I spent Friday morning teaching yoga to four groups of 40 2nd and 3rd graders and their teachers at an elementary school in West Virginia. Mind you, I've never taught yoga, haven't taken a yoga class in over a year, and didn't know I'd be teaching it until two days prior. I was most certainly outside my comfort zone.
So of course, I had a blast.
The students had never done yoga before, so I wanted to introduce them to yoga's benefits while making it fun and engaging, too. This meant doing a lot of animal poses, playing some games, and bringing volunteers up to the front to help me model poses. At the end of each 35 minute class, I led the students through the total relaxation (corpse) pose, which transformed the students so deeply I hoped all the teachers would consider incorporating it into their learning plans. I'm sure they wish they could. :)
The advantage of getting to teach the same lesson four times in a row was that I could get immediate feedback and make adjustments for each lesson. The disadvantage of only interacting with these students once is that I couldn't prepare the lessons to best suit their needs and personalities. Still, a good time was had by all, and I was reminded of how fun it is to be stretched a little bit--in body, mind, and teaching.
