SETTING AND SCHEDULE

Setting

You may not have much choice as to where you hold your classes. I have housed classes in a dance studio and in an atrium-like area of our library. If you do have a choice, your practice space should be described as follows:

Quiet: Obviously, a quiet environment is conducive to a Yoga practice. Ultimately we are practicing refining the quality of our attention. Consider also how much information can be gained by listening to students breathe. A loud air conditioner in your room or music and sound coming from an adjacent room can present challenges.

Isolated: People walking through or around the space can create a distraction so try to find a place with little to no foot traffic.

Hard floor / bare walls: This is very important. I and many others have injured our wrists practicing on carpet or other soft surfaces. If you have no other option, have students do their sun salutations on their knuckles or omit weight-bearing on the hands  altogether. Bare walls creates a safer environment for practicing inversions.

You may not have the option to choose the location of your class, but if you do, choose wisely as space may be at a premium at your school. Teaching and practicing in challenging locations is an opportunity for deep learning.

 Schedule

We may not get to determine when or how often our class meets but these factors can greatly influence our content and pedagogy. 

My class meets Monday through Thursday for an hour and fifteen minutes, directly after school. We generally do a full asana practice Monday through Wednesday and then a shorter asana practice plus restorative practice on Thursday. If the class was Monday through Friday, we would keep a similar blueprint with restorative practices on Friday. 

Most of the students preferred meeting less frequently for longer duration and I have to say I share their preference. One hour is a tight timeframe in which to take care of attendance and announcements and give the glass an appropriate arc, including time for at least five minutes of savasana.

We must make sure we are not overextending ourselves, all puns aside. If you already teach at the school, keep in mind you will be teaching a full day of classes already as well as trying to maintain your personal life and personal practice. I spent one Fall season teaching my full course load, after-school Yoga, and serving as pit orchestra director for our musical. I only attempted this once. Yoga met in the Winter and Spring in following years.

The more often the students practice, the more conditioned they will be. Consider this when planning for the intensity level of your classes in terms of strength, endurance, and range of motion.

 Music

I am a musician and music teacher and I do not use music in my Yoga classes. In a situation where I am trying to listen to students’ breath and have them listen to their breath, music creates a distraction. Occasionally, I will put on a drone if distracting sounds or music are coming in from outside the practice space. I do, however, know other teachers who have found great success through incorporating music into their classes either through recordings or live performers.