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| Hello,
I've been studying to teach for almost a year now (halfway through my "program"), and I've just been asked to teach a class in an hour. It will be the first time I'm teaching non-fellow teachers in training. It's an elective class at a high school that one of the instructors at my studio has been teaching all year, and today is their last class of the year, and she didn't want to have to cancel it at the last minute. It's 75 minutes, and she assures me that it will be fine, but I'm wondering what you think of this sequence for timing/balance/etc. I don't want to stray too far from Astanga as that's what I'm most comfortable with and I don't have a lot of time to prepare. Many many thanks!
Tadasana - discussion of pose, awareness to feet, locks, body placement, breath
3 surya namaskar A
3 surya namaskar B
Padangusthasana
Trikonasana
Utthita Parsvakonasana
Prasarita A
Prasarita C
Utthita Hasta Pandangusthasana A + B
Utkatasana
vinyasa
High lunge/twist
vinyasa
dandasana
some play with lifting up hips in dandasana/sliding back a bit
vinyasa
paschimotanasana
purvotanasana or tabletop
vinyasa
marichyasana a
vinyasa
marichyasana c
vinyasa
3 navasana
play with crane - high/low
vinyasa
baddha konasana
vinyasa
upavista konasana
vinyasa
supta padangusthasana a + b
vinyasa
bridge/urdhva danurasana (3)
paschimotanasana
1/2 shoulderstand
vinyasa
savasana
Is this too much? Too unbalanced? 5 breaths per pose. I hope someone sees this and responds in the next hour... otherwise I guess I'll bring this and see how the class goes. No props or music available. Just me, mats, and the teenagers.
Thanks!
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| I can advise you as one teacher to another but not as one Ashtangi to another. I have done the primary series before so I am aware of its design and effects (for me) as well as it's pace and sequence (roughly).
Your comfort level should be the focus, obviously with an over-arching principle of doing no harm in the teaching.
You and I would handle this assignment much differently. For me I would get some idea of the practices this other teacher has been doing and her/his assessment of the level of the students AND the why of that level assessment.
Then I would open the class in the way I open my classes and WATCH the students to see who has appropriate actions in the poses, if anyone does at all. Based on that I would devise a class at that moment so that they, the students could walk away 75 minutes later with some tool for asana practice that they did not previously own.
Now, you've got some extenuating circumstances. One of the things I find very important as a teacher when asked to sub is to connect with my own authenticity or what is right for me. I've been asked to teach back to back classes and I must decline as I find I need an energetic break to take care of myself. Additionally being given an hour to center myself, construct, and get to a class would be a bit out of the comfort boundaries for me; especially if I was a "young" teacher.
Of course there are bounds, boundaries, and parameters were, as yogis, are supposed to be facing, challenging, confronting. And if I determined this was one of them then I might take it on and say "okay" for the experience of it.
I can't speak to the sequencing. That is perspective.
I would keep things very simple (for you) and as unmuddled as possible. If 35 things feels clear and unmuddled for you then please do it that way. If you want to discuss this further I would be glad to do so.
Edited by purnayoga 2007-05-21 3:07 PM
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| jeda: I respect you as much as i respect YODA. I admire your effort to form such a sequence for your class. Since you are an Ashtanga Style Exercise teacher (it is not good call oneself Ashtangii - that means one has Eight Limbs. ), your sequence is great for this class. Go for it. I wish you all the best.
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| Thank you for your help and advice - which I didn't get until after the class, but I appreciate it for the future. I did have a sense of how the class has been going - I've assisted a few times before - and I knew they were used to an astanga-based power type of yoga exercise class. There were 4 students in yesterday's class, and they were really wound tightly from finals beginning soon. I varied my sequence a bit based on what they seemed to "need," and we did a lot of chest opening supported poses to counteract all of the studying hunching. It went well, and I overheard one of them tell her friend that the class was just what she needed. So that felt good. I really appreciate having this forum - while I mostly read posts, it is so nice to have a community to ask questions of as they come up. |
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1st Class - Advice?!
