that there is no way in this 20hr course that they will be ready to pass a written just by sitting in a classroom.  That it will require constant study and reading.

[mksilencer]

Am I missing something here?  Where are you getting the 20 hours from as a minimum?  The way I read the FAR is just that you need ground training from an instructor or pass a home-study course. No times listed.  Are you perhaps confusing it with the 20 hours of dual flight instruction that are required?  As a CFI, I'm honestly asking the question, just to make sure I'm not overlooking something.

And for the record, I agree that it's near impossible to squeeze everything you need into 20 hours, but I'm glad the FARs leave that much room for good judgment on behalf of the students, instructor, and evaluators.

[Flying Pig]

Am I missing something here?   Where are you getting the 20 hours from as a minimum?  The way I read the FAR is just that you need ground training from an instructor or pass a home-study course. No times listed.  Are you perhaps confusing it with the 20 hours of dual flight instruction that are required?  As a CFI, I'm honestly asking the question, just to make sure I'm not overlooking something.

And for the record, I agree that it's near impossible to squeeze everything you need into 20 hours, but I'm glad the FARs leave that much room for good judgment on behalf of the students, instructor, and evaluators.

No your not going crazy.  We just chose to make it 20hrs.  Ends up being 7 weeks.  1 night a week for 3hrs and the last session being 2hrs.  We offer it 2x per year.  You get 7 weeks for $95.  Not bad considering most CFIs charge $50 per hr in my area.  We average about 25-30 students.  Funny thing is most arent pilots or even student pilots.  They are just interested in aviation.  A lot of father/son combos too.
You start going much longer than 6-7 weeks it ends up being way to long.  We also offer it in conjuction with a 25 min intro flight too for a little more.