My teacher training program requires us to do ten hours (or more) of volunteer teaching as a part of our training. It is our responsibility to find a place to teach and to prepare our classes. I was able to set up a once a week program at a church near me where I would teach hour and a half class over the course five weeks. My first class was on May 18,2017 and my second class was one week later.
I have about 15 people whom, for most part, this is their first time doing Yoga. I spent about two weeks preparing, honing, and practicing my class flow before the first class. I spent so much time practicing that I neglected my own Yoga practice. My twin goals were not to have to use notes too much and to also work on my move cues . Since the class is mostly beginners, I decided to focus on basic poses that are not too difficult and to also spend a good amount of time demonstrating poses.
I thought that I would be nervous getting in front of so many people and starting to teach but the opposite was true. I felt comfortable in what I was teaching (thanks to lots of preparation) and I felt at that moment that I made the correct decision taking the teacher training plunge. It is hard to describe the feeling when you ask a class to do something and they actually do it for the first time. Watching 15 people do a spinal twist in unison is like ballet. It was great when one student came to me after class and said that our one Yoga class made her gardening much easier the next day.
During my second class, I spent less time in front of the room demonstrating poses and more time observing, noticing where adjustments may be needed, and doing the adjustments. This is the benefit of doing these classes for me. I am learning my class voice, my teaching style, and class management. I know I made mistakes and I will learn from them. I realize that I need to slow things down a bit when I am not leading a flow and I need to give better verbal cues for some poses. I did get everyone to do "Legs up the Wall" but I could not walk them through it verbally for example.
In the middle of all of this teaching, weekends 6 and 7 of training are now in the past. There is now a ton of outside work and preparation for each class. The pile of open books in my dining room is quite impressive. Its like college all over again except for much less drinking.
We spent two full days on Yoga history and philosophy. While I find the subject matter interesting, I am not certain of the practicality in the modern Yoga world of Vinyasa flows. The Yoga Alliance requires it but I think two days spent teaching each other would have been move beneficial to us as teachers. We do what we have to do.
We spent a full class on pose modifications. This was an important learning because as teachers, we need to know how to adapt poses to make them as accessible as possible to people. We were given a few poses where we had to develop modifications (using blocks, blankets, straps etc.) and teach them to the class. It was a very quick five hour class.
We have also begun working on anatomy and movement within anatomy. To understand this connection and to have a good grasp of the underlying anatomy of poses is important for a teacher to know. There is a good amount of studying and preparation for this subject and the training go over a few weekends. There are so many bones, ligaments, muscles, and muscles under muscles that it makes this study difficult at best. I am finding anatomy to be my favorite subject so far as I had very limited knowledge in the area.
So. The class beat goes on. Next weekend is lower body therapy and ventral lines in the body.
Namaste.
