Practice Teach Two

The second practice teach will explore how you choose and arrange exercises to create an integral experience of yoga and mindfulness, and how you respond to the students in the moment. You will have 25 minutes to teach to a small group of your colleagues. For this practice teach, you may utilize prepared notes, but not the manual itself; if you prepare notes, consider how they can best support your presence in the room.

Except where noted, teach directly to the people in your group as they are. Pay special attention to what is happening in your group, and see where and when you can offer instructions, modifications and variations that relate directly to what you observe and experience.

As you prepare your practice teach, consider the exercises you want to include and how you arrange them within your allotted time to create a coherent and integrated experience, both for the individual exercise and the overall class. While your practice teach should start with some kind of introduction and end with a closing, in between you are free to choose and arrange elements in the way that best supports your teaching and the kind of experience you want to create for students. Please include the following elements in your practice teach:

- Introduction
- Warm-Ups - chosen and placed appropriately for the exercises you’re leading
- Posture Flow - sequence of at least 3 poses, teaching one as if for the first time
- Standalone Breath Practice - Ocean Sounding, Balanced, Alternate-Nostril, (teaching as if for the first time)
- Mindfulness Exercise - Sound, Breathing, Kindness
- Closing

PREPARATORY REFLECTION

Prior to your practice teach, please write out your lesson plan, including not only what elements you’ve chosen but why you chose those particular elements. There’s no right answer to this, but it’s important to be clear about your aims and intentions in designing your class. For example, you might choose to teach Ocean Sounding Breath because you want to integrate it into movement later on in your posture flow, or you might choose to teach the same technique simply because it’s one you want more practice leading with a group. In addition, write out why you’ve chosen to arrange your lesson as you did. For example, you might choose to lead a mindfulness experience early in the session or late in the session, but it’s important to be clear about your intentions in doing so and be able to communicate that. Please e-mail this reflection to your co-teacher no later than the night before your practice teach (May 10, 2021) Co-Teacher Emails

PEER REFLECTION

After you practice teach, your group will have 10 minutes for this facilitated reflection process. This practice teach adds room for participants to offer points of potential improvement, should the teacher request it. It is important to offer feedback in the context of the participant’s own experience, rather than “getting it right.” For this reason, please allow this framework of whole messaging in offering potential improvements: When [state a fact of the experience], I thought I felt [describe what happened for your personally - physically, mentally, emotionally], and it would have been helpful for me to [state a way the teach could have potentially addressed your experience]. For example, “When you were helping Kendra to adjust her Side Warrior Pose, I felt like we were in the pose for long enough that I started to get exhausted and worried that you had forgotten the rest of the group. It would have been helpful for me if you’d reminded us that we could adjust or pause while you were working with Kendra.”
experiences in the following order:

1. For the teacher: Staying with your present experience as much as you can, what are you feeling right now?
2. For the teacher: Focusing on the positive aspects of this experience, what do you want to celebrate? What went well?
3. For the students: What did you enjoy about this experience? What did the teacher say or do that was personally impactful or helpful for you?
4. For the teacher: What challenges did you feel during your practice teach?
5. For the teacher: Would you like to hear from participants about areas where you might improve their experience? If yes, each participant shares one aspect in the delivery that they struggled with, using the framework above. The teacher does not need to answer or explain anything, but can feel free to ask for follow up or clarification.
6. For the teacher: What are one or two growing edges that you want to focus on in your teaching going forward?

SOLO REFLECTION

Set aside time to write and reflect on your experience of teaching in relation to the lesson plan you set. What worked well? Are there any particular things you did that helped your teaching unfold as you intended? Where did you adjust timing, content, instruction and why? How did it feel for you when something took you “off script”? Plans inevitably change, and our goal here is not to check every box on your original lesson, but to notice and reflect on what helps you deliver on your intentions as a teacher, and what helps you adjust on the fly in order to stay present and responsive to your students. If you have any specific questions about teaching techniques or challenges you encountered that you would like to discuss with your co-teachers, include them here as well. Please email this reflection to your co-teacher by Wednesday May 12, 2021.

Timetable
3:00 - 3:15 Gathering and moving into groups. It is imperative that you are on time for this session.
3:15 - 3:40 (Teach #1), 3:40 - 3:50 Reflection,3:50 - 4:00 Transition
4:00 - 4:25 (Teach #2), 4:25-4:35 Reflection, 4:35-4:45 Transition
4:45-5:10 (Teach #3), 5:10 - 5:20 Reflection, 5:20 - 5:30 Closing in the Main Room