Category: Training & Education

Creating a yoga teacher training is an exciting opportunity to connect with your community, share your passion for yoga, deepen your own leadership skills – all while generating revenue for your business. So how you get started in creating your own yoga teacher training? And practically speaking, how long will it take?

The Student Manual

When you creating curriculum, it’s tempting to think that your yoga teacher training is all about your yoga teacher training student manual. After all, this seems to be the most tangible product that you will give to your students.

However, let me be clear: it is not.

While the yoga teacher training student manual is an excellent reference and supporting tool for your yoga teacher training, the real value and learning from your training comes in how the students spend those 200 hours with you. In short: the quality of their educational experience depends upon the quality of your lesson plans. A lesson plan describes what students will learn from you in a given length of time – and more importantly, a lesson plan is a roadmap for how they will learn it. Consider:

• What lectures or presentations will you give?
• What activities will the students do?(Asana labs, practices, sequencing exercises, worksheets?)
• What quizzes or practicums will assess the students’ knowledge?

How To Start

To begin thinking about creating your own 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, ask yourself the following questions:

• What will my students be able to DO as a result of this training (the full 200 hours) with me? How will I know that they are graduating as a good teacher? What will they need to demonstrate? (Check out my article on “the great mistake” if you haven’t yet :))
• What individual topics (lessons) do I need to cover to move students from A to B? What content is needed? (I recommend doing a big brainstorm!)
• How will I frame (schedule) these topics? See this resource for help!
• What will the students be able to do a a result of each individual lesson?
• And finally: what support materials will I use to support each lesson? (This is where you create your student manual :)) Need help? Check out this course.
• Marketing. (Need help? Check out this course.)

Timing

So how long will create your own yoga teacher training? Well, as a rough guide, you expect to spend 2-3 hours creating each hour of curriculum. So parts will be faster, and some parts will be slower. So for a 200 hour YTT, you can estimate that you will spend 400-600 hours creating your program. Now, there are ways that you can mitigate this time expenditure.

Option 1: Buy A Training

• Purchase a pre-made, high quality Buy A Training that you trust can serve as the foundation for your own yoga teacher training – as long as you can edit it and make it yours!
• Naturally, I’m a fan of the one that I created 😉 and you can see it here: Rachel’s Buy A Training. But I strongly recommend that you investigate the options that are out there and see if there is a premade curriculum that is right for you. Things to consider if you are thinking of this route:
  • Can I adapt, edit and brand the curriculum?
  • Are the lesson plans clearly mapped out, effective, and detailed enough to support my training with activities?
  • Has the training been run and tested?
  • Who created the training? Do they have any instructional design or educational experience?
  • Do I get support with registering for an organization like Yoga Alliance?
  • Do I like the curriculum? Does it align with my own methodology for sequencing, teaching, and cueing?
  • Are there good visual support materials for topics like anatomy?
  • Cost: are there cost options? Are there annual fees? How soon would I be able to pay it off?

Option 2: Get Support and Buy Lesson Plans

• Purchase some elements (like anatomy or sequencing lesson plans) to get some support on particular topics that may be challenging and time consuming to write yourself. Then flesh out the program with your own material.
• You can see all my Buy A Lessons here – they may give you good ideas on where to start.

Option: Do It Yourself – With Guidance

• Creating a yoga teacher training is exciting – but it’s a massive project. Knowing how to do what tasks and in which order will save you a lot of time and help your training be more effective, professional, and engaging.
• If you want to do it yourself, consider reaching out for coaching, or I’ve also created a “Create Your Training” course that helps you do things right. It’s all you – but you’ll undertake the project in way that helps you creating everything you need, structure your program smartly and clearly, prepare to register for your oversight organization, and do tasks in the right order to make the most of your precious time. See the course here: Create Your Training.

Final Thoughts

Whichever option you choose, remember: you don’t have to go it alone!

Creating a yoga teacher training can initially seem overwhelming, but there are lot of people – including me 😉 – who love education and can be an ally and thought partner to make your dream a reality. As entrepreneurs, we often are ferocious do it yourselfers ~ but getting support for your YTT creation can help you to juggle all those balls more easily and make you’re yoga teacher training a reality sooner rather than later. Work smart – not just hard.

I’m always available for a free virtual coffee chat! Reach out to connect and get your yoga teacher training ball rolling 🙂

Advice for yoga teacher trainers!

When a yoga teacher decides to take the leap and develop a teacher training, there is a fundamental shift that needs to take place: we have to start thinking like an educator, rather than an expert.

And expert is someone who is passionate, experienced, and knowledgeable about their chosen subject. An educator is someone who can inspire others to a different level of performance. Let’s look at how these are different.

If we approach our teacher training like an expert, we may make what I call, “The Great Mistake.” The great mistake is thinking that education is about what I tell my students. If we think this way, then we are tempted to give students the contents of our heads. We think that if we just give them enough information, they will be educated. Although this is very well-intentioned, it often leads to a “fire hose” approach where we saturate students with information.

Instead, to think like an educator, we have to change our point of view. Rather than thinking that education is about what I tell my students, I change the focus. I reframe the experience and define education as what my students can DO.

By making education about what our students can do as a result of the learning experience, I change the focus of the experience from me (what I say or show) to the student (how the student can perform differently). From this point of view, I am now focused on the student’s measurable performance. I can set a clear benchmark for what I want the student to be able to demonstrate or articulate at the end the lesson.

This change may seem simple, but it will transform the learning experience in profound ways:

• As an educator, I now need to set clear goals for student performance,
• I take the focus off of me and put it on the student,
• I get clear about what “inputs” the student needs to achieve the desired performance, which defuses the danger of “firehosing” them with unnecessary information,
• I have a clear idea of how I will assess the student’s success.

Before you create your next lesson plan, workshop, or teacher training, pause to think:

What do I want the student to be able to DO as a result of this learning experience?

This simple inquiry will help you take the leap from expert to educator, and support your students to have a successful learning experience.

Yoga teacher trainings can be a profitable offering for teachers and studios…but it is worth it (and is it cheating) to buy one that is pre-made? Here’s what you need to consider if you are thinking of buying a pre-made yoga teacher training.

Financial Realities

The reality is that yoga teacher trainings are the highest priced product that a studio or teacher can offer. While you could sell a lot of classes for $10 a pop, a 200 hour yoga teacher training has a ticket price of about $3,000. The revenue opportunities of a yoga teacher training can help with the bottom line of a business that often struggles to make ends meet. Additional benefits of offering a yoga teacher training include building your community, elevating your teaching staff (or yourself), creating new financial opportunities, and creating a network of new teachers who are aligned with your teaching methodology.

Time Realities

However, creating a good yoga teacher training takes a lot of time. Like, a LOT.

From an instructional design perspective, you should expect to spend about 4 hours of time planning and creating for every hour that you are teaching. If you are planning to teach online, this number goes up to 8 hours at the very minimum. Some of the training hours (like asana practices) will be quicker and easier to plan, while other hours (the anatomy portions for example) will take longer. But let’s say that you are very fast in creating your curriculum and it only takes you two hours of planning for every instructional hour. Well, you’re still looking at 400 hours of work, which translates into ten full-time weeks (!). If you are running a studio (and a family, or other jobs), then it may be hard to create that kind of time to get your program off the ground.

Here’s where purchasing a pre-made program could help you save some time and effort so that you don’t have to “recreate the wheel” on your YTT.

Am I “Cheating?”

Especially when you’re a do-it-yourself entrepreneur, it’s natural to take a pause and think, “Wait a minute, is it cheating to buy a yoga teacher training? After all, I want this be MY school!” The short answer is, well, it depends on how you do it!

• Are you committed to running the training with integrity?
• Are you able to adapt the program so that you can ensure it matches your studio’s values, teaching methodology, and brand?
• Are you committed to doing the required preparatory work to make the training an excellent and elevating experience for your students?

If so, then purchasing a YTT can be a valuable way to work smart, rather than just hard. Purchasing the right training can be a very wise way to put your work in the right place. Rather than “recreating the wheel” for your 200 hour training, you can instead spend your time more efficiently by adapting the program, preparing your own training skills, and getting the training marketed to your community.

What You Need To Consider

Not all programs are created equal, and there are some important questions that you need to ask in order to make sure that you investing your resources wisely. Here are a few essentials to get you started.

What is the training’s teaching methodology, and does it match my own training’s vision?

This question is essential ~ and can easily get overlooked. Yoga teacher trainings vary wildly in their focus and methodologies, and you need to ensure that the training you are selecting aligns with your own teaching style and vision. Some questions to consider:

• How does this yoga training teach students to cue?
• How does this yoga training teach students to sequence?
• What does this yoga training teach students about alignment?
• Can the seller describe their teaching methodology?
• Can the seller articulate the yoga training’s lineage and influences?
• What topics does this yoga training prioritize (what kind of pranayama, philosophy, and anatomy does it teach)?
• Does it include all the necessary topics and competencies that would allow you to register with your organization of choice (for example, Yoga Alliance)?

Can I edit and adapt the training?

Being able to edit your training is essential. While you want the training to give you a robust foundation for your work, you also want the ability to edit the training as needed so that it reflects your studio’s unique vision, brand, and values. You are not a cookie cutter studio or yoga teacher, and you will want the freedom to let the program grow with you.

What is included in my purchase?

A teacher training is much more than a student manual. From an instructional design perspective, the student manual is really the last (and easiest) component to create. Knowing the full extent of what your training includes is essential:

• Does it include the training’s lesson plans (detailed and clear notes on how to teach each hour of the training)? (Here’s an example of a free lesson plan that you can download and use.)
• Does it include presentations or visual materials (very useful for anatomy and philosophy topics)?
• Does it include a robust and well-organized student manual? Is the student manual created with appropriate graphics (paid for or royalty free so that you are using them legally)?
• Does it include quizzes and practicum rubrics?
• Does it include coaching and support?

Reputation and Expertise

Get to know your seller.

• What is their yoga background and experience? What is their lineage?
• What is their instructional design/ education background and experience?

Great yogis aren’t always great instructional designers. Your training needs to have high quality content that is all well-organized and structured for an educational experience.

Registration Bodies

If you are planning to register with an oversight organization (like Yoga Alliance), find out if the training has a track record for successful registrations or offers support for navigating the registration process.

Financial Planning

Purchasing a pre-made yoga teacher training is an investment, no question. And you want to make sure that you will get a return on your investment. Here are some important questions to answer:

• Does the training require you to pay each year, or is it a one and done?
• Does your provider offer payment plans?
• Is there any limitation on how many times you can run the teacher training per year?
• How long would it take you to recoup the investment of the training?

Final Thoughts

Teaching a YTT can be inspirational, exciting, and deeply rewarding. And purchasing a pre-made yoga teacher training program can be an excellent way to use your time and resources wisely. But you want to make the right choice and be savvy in your decision. Asking the right questions can help you to ensure that you will choose a training program that will not only elevate your business, but also help support you in your own growth and expansion as a leader in your community.

To get a sneak peek of Rachel’s 200 Hour Buy-A-Training, click here.

So, you want to teach yoga online? Alrighty then! We have a comprehensive guide to getting you set up and practising with your students in a way that works for you. We know how important it is for you to reach your students, helping them to move and look after their physical and mental wellbeing whilst they’re at home. In this comprehensive article, we dive into a variety of different themes and topics to help you set up a successful digital yoga practice that will be a sustainable success. 

Finding the right mindset

First up – when it comes to creating your online yoga studio, think of it as a long game with quick wins. You want to teach yoga online, and that’s awesome! And once you’ve made that decision, it’s super tempting to jump straight in, building as you go. Just as a yoga teacher training course takes time, creating an online yoga studio practice benefits from careful planning and thoughtful action. 

It’s a cliché, of course, but we really are living in unprecedented times. That’s why the first tip we have is to set yourself up for sustainable success. 

Starting up a digital yoga studio doesn’t need to be difficult (we’ve built an app for that!) but we’re really cautioning teachers against burn out – creating in a frenzy and falling off the radar within a few months, getting so tired by the work you’re doing that you can’t keep it up. No, thank you!

Plan, plan, plan

Instead, try and break down the aspects of setting up an online studio into a plan with clear steps you can take. Other things to consider include:

1. Is the platform user-friendly for you? Any tech you use should be set up to make your life easy.
2. Can you film and upload 2 videos as week, and host a single live class? Starting small can be the key to success.
3. When you’re ready to add more classes, how can you make these flex with your schedule?
4. Offering ‘snackable’ content in place of full classes can be a way to gently increase your offering without sending you over the edge. Try specific pose guides, meditation moments, or morning breathing exercises to keep students engaged. 

Be okay with starting with the smallest action that you can take. Just like learning a new pose, you wouldn’t expect to go from newbie yogi to a full crow pose without progressing through the natural stages! Building things up slowly, trusting in the process and the journey – these things will help you and your students have great experiences alike as you head out on your online yoga journey. 

Choosing a platform

Now you have a sustainable plan to teach yoga online – you need a platform! When it comes to choosing one, there are a few key things to consider:

• What are all the functions you need to teach classes?
  • Do you want to do live-stream videos, or just video on demand?
  • Do you want a space to write blogs?
  • Do you want a platform that lets you host other kinds of content, such as photo galleries or forums?
• How important is accessibility to you? 
  • What student needs does your platform need to cater to?
  • How can you make life as easy for your students as possible?
  • How much admin work (sending reminders, chasing payment) are you prepared to do?
• Does the platform in question integrate with other tools you use, such as Google Cal, Mailchimp, or social media?
• How is payment taken, is it secure, and what are the costs associated with using the platform?
• Does the platform let you devise flexible payments for your students?
• Are the platform creators on hand to help you with any tech issues you might have?

Brainstorm your own questions and add them to the list!

Calendar planning and creativity!

Right, you’ve chosen your fantastic platform, and you’re ready to start creating content. But wait! What are you actually going to make?

In some yoga studios, practice can last anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours (looking at you, Mysore!) For students that are joining you from home, this may no longer be a feasible amount of time to expect of them. This is where a bit of careful calendar planning and some creativity can work wonders.

By plotting the classes you want to offer in advance, you can link sessions together with common themes, moon phases, or the seasons.

The great thing about a digital yoga studio is the flexibility that’s offered. Try shorter sessions, longer sessions, meditations, coffee circles and more!

For example, you could put together a 15-minute morning wake up yoga session, or a fast and fabulous Friday night power flow. By choosing a platform that automatically records live-stream sessions as video on demand, you’ll also getting two classes for effort of one.

Getting creative

Thinking of your content calendar a month in advance gives you a real overview of how it is that you are going to best serve your students, and look after yourself. This will help to ensure that you have a greater degree of sustainability around setting up your digital studio. And, best of all, you know exactly what you’re doing for the month ahead – no surprises, and no thinking ‘what the heck do I teach?!’ when another week rolls around and you’re bereft of content. 

Bonus tip – if you’re using a platform that enables it, you can also gather data to help you to make more informed decisions your classes. Data capture enables you to see how popular certain classes are, what the uptake is, or if students drop off after a certain point (is a pose too long for comfort, perhaps?). 

Flexible payment for flexible people

Be open to considering flexible payment options, and consider a variety of different ways in which people can engage with you. A Karma class on a weekend, where people can pay what they want, enables your students to enjoy a community session and a pause in their busy lives to reconnect and recentre. 

Other flexible payment ideas can be different block bookings – students could book in blocks of five, 10, or more. Single live classes could also be made available with a limited-time replay, and you can always offer an unlimited class pass with a subscription fee.

Safety first!

A quick word of caution – make sure that you have a really solid payment system set up.

Rather than send out a PayPal or Venmo link and then having to check everyone’s paid before commencing class, or doing all the tracking of who’s got a membership or who hasn’t, choose a platform that integrates safe, secure payment for you. If nothing else, it avoids awkward conversations with freeloaders who haven’t paid.

An automated system leaves little room for human error, you ensure you’re getting paid on time, and students know exactly where they stand. 

The result? Confident students and teachers that can get on with doing the yoga they love. 

Planning content around you

When it comes to teaching yoga online, the temptation may be to do all live classes to begin with – and if that’s your style of yoga, that’s fantastic. But if you’re new to the technology, may we make a case for video on demand? The great thing about video on demand is that you can take a couple of days at the start of every month and record as much as you are able to or would like to! By concentrating your efforts and taking some dedicated time, you might find you get into a real ‘flow’ so to speak. And, on top of this, you then get the time to tweak and polish your classes before you release them.

Once they’re all ready to go, just upload them, and your students can practice with you whenever it suits them best.

Making it user-friendly

Speaking of making things user-friendly, there are a number of things to bear in mind when choosing a platform that works for you and your students.

Ideally, you would choose a system that enables you to set up automatic notifications and emails. For example, when a student books into a live class, you would both get a confirmation email and an invite to add it to their calendar. Then, a few hours before your class, the student will get a reminder email. And if they didn’t manage to make it to class? Another email should go out to let them know there’s a replay option.

This kind of user-friendly focus not only helps your students get more practice in, it helps them feel cherished and cared for, just as they’d be in your studio. 

Accessible schedules & booking systems

Is it easy for your students to see your schedule? Are they able to access a calendar of upcoming classes and how will they know when they can practice with you? Is your content playable and optimized for mobile and TV apps? Another word on user-friendliness – make sure you have a really robust and user-friendly booking system. 

The last thing you want to do is for your students to have to jump through 400 different hoops for them to be able to book class with you.

Not only is that going to be frustrating for them, it also means you could potentially miss out on classes, and therefore on revenue.

Live-stream or VOD?

If you are doing a live stream class, make sure it’s set up to make your life as easy as possible! Try a couple of practice run throughs, to make sure there aren’t any gremlins in the system. This is especially true of classes that are set to music. Unless you’re using a platform that offers a music and voice-streaming service so both can be heard distinctly, consider sending a playlist over in advance of music for your students to play whilst they practice. 

Consider having a waiting room for students and opening them up a good few minutes in advance so that people can get settled before they practice with you.

We also recommend that you make sure that you’re managing expectations in terms of what people can see when they engage with you – is it two-way video, or just one? And because you aren’t there in person to support people with pose adjustments during a class, make sure that you also encourage people to come back and rest in a child’s pose or Savasana when they need to. 

This helps people to find their stillness and space if something is becoming too challenging and will help them avoid preventable injury.

Marketing with heart 

Of course, some of the most impactful action you can take is outside of your platform! Marketing with heart and honesty is one of the best ways to educate students about your new online yoga classes. One of the biggest things to consider if you’re choosing to teach yoga online is making sure that your yogis are aware of everything on offer in your digital studio before they sign up. Not only will you increase the likelihood that they’ll come on board, but highlighting the benefits of your digital studio could also capture new students.

Try a fun weekly newsletter, a monthly update, or a gentle daily nudge on social media to remind people of the great stuff that you have coming up in your calendar. Making sure your marketing is all focused on your customers’ perspectives will lead to success in the long run. 

A word on vulnerability

And lastly, have fun!

Your people love you for your practice and for your authentic self. Make sure that that’s what you bring to the camera, every single time. If you’re having a rough day (and yes, it’s 2020 – we’ve all had at least one!) – that’s okay! Share it with your students. The chances are that your vulnerability will help them to realize that there are spots that they’re avoiding getting in touch with, so they don’t feel their feelings. 

Showing up and being human and vulnerable when we teach yoga can only be beneficial, for us, and our wider community. 

Planning a yoga teacher training? Not sure what format to use? Here are some tips to get you thinking about your schedule in the most effective – and marketing friendly – way.

1. Plan with your students in mind

Who are your ideal students for your training? What is their life like? Do they work 9-5, or do they have flexible schedules? Do they need their weekends free for family, or is a Saturday/Sunday schedule perfect? Do they want to get away on a TT retreat for three weeks, or parse out the information over several months?

If you’re not sure what your community needs, consider sending a survey as well as asking potential students less formally. Proactively tailoring your format for your students will ensure that you are creating a program that people can actually attend.

2. Compare Formats

In a nutshell, teacher training formats are either long form (also called part time) or intensives (think full time). An intensive is usually 3-4 weeks long and runs for up to 12 hours/day. (Some teacher trainings try to get students certified in two weeks, which would require days that run from 7 AM-10 PM – eek).

Despite the challenges of working 9-5 and attending a full-time program, the intensive format is surprisingly popular! It’s perfect for students who are:

• retirees with no 9-5 obligations
• university students (during breaks)
• those who have a flexible work schedule (personal trainers, service industry, consultants, etc.)
• those in life/job transition

A part time program (usually these run over weekends and some combination of additional evenings) are perfect for students who:

• love a slower, more integrated pace of learning
• work 9-5 and need their weekdays free

You might also consider what I call a blended format, which combines elements of both the part time and intensive format. In a blended format, you break your training down into 4-5 day segments, then run these segments from Thursday-Sunday (or Wednesday-Sunday). In this kind of program, you may run your program once a month for four months to complete your full training.

A blended format can support 9-5’ers (they don’t have to take as many days off as they would in an intensive, since the TT is primarily over weekends), but can also appeal to students who have to travel long distances to take the training (they only have to travel five times, rather than every weekend).

3. Evaluate Tolerance

If you are running a 200-hour Yoga Alliance training, then you need to have 180 contact hours in the classroom to adhere to their standards. When are you considering schedule your days, I find the ideal length of day is no more than eight training hours (so 8-5 with a one hour lunch). Six hours feels even more civilized. Running a longer day is taxing not only for the students, but on the faculty as well.

If you are one faculty member holding space for the entire training, you will want to consider how you can manage your days so that you are not worn out (in other words, plan your days carefully and ensure that you’re not lecturing the whole time). If you have several faculty on your team, then manage their schedules carefully to support the preservation of energy. I’ve single-handedly run a 200-hour intensive; it’s not easy!

4. Consider the logistics of your training space

Check in with your proposed training space and find out if there are any scheduling requirements that you will need to work around. Often, trainings occur in spaces around public classes. If you are working around classes, don’t forget that you will need a buffer of at least 15 minutes before and after the class to allow for the flow of students. Checking in with your training space ahead of time will ensure that there are no disconcerting surprises where you suddenly lose classroom time.

5. Holidays!

When you are scheduling your program, look at your dates and compare them to the holidays. Not everyone may want to come to teacher training on Mother’s Day! There are pro’s and con’s to scheduling your training over statutory holidays; while some students will appreciate the time off, others will have reserved those holidays for family time (again, here is a great question for your survey!). Generally speaking, don’t schedule your TT over any major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s) as you will have a lot of absences and grouchy students needing to make up work. If you do schedule training over a holiday like Mother’s Day, proactively address the scheduling issue and offer sensible make up options to students so that the students feel supported.

Have questions? Schedule a free chat and let’s hear!

This is part 1 of a 3-part series on motivation.

We’re lucky in the yoga world: we have students who want to be there!

In yoga teacher trainings, students have voluntarily decided to show up at (at whatever ungodly hour ) in order to participate in a yoga teacher training course. Why? Because they love yoga. They want to be there. Our students are what we call “intrinsically motivated.”

Intrinsic motivation is an energizing of behavior that comes from within an individual, out of will and interest for the activity at hand.  No external rewards are required to incite the intrinsically motivated person into action. The reward is the behavior itself. 

– Michigan State University

Unlike the employee obligated to attend the Food Safety or Sexual Harassment course, our students have usually paid good money to be in the room. However, this doesn’t mean that we can just relax and assume that their motivation will continue unabated!

By deliberately incorporating motivational techniques into your lesson plans, you can turn your “nice” teacher training program into an “amazing” and engaging experience for your students. (PS: If you missed it, here’s how you avoid the great trainer mistake.)

John Keller (and an emeritus professor at my alma mater, Florida State University) created the ARCs model to define the components that contribute to student motivation. By understanding these factors, you will set yourself up for success as a trainer, and learn how to recover a situation that has gone sideways.

In this article, we’re going to unpack the first Keller principle: Attention.

Attention

Attention refers to getting your students’ interest. Attention has three parts:

• perceptual arousal: use surprise to gain interest
• inquiry arousal: ask stimulating questions to gain interest
• variability: use a variety of methods in presenting material (e.g. use of videos, short lectures, mini-discussion groups).

In a nutshell, “attention” means that you can use storytelling, anecdotes, humour, or a devil’s advocate approach to get your student’s creative juices flowing.

How does this relate to a yoga teacher training?

In almost every course that I teach, I start by asking the students a question. Not only does this draw upon the prior knowledge (see the activation principle), but it also helps to get students actively engaged in the learning process. I don’t want students to passively and absorb a lecture; I want them to wrestle with real life problems and take a personal interest in the learning content.

Doesn’t it seem far more interesting to ask a class, “what would you do if someone came to your yoga class dressed in a bathing suit?” than to drone on about dress codes?

In a yoga teacher training, you may have students with you for up to fourteen hours a day (yikes!). We cannot rest on our motivationa laurels. Deliberately plan for opportunities to include personal anecdotes, shake up the learning environment, and ask provoking questions. Rather than stick to just one method of content delivery (god help us, not another lecture or practice!) see if you can incorporate a wide variety of stimulation and media options, such as audio, powerpoint, demonstrations, or written activities.

Attention Tools

• storytelling
• humour
• ask for or provide real life examples or scenarios
• ask thought provoking or complex questions
• change the pace suddenly (surprise)
• change your delivery method (audio, video, written, research, hands on, role play, creating a skit, have a quiz show…shake it up!)

Incorporate the Attention Principle into your lesson plans. Even adding in a small personal story into your training content can can have a huge impact on your learner’s engagement and lead to better learning outcomes.