Teaching Experience

I did it! It was my first time ever to intentionally teach a class without any demonstration. I have 4 in my group to lead verbally, to observe, and to adjust their forms. What a difference experience!

Self-evaluation:

- being able to switch my "groove" from a student's back to an instructor's before the class: "JUST TEACH IT!", self-talk so I wasn't nervous, even Parameswaran was auditing.
- chanting hesitantly because of Sanskit and surely I am not good at it.
- tumbling on the first set of Sun Salutation while cueing right & left leg...but getting better after.
- looking at the sheet and the timer so often because this is a different style (Sivananda's) and time limit for poses set by Bhooma.
- feeling intimidated by one advanced student who was deliberately staying in the wrong positions to challenge me the whole time. Hmmm, Should I thanks her for doing that? Why not?;)
- admitting my weakness with the class that I couldn't lead them in the Crow pose because I couldn't do it myself. So "do it as your own risk!" I said. LOL! (remembering Maureen Rae, my teacher, told me once:"Teach only what you know")
- forgetting completely one part in Savansana (tensing up different parts of the body before relax them)
- rushing a little in the 2 Pranayamas so I ended finish early 5-10 minutes.

The well-constructive feedback:

 - "we like your calm, relaxing voice up to pranayamas, then it became rigid when you did the counting; was not loud enough in chanting" All said.
- "standing at the wrong side while adjusting Headstand, you might get hurt if that person dropped her legs on you face" P., my teacher said.
- "your hands were at the wrong spot when you lifted me up in Fish pose" Advanced student said.
- "you could press harder on my back while adjusting me in Child pose or Paschimottanasana" All said (my response was:"I would if you were my regular students and if I knew how well your body was in certain poses, safety first!")
- "you had the wrong feet position in Trikonasana" advanced student said. Did Miss Perfect pick on me or what? My explanation was that I mixed up with my old yoga style ;)

The rest of time was the discussion of my past teaching experience and the comparison of different yoga styles I have been teaching...

Glad it was done, now I have time to study for the philosophy exam on Tues. No pics for this post and I didn't video tape this teaching session either. But I saw Bhooma took some pics, maybe I will have them in the future.

The learning journey continues. All is well :)