Growing as a teacher

To continue to grow and stay motivated as an instructor is something I would like to write about to help my readers.  If you are an instructor or just an avid student this will hopefully help keep you motivated.


My favorite way to continue to stay fresh as a teacher is to be a student myself.  I teach, on average, 15-17 classes per week.  Some are group classes, some are private sessions.  I love teaching, watching my students grow, seeing those "A-ha!" moments when the mind and body connect to perfect an exercise.  A successful instructor knows how to use words, phrases and imagery to help their students make those connections.  Sometimes, though, I feel like I become a broken record and I use the same terms class after class.  This is just one of the reasons I love to go be a student.  Just a few weeks ago I was in an AcroYoga class.  To achieve proper wrist alignment in many of my classes I will say "thumbs with fingers."  The instructor that was teaching me used the term "mitten hands."  Same idea, same cueing of the body, but a fun new term.

If you are feeling like your teaching is becoming stale, GO take a class and "just" be a student.  If you don't have time to get to a class, pop in a DVD of an instructor that motivates you.  There is nothing, for me, like watching Jackie Warner to give me new ideas for my Cross Training and personal training.  Rodney Yee has given me so many great points to think about.  "Be engaged by not rigid" is a term that I use quite often that I first heard when watching one of his yoga DVD's.


Don't get so focused on teaching that you forget yourself!


Who motivates you?