I started my first teaching assessment on 27 April.
I had both my class sequence planned out and a playlist ready, yet I couldn’t help feeling jittery. What if my friends find my class too easy? What if they don’t like my song choices? I was afraid of feeling awkward because the friends that were coming for my class, were friends that I’ve known for a very long time but they have never seen this side of me before.
However, after I started the class, all these feelings went away and I was completely focused on running the class and ensuring that they do benefit from the poses introduced in class. But one thing that I forgot to prepare myself for, was the fact that most of them are beginners or have never done yoga before. Teaching my own friends who were absolute beginners was different from teaching my own YTT classmates. You had to explicitly tell them whether it was a demonstration for them to look at, or for them to follow your actions. And every step has to be broken down into even smaller steps.
I wouldn’t say I’m a great teacher as I am aware that there is still room for improvement. But I am sooooo grateful for the opportunities to teach my own friends, which allowed me to understand what are my strengths and weaknesses. And having not just 1, but 3 teaching sessions, gave me the chance to improve from the previous sessions.
Really hope that I will have a chance to teach for real in the near future so that I can keep improving!
Yuqi @yuqii