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| For the teachers... how long after completing your training did you start to teach? Was there an apprenticeship program? Did you start teaching before your training and/or certification had been completed? Thanks so much! |
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| My first training was a Baptiste Boot Camp. That was eight days down in Maya Tullum, Mexico.
I started teaching in a Gold's Gym in Orlando about two months after I returned to the States.
There was no apprentice program nor was it mentioned (to my recollection).
Those were the days of my ignorance. Rather, those were the days of my greater ignorance :-) |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| We start teaching well before our training is complete. One year (or more) training, then beginning a pose or two at a time in another class, then your own class. Training is complete after the third or fourth year. This way the training teacher has a chance to watch you teach and make corrections and coach you for the two years before you are finished. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 1738
Location: right where I'm supposed to be | Taught for approximately a year prior to my completion of my 200 hour.
Seva is required while in training. This is where my love of giving to others blossomed.
That year I taught yoga classes for my school district and raised over $5000.
100% percent of the proceeds went to the children of Wenonah Elementary School.
It was and remains to be a great experience! I continue to seek out foundations, schools and community for fundraisers. |
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| Hmm..
I guess someone has to be the rebel.
I'll get certified one day. I'm hoping to go to Mysore, India. If I like it, I will go back and seek certification. It takes a number of visits.
If that doesn't happen, I'm considering more training in the states.
I did a 40 hour teacher training with David Swenson, but that is the only real thing I have done officially. I was teaching for 2 years prior. I teach from my own practice as I was taught by my teachers.
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| I don't have my Alliance piece of paper (it's not a cert and I can't think of what they call it) and I don't know if I'll ever bother finishing 200 with any particular program. I may, but who knows? No apprentice program, either. I've been teaching for about 2 yrs or so.
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| I did not do Teacher Training. I guess I am disqualified to answer this question. But, I can answer it in another way.
I ask my Teacher Trainees to teach a real live class while they are in Training. That is before they complete the Teacher Training. And, in some cases this happens as early as their Third Class.
I do not like to hold a great student back if they are ready for that.
This is just to answer the question. |
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| Every answer posted here is relevant, thanks all for taking the time to respond. It's not so much that I would like a survey as to who is certified (or certifiable), or whatever, but rather, at what point in whatever training anyone had, did you start to teach? Was a there significant a time span between being solely a student and becoming a teacher? See, here's the thing: I keep finding myself drawn to taking more and more workshops and trainings as my year of formal teacher training comes to a close, with no prospect of a steady teaching position on the horizon. So I wonder, am I purposely delaying going out there and teaching (even as a karma offering, the money's not the issue) because I doubt my abilities, and so I'm hiding in furthering my education? You know, the professional student thing. So that's why I'm asking: at which point did you all take the plunge, so to speak, if it wasn't a gradual approach to teaching such as apprenticing in your teachers' classes. Hope that adds the proper spin to my question. Thanks again. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| OM - ah, I see the real issue now! The fact is that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. You know?  It is probably time for you to take the plunge and get busy teaching, make some mistakes and do that kind of learning. To quote a ate 20th century poet - go ahead and JUMP! You might as well JUMP!  |
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| I agree with tourist, go ahead an' JUMP. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 1738
Location: right where I'm supposed to be | OM, go look for a local school or community to help raise funds. Run a 6 class session. Donate all monies to said chapter/fundraiser.
This is an unbelievable experience. People are open and willing to come and experience yoga classes when they know the monies are going to a worthy cause.
Call the guide dog foundation.....call any place that comes to mind.
This is great for building relationships with community and wetting the feet so to say. I can't tell you how strongly I feel about community service. It has completely changed my perspective. Life is so much larger than me. My way to be present and thankful is through seva.
Also, people are very forgiving if you inform them you are new. Although I think you'll be a wonderful, knowledgeable teacher, you know that though 
Just do it!  Go out there. Make a call today...not commitments, just talk! |
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| It is not in the rational mind or in the desire associated with the animal nature which resides in thepelvis that guides you to teach or not to teach. It is only in your own heart center where the answer dwells.
If you are avoiding teaching AND it is a calling from your heart then that is to be explored and processed. If you are not teaching becaause you are not called then it is perfectly fine.
If you are in the first scenario; the one of avoiding teaching but being called to do it, then of course go and do it - and continue to take workshops and trainings.
Otherwise it's no big deal to train and not teacher. Your dharma may lie elsewhere. |
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| purnayoga - 2007-05-16 1:13 PM Otherwise it's no big deal to train and not teacher. Your dharma may lie elsewhere. It would be nice if my dharma would email me already and let me know what it is and what it wants me to do. But yes, thanks for telling me what I already know is true.  Maybe if I continue to keep hearing it a couple hundred more times, I'll finally go out there and DO something already. Self-doubt is the most wicked of all demons. |
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Location: London, England | Hi Om,
Like some of the others, I've had no teacher training as such, just a close apprenticeship of two years with my Iyengar teacher. But like some of the others, I say jump . I was very fortunate in that I used to work for one of the Oxford colleges, and I ran free classes for the students-so money wasn't an issue for me or them, time wasn't an issue, they were students with loads of free time, so I always got a packed class and developed hopefully developed my skills more.
Maybe if you could do something like that, just to boost confidence. And do private tuition with friends who aren't afraid to give you critical appraisal, or people on your course.
Take care, and most of all have fun teaching,
Nick |
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| Your dharma has emailed you many times already is is quite fatigued from you ignoring it. You simply can't hear it over the Din of Life.
OrangeMat - 2007-05-16 2:42 PM
purnayoga - 2007-05-16 1:13 PM Otherwise it's no big deal to train and not teacher. Your dharma may lie elsewhere. It would be nice if my dharma would email me already and let me know what it is and what it wants me to do. But yes, thanks for telling me what I already know is true. Maybe if I continue to keep hearing it a couple hundred more times, I'll finally go out there and DO something already. Self-doubt is the most wicked of all demons. |
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| One thing about teacher trainings is that they can create a false sense of how much others know about the body/yoga. You are surrounded by people who know just as much as you, if not more. Then you come on message boards like this one and it only reinforces this. You have to realize that most people never even think about their bodies and relaxing. You know so much more than most students who go to yoga classes...I found, even as a new teacher, that I sounded impressive to the students (not to myself though). Now that I've been doing and studying yoga for so long very few instructors impress me, but I remember a time when they all impressed me. Just keep that in mind. Even if you are uncomfortable teaching when you start, your knowledge will come through and people will pick up on that. |
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| shalamOM - 2007-05-17 11:50 AM
One thing about teacher trainings is that they can create a false sense of how much others know about the body/yoga. You are surrounded by people who know just as much as you, if not more. Then you come on message boards like this one and it only reinforces this. You have to realize that most people never even think about their bodies and relaxing. You know so much more than most students who go to yoga classes...I found, even as a new teacher, that I sounded impressive to the students (not to myself though). Now that I've been doing and studying yoga for so long very few instructors impress me, but I remember a time when they all impressed me. Just keep that in mind. Even if you are uncomfortable teaching when you start, your knowledge will come through and people will pick up on that.
Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| ShalamOM, I was just thinking that same thing last night, that maybe I'm just really discounting how much I know and what value I can bring to people, because for me it's so ordinary now, so second-nature. It's like what you said in a different thread, how self-promotion seems contradictory to a yogic way of thinking and being. Not for everyone, but for some of us, it is a huge obstacle in progressing the business that we have chosen for ourselves, spreading the science of happiness. So thanks for confirming what I'm reluctantly starting to believe. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| One way to go into it is to say right up front that you are only there to share what you know. I have heard many humble teachers also preface a class by saying they are sincerely trying to convey what they have been taught and that any mistakes or misunderstandings are their own responsibility, not their teacher's. Think of it as learning together. If we went out together to learn how to ride a bike and you happened to know which way to sit facing on the bike, you would do the responsible thing and tell me what you knew, even if it wasn't much beyond which way to face! Now that you know something about yoga, it is your responsibility to pass that on. If you told me to face the wrong way on that bike, I wouldn't blame you. It would just take us both a bit longer to learn how to ride it |
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| Well, coming from a different angle, you might also consider walking in like you own the place and teach from a place that you truly know. I went into a setting where everyone knew I was new, and I took over their beloved teacher's class whom they thought had been fired, and they all but threw rotten fruit at me! I was not accepted there b/c they felt like they were not getting their time and money's worth with me. So sad! I got to be friends with the coordinator there and she said I should have never admitted I was new. I could see first hand that she had a point.
The next place I taught, about 6 months later, I never mentioned how long I had been teaching and I just rocked with what I knew and didn't overreach where I was not comfortable. That's been about 18 months in my new place and now I don't have to fake it-I really and truly am comfortable and feel like I'm doing good for others.
You have to just jump in. Everyone is new at some point, right? |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Good point, Kym! I guess it also pays to know the background and local politics of a place sometimes. |
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| Does this include past lives?
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| Hi,
These are great questions. I grappled with them too. The teachertraining program that I took was split into three 60 hour levels. Ichose to space these out over 1.5 years. AfterLevel One & Two I dabbled in some teaching. Although I hadclass-mates that jumped right into teaching after LevelOne.
A lot has to do with ones confidence and willingness to takerisks. When I say "risk" I do not mean this in an injurious way. If you areconsidering teaching prior to completing your certification - please beaware of potential health hazards (i.e. contraindications).
When should I start, should I apprentice...? These arequestions that I hear quite often from potential teachers. I wrote ablog about it - check it out here: http://www.trinityyoga.net/blog/entry/399/
Sonja
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| I have a dream. That dream is that studios require appropriate training as a result of increased injuries, not additional insurance. Insurance, much like prescription medicine, doesn't prevent, it is only palliative. Injuries will still rise with additional insurance (as will rates) but with appropriate training they will decrease.
What yoga teacher can't get behind that?
Trinity - 2007-05-17 7:20 PM
from Sonja's article which I am certain you all have read by now:
"Yoga injuries are becoming more prevalent and because of this - many studios require yoga teachers to have insurance."
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Location: London, England | Hi gordon,
That's an interesting perspective-one that has been embraced by other forms of 'alternative' medicine, such as chiropractic and the osteopathic disciplines (but then, I would say that , but I would say that to a large extent has not been embraced by the yoga world-i think there are a variety of reasons for this, one being that so many people seem to have a distrust of western medicine, even though it is one of the most successful in the world, to the extent that any country that uses it, is much better off-I guess that's debateable.
In chirpractic college, we were taught to insure ourselves by having a sound knowledge of what we could treat, and what we couldn't-I see all kinds of unsubstantiated claims being made in the yoga literature-we should learn to put some serious research into what is good, and what is not.
Nick |
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yet another question
