This summer I trained to teach in Urban Environments, however you really can’t imagine what it will be like until you are in the thick of it.
Here is what I’ve learned:
STRUCTURE. the students need structure, very specific structure. For example: the first week of classes, my first instructions was, “hi guys come in and take a seat on the mats!”..to.. “welcome to yoga class, my name is Ms. Bailey, please quietly enter our yoga studio, take off your shoes and line them up against the desk to your left, then take a seat, sitting criss-cross-yoga sauce on one rectangle mat. If you cannot sit quietly on one mat until instruction, I will need to assign seats on mats.”
I realized that I needed to adjust all of my directions to be specific, with consequences if rules were not followed.
TEACH PEACE FIRST. If the students are not reminded that this is a peaceful, quiet, calm classroom, they will think it is a classroom for free time, horse play, and screaming. Instead of beginning the yoga lesson with a sun salutation, now I start the class with a meditative practice, usually the finger mudra “peace begins with me,” or simply taking three deep breaths. Once the students show me that they can be calm, we begin our sun salutation to warm up for more poses. Some of my classes are working on simply being calm and do not do many yoga poses, but that’s ok.. they will get there.
REPETITION. I always ask my students at the beginning of our class “who can tell me the three things we focus on in yoga?” To which they raise their hand if they remember, or I explain “we focus on our mind, our body, and our breath. Finally, during the third week of asking this, some students are remembering the answer. Instead of planning complex concepts of yoga to teach the students, I make sure they at least know the basics: that we are focusing on mind, body, and breath awareness. We also always repeat poses/ breathing exercises that we learned the previous class to be sure that they understood how to do them.
STOP YELLING, START TEACHING. For the first two weeks, I found myself raising my voice when students were not following directions, especially students in the back of the room. However, I realized that there were students in the front who were following directions and had to deal with my yelling in their ears.. not very peaceful. During my third week teaching here, I started ignoring the students who were misbehaving in the back and continued my instruction, being very animated, yet with a softer voice. I noticed that the students in the back became curious about what I was doing with the students in the front who were following. On days when this didn’t work, I had to say typical teacher things like, “I guess the students who are following directions will pass this class and the students who are not, will not pass yoga, which makes me very sad for them.” I realized that yelling at the students to stop this, stop that, does nothing except stir up more misbehavior.
EVERY STUDENT IS DIFFERENT. Of course I knew this, but sometimes this means that every class is structured different, although they all have the same lesson plan. For example: some classes are more effective when students are split into groups, or perform the poses in their groups/ partners in front of the rest of the class. Sometimes this means allowing students to sit in our “meditation station” and just color, or play with the toys there. Students who have IEP’s especially need this quiet time without instruction. I’d rather have them quietly meditate, or do a mindful activity (coloring, word searches, puzzles, etc.) in their own space, then disrupt the rest of the class with distracted behavior. Yoga is hard to teach students with varying backgrounds and abilities because the students have to be motivated to do yoga. There are rules to sitting out. You must politely ask if you can sit out in the meditation station. Someone can switch out with you before your 5 minutes is up, if they politely ask, and you agree to leave the station. I have noticed that allowing certain students to sit out, actually encourages them to join us. Some students are allowed more than 5 minutes in the meditation station, because at least they are being peaceful, which is essentially the point of introducing yoga to urban environments, to find the calm during the storm.
Also, it is very important to get to know the students, especially the ones who misbehave. Talking to the students one-on-one helps them relate to you and respect you as a teacher. Show them that you care. Get to know them outside of class. Learn what they like and what they need to make paying attention easier for them. I’ve decided to sit with the students during lunch time. Even talking to student for 5 minutes individually will make a difference.
I learned most of these concepts in my UAEA training, however as I mentioned, you really can’t understand how to apply them until you are in the thick of it, teaching kids who are misbehaving. I am truly thankful to have been introduced to these concepts in training.. and if you have not been trained to teach in urban environments.. I hope this post helps.
