Practice Teach Two

The second practice teach will explore how you choose and arrange exercises to create an integrated  experience of yoga and mindfulness, and how you respond to the students (the people in front of you) in the moment. You will  have 30 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. Be ready to adjust and adapt your  lesson plan based on what’s really going on in the moment. 

As you prepare your practice teach, consider the exercises you want to include and how you arrange  them within the allotted time to create a coherent and integrated experience, both for each 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, Mountain, Chair, Half-Sun Salutation, Six Movements of the Spine, Warrior, Side Warrior, Reverse Warrior, Side Angle & Triangle, teaching one as if for the first time. 

• Standalone Breath Exercise – The Complete Breath, Take 5, Balanced Breath, Balloon Breath, Sunshine Breath as if for the first time. 

• Mindfulness Exercise – Mindfulness of Sound, Mindfulness of Breath, Mindfulness of Sensation, Loving Kindness, Mindfulness of Thoughts & Emotions, 5-4-3-2-1 as if for the first time. 

• 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 with 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 to be able to  communicate that. Please submit your email your  lesson plan to your facilitator by he end of day Friday March 27th. (llevine12@schools.nyc.gov, jdasilva3@schools.ncy.gov, wdugan@schools.nyc.gov, ygoldberg3@schools.nyc.gov, dlanier@schools.nyc.gov 

PEER REFLECTION 

After your 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’s important to offer this feedback in the context of the participant’s own experience, rather  than “getting it right.” For this reason, please follow the framework of whole messaging in offering  potential improvements: When [state a fact of the experience], I thought/felt [describe what happened for  you personally—physically, mentally or emotionally], and it would have been helpful for me to [state a way the teacher 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’d 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.” 

1. For the teacher: Staying with your present experience as much as you can, what are you feeling right now, what do you think went well? 

2. For the teacher: What is a challenge you felt during the practice teach? What would be an area of focus moving forward? 

3. For the students: What did the teacher do that worked well for you? What could the teacher have done to improve your experience

4. For the teacher: What challenges did you feel during your practice teach? 

5. For the teacher: Name one growing edge that you want to focus on in your teaching now?

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 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 invariably 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’d like to  discuss with your co-teachers, include them here as well. Please submit your Post Reflection by end of day Friday April 2nd

TIMETABLE 

#1: Teach 9:15 - 9:45, reflection 9:45 - 9:55, return at 10:00

#2: Teach 10:05 - 10:35, reflection 10:35 - 10:45, return at 10:50  

#3: Teach 10:55 - 11:25, reflection 11:25 - 11:35, return large group at 11:40