Practice teach class, 8/21/06

On Monday August 21st I completed the requirement of teaching a class that is observed by a seasoned yoga teacher. I taught friends and Dina observed. I was very nervous! I felt the heat of a spotlight, and my own inner-self-critic was a bit more active than usual. However, I got through it, and overall it went well. Dina and my friends gave me great feedback, a lot of encouraging praise and many tips for how to improve my teaching and also tips for how to improve my own experience while teaching. One tip that stands out is to follow my own instructions when I lead a seated grounding meditation at the beginning of the class. To close my eyes and concentrate on my own breathing and my own intention while leading the meditation. She said I could even sit in silence at first to ground myself if that is what I need. Like the way you should fasten your own seat belt before helping someone else fasten theirs, I need to address my own active mind or nervous feelings before helping the class with theirs. And I did think to myself at the beginning while I was teaching "I am nervous, make space for the nervousness, let go of desire for things to be different than what they are..." but I could have taken more time to do that. Also, there was no way around being nervous, and it will become easier the more and more I teach. Dina was taking notes throughout the class, I felt as though I was being critiqued by the person in yoga who's opinion means the most to me. Little did I know until afterwards that many of her notes were positive praise. Things like, you did that well, that is a good thing to say or do. She said that although she knew I was nervous, my voice was steady and calm. I don't think that I have to be a great teacher by graduation, because I know that I plan to study closely with Dina for 6 months, and that I have plenty of time to learn everything I want to learn before I start teaching public classes. For now I'd like to continue teaching to groups of friends. I've had 2 offers in the past week from friends who would like to host a yoga class at their house for me to teach. They are encouraging me, and they know that the more I practice, the better I'll become. And they will appreciate the free yoga instruction.

I am so relieved that the "practice class" is over. I was so nervous about it, and I'd been preparing for so long, and yet I felt like I didn't have enough tools to prepare for it. So I had to just do it, and then I was given tools for how to prepare for my next class. Dina gave me a lot of tips for sequencing, and I'm not sure I retained all that she told me, but I will be able to pay better attention to her sequencing in the future as I continue to attend her public classes. Now that this requirement is complete, I will focus on studying for the written final.