Day job wasn't so frantic last week but it was still busy with no down time to get small bits & pieces done. The past two Thursday's I've pulled 17 hour days to get everything in. I originally said I wouldn't practice the 5:45am if I was teaching in the evening but I have been left with no choice but to do this in order to get my own mat time in. It wasn't so bad, the adrenalin kicks in the moment I step up onto the podium & last Thursday was probably one of the best classes I've taught. I do wake up Friday morning feeling wrecked with a yoga hangover but hey it's Friday I can drag myself through 8 hours of day job before it's wine & the weekend.
Yesterday was a great day, again long, I was out the house 14 straight hours with my day starting at 5:30am. I opted to cover the 7:30am class which was awesome. I practiced the 9:30am in which I was a little tired, tight, scattered but I needed it. This was followed by a teachers workshop. Very exciting getting everyone together to talk yoga. We went through Pranayama breathing & Triangle in the two hours. So much to talk about. We shared our experiences, read the dialogue, pin pointed the common mistakes & how to correct them. Very, very useful. We are going to do this once a months now which is great.
After the workshop I hot footed it down to Scarborough to meet with a future Spring Trainee to run some dialogue. I was blessed enough to be given a lot of support before my training experience so now it is my turn to give back. It went well, I was very impressed. It reminded me of how we were when we first started doing dialogue and how far we've come since last May.
To round off the day I taught the 4pm class. I received some lovely feedback from a student who said it was the most enjoyable class he'd taken in ages. Cool. I also got some very valuable feedback from a fellow teacher. I need to start teaching now. Sounds weird I know. I had my assessment with my mentor last week who said I'm ready to start making corrections. The teacher yesterday pretty much told me the same, to use the dialogue to actually teach & correct.
Spewing out a verbatim class every time won't progress myself or the students. Now I need to start focusing on the students more, teaching the words & not just 'saying' them. It will mean having to cut out some words to focus on the words that are important to the common mistakes. Homework!! I am aware of the mistakes student's make but have been too scared to say anything. In the workshop yesterday we touched on this. Simply by repeating a line in the dialogue until they get it, ie. "sit down more, sit down more, sit down more." I also need to slow down & give students a chance to actually digest the words that are being said. Incorporating a pause I was told will help, even though it might feel like an age to me, to the student a pause in air time will give them chance to think about what they are hearing.
Very exciting times, this job just keeps getting better & better!!
 |
| Fresh sunflowers from our garden |
 |
| Buddha with his Sunday offerings |
No comments:
Post a Comment