Check out the new yoga conference coming to Germany!

This week I caught up with Anastasia Shevchenko, founder of the Berlin Yoga Conference which is coming to Germany this May 24-26, 2019. Anyone have a hankering for Europe in the spring?
Anastasia Shevchenko is the founder and the managing director behind the Berlin Yoga Conference and is a freelance yoga teacher. She is a proponent of authentic yoga experience for self-healing and self-transformation. Her special interest lies in the creation of bridges between yoga, philosophy, science, art, and spirituality. Anastasia’s newest passion is to teach yoga teachers how to best apply themselves in this industry.
As a gesture of appreciation, Ana is offering our community a 10% discount on tickets! Promo code: Rachel-yoga

1. Tell us about this conference – why did you create it?

I put together the Berlin Yoga Conference coming May 24-26 2019 because I wanted to create a transformation space for people to experience yoga in an authentic and life-changing way, no matter what level of practice or personal background. This is why all yoga methods are celebrated, without emphasizing any specific one over others, and there is a strong focus on modern yoga philosophy and its connection to the sciences, although the yoga tradition is respected and put into a proper perspective.

Moreover, I wanted to create conditions for socializing, making friends, networking, and just meeting and connecting to people, with or without any specific goals in mind, enjoying the cultural and musical programs together, the communal food breaks, learning and getting inspired from each other, joining and enriching this expanding international yoga community. This basically covers the motto for the Berlin Yoga Conference: Breath – Learn – Connect.

2. What can visitors expect?

I don’t like the word “expectation”, because it almost always involves some kind of faulty precognition, which then makes it more difficult to experience the true present moment in all of its richness. Of course when one is looking at the website and making a decision whether to come or not, one naturally makes some kind of guesses about what the event is going to be about and if it is worth coming or not!
All I can say that at this point is that I’m trying my best to create and communicate a set of circumstances that are behind the project: the vision, the goals, the venue, the presenting teachers, the program, but how it will all play out at the Berlin Yoga Conference in May 2019 is ultimately a mystery, and I would like to leave room for this mystery to unfold and for true magic to happen. I’m absolutely sure that everyone who comes to the event will experience what they ought to experience, depending where they are on their yoga path and what lessons they need to learn about themselves and others.

3. How is this conference different from other events?

Since the Berlin Yoga Conference will happen for the first time in May 2019, it’s hard for me to speak about how it is “different” from other events – since it hasn’t happened yet. However, we did run already two pop up events in the frames of the conference in May, and they were very special events, according to the energy in the room and the subsequent positive feedback that we’ve got. First, each event featured high-quality programming that was very well though-out in terms of the flow and the fit, as well as in terms of the person leading the sessions. Second, these events came across as were touching, moving, and inspirational, across various yoga methods and formats (yoga workshop, meditation sitting, panel discussion, healing session, performance, and communal meals). Third, the community bonding element always did it’s job: people were gently motivated to leave their protective shells behind, and to naturally open up to others, without being forced or persuaded to do so in a “open your heart” kind of way. For me personally, this last point is very important.

4. What makes this conference unique?

To me, it is this sacred transformational community space that I’m set out to create (and that I have created at the Pop up events previously). Coming from a personal background of migration (Ukraine -> Canada -> Germany), living between cultures, languages, and different value systems (Socialist vs. Capitalist), having cured myself from scoliosis and a broken and paralyzed arm, my yoga path was characterized by self-healing, self-empowerment, and subsequent self-transformation. Now, I’m ready to share what I learned, and also to create a space for others to share what they have learned, in a safe, inclusive, diverse, open-minded, well-organized, well-though out (with attention to detail), and friendly kind of environment.
I think of course that the person behind the project has a very strong influence on setting the intention, values, and culture for the project, but I see my task primarily as that of being a hostess, a “holder of space”, a reader of faces and energies, and this is why I decided against teaching at my own event, so that I can dedicate myself entirely to others.

5. What do you think the future of yoga is looking like in Europe?

Wow, that’s a truly great question that I haven’t been asked by anyone yet, and I really appreciate it! I’m so blessed (or cursed, depending on the day) to work on this project and to learn about the yoga industry on the local, national, and international levels. Because I constantly try to connect and collaborate with people, I get a pretty good sense for where the yoga community is at these days: what are the challenges and what are the really cool and inspiring developments. So to answer your question, here’s what I think based on my experiences so far:
  • I see a tendency towards working with the pool of local teachers that are not “international” yoga stars, because the local teachers have much value to offer and are more pleasant to work with, while the “yoga stars” command fees that are too high for the European market. Sure you will still have a couple of very well-established teachers giving workshops here and there, but these will be the people who will have to adopt to the new circumstances and humble down.
  • I think that the Instagram Influencer days are almost over and that the concept is outliving itself and is becoming boring. People are tuning out of the same old pictures of handstands on the beach or arm balances on the top of a mountain, with some quote pasted on top of it and sponsored yoga clothing. On top of that, the new algorithms are making it progressively more difficult to reach people “organically”, and the companies are cutting down their “influencer” budgets.
  • I’m guessing there will be more and more yoga methods and styles created, with all kind of fusions and cross-disciplinary connections (yoga and dance, music, Eastern philosophy and various healing modalities, fitness directions, etc), because of the need of the teachers to, on the one hand, create a unique offer and occupy a niche in the market, and on the other hand – to express themselves creatively and according to their personal background, talents, and skills.
  • I am positive that because there are just too many (and constantly growing in numbers) yoga teachers out there, there will be many more products and services geared towards them and they would quite naturally have to find others ways of supporting themselves by maybe creating their own yoga brands, products, and services as well. There will be an expansion of yoga entrepreneurship and more funds available to this cause, since it is a booming industry, and all-in-all, that’s creating a positive change for the world, in many ways!

6. How can we find out more?

  • For information about the project, the presenters, and the programming, the best is to access the website.
  • To really get updates, news, and exclusive discounts, the best way is still the Newsletter
  • For cool features on the presenters and the programming: Facebook & Instagram
  • And for any questions and offers to work together, always per e-mail: info@berlinyogaconference.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oWMP_wXmsM&

Create a 7K Course in One Week! Or, not.

Is anyone else tired of seeing, “I made 7K in my online course!” on every social media feed?

These days, education is big business.

Earn 7K in two weeks!

Increase your passive income!

Make a blockbuster course in three easy steps!

Most of these people who are selling these courses aren’t educators. They’re playing on our desire (old as time and the snake oil salesmen) to get rich quick. They’re riding the gravy train of the latest hot ticket. Who wouldn’t want to sit back and watch 7K roll in without lifting a finger?

But crappy education is still crappy education. And here’s the truth: if you create a lousy course, it will undermine your brand and your reputation.

Most of these “three-step-processes to create your course” are focused on how you get your information out; but very little about how the students get the information in. As a result, there are a lot of really, really bad courses out there, all creating this white noise called “education” when they’re really not. See why this is a problem.

There is an art to education. And it’s not in a three-step process.

I am passionate about education and see it as a pathway to human evolution, tolerance, and kindness. That’s one of the reasons that I spent three years earning my Masters in Instructional Design while I was working a full-time job. I’m a huge fan of the modern proliferation of modern education. We can now disseminate knowledge quickly and globally. Mobile phones make it possible for those without a computer to participate (amazing!). We have access to almost any information we need at our fingertips.

But there is an art to education.It’s not just what you teach, it’s how you teach it. And the art of instructional design has a deep and rich history that has been studied, explored and refined for hundreds of years. If you really want to support your students’ growth (and improve your own reputation as an expert), you want to create a course that is fundamentally sound. Not one that sounds like a sales pitch.

Don’t add to the white noise.

Add to the orchestra.

Don’t create a crappy get-rich-quick course.

Create a smart, transformational, and get-more-rich-over-time course.

Over time, an excellent course will provide an additional source of revenue, bolster your leadership and most importantly, support the growth and knowledge of your community.

That is something worth sharing.

How to deal with those talkative students in your yoga teacher training

Every training has a few students who love to talk. These students will be the first to raise their hands to answer questions, dominate discussion groups, and talk at length about their experiences.

Students can be big talkers for different reasons:

  • They process information by verbalizing it
  • They like the validation of being in the spotlight
  • They want to be good students and contribute
  • They hate to leave the class in silence

While having some good conversation starters is useful, it can sometimes be frustrating to manage a classroom environment when you want to hear everyone’s voice and the same students continue to hold the floor. Introverts want to think longer before offering a response, while extroverts tend to speak on the fly. If the discussion space isn’t moderated, your fast talking extroverts will almost always leap in to fill the silence first.

However, a yoga teacher will need to speak audibly and clearly when they are teaching their own class. Practicing speaking out during the training can help your students become more comfortable with holding the spotlight after they graduate.

Here are some of my favourite discussion tactics to help everyone be heard.

Set expectations from the start

I set expectations for discussion participation from the beginning of training by encouraging students to self-reflect on their habitual participation. I’ll usually say, “Teacher training is a place to learn to share your voice as well as hold silence. Both are important skills for a yoga teacher. Notice your habits. If you’re always jumping in to speak, consider holding space and silence. If you are not speaking to the group, then consider stepping in sooner.”

Setting expectations early can also help you avoid wounding egos if you ask certain members to practice holding back. After all, holding space for silence is also an incredibly important skill for a yoga teacher to cultivate.

Choose students to speak

To avoid having your fast talkers jump in first, you can call on certain students to share. However, I will only call students out to share when I know there’s no danger of them not knowing the answer to a question. For example, I’ll ask them to share their reaction to a sutra or give a personal response so they don’t feel they are being ambushed.

Put them in partners/ small groups with timers

If you put people in partners or small groups and give each person a certain amount of time to talk, everyone will have a designated space to participate free from interruption.

Assign them to speak…tomorrow

One great tactic is to assign students to share on a topic the following day. For example, you could give each student a sutra to share or a homework assignment to present. By giving the topic in advance, you make sure that your students have time to prepare and feel ready.

The classic, “Let’s hear from someone who hasn’t shared yet.”

When facilitating a discussion, it’s perfectly fine to ask to hear from students who have been quiet. Be willing to hold the space and silence until someone is ready to speak.

Have students raise hands to speak

While it’s common in many trainings to let students “popcorn participate” in group discussions (where they pop in their voices into the discussion without raising their hands), it can be useful to have a more formal discussion structure where students ask to speak. You can then choose to call on students who may have not been as forthcoming, and spread the verbal sharing around.

One last note:

For your students, taking a yoga teacher training provides an opportunity to address and overcome a fear of public speaking. Even students who are taking the course for self-development (and not to teach professionally) have the chance to hold space to be heard. Helping your students learn to share their voice in a public space can help the build confidence and develop life skills that extend far beyond the yoga classroom.

How To Teach Yoga Anatomy Like a Rock Star

I love teaching anatomy in yoga teacher trainings. LOVE IT. Sharing the mystery and miracle of the human body is incredibly inspiring and satisfying. However, teaching anatomy in a yoga teacher training course can be difficult, and it’s easy to fall into traps that can turn anatomy into a drag!

Top mistakes I see?

  • Cramming in too much information
  • Failing to teach the application to the yoga asana practice
  • Teaching names, not function

And I know, my dears, that we are not always set up for success. Often the anatomy portion of a 200 or 300 hour training is shoved into one weekend (who can remember their femur from their fibula after six hours of lecture??), which leads to brain overload for the students and a lack of relevance to the rest of the program.

So step number one for success:

Whenever possible, teach anatomy in bite-sized chunks.

Ideally, an anatomy session should be two hours max, and should directly relate to the other content (asana) that is being taught. Do your best to fight for a sane schedule. What good is including anatomy in a program if the students can’t remember it?

Teach relevance, not details.

What’s more important: remembering the names of the knee ligaments, or understanding why pigeon pose is hard on your meniscus?

Avoid bogging your students down in seductive (and irrelevant) details. Do they really need to know the word, “talus?” Focus on the big picture, and apply the anatomy that you teach immediately to the practice and teaching of yoga asana. For example, you would want to consider:

  • Why is understanding the labrum of the hip important for warrior two?
  • Why is understanding shoulder impingement relevant to chaturanga?
  • What is happening to a woman’s body in third trimester that may affect asana modification?
  • How does blood pressure relate to inversions?

Applied anatomy is the only kind that counts. For every module you teach, ask and answer, “how is this information relevant to a general yoga practice?”

Focus on the Scope of Practice

Dr. McCoy from Star Trek used to say, “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a Klingon navigator!” Well, in this case, we are yoga teachers, dammit, not chiropractors or physiotherapists. Relieve students of the pressure to know everything. New teachers are afraid of hurting their students (for most of us, this is one of our greatest fears). However, you can’t possibly learn enough about anatomy in twenty five hours to have more than a layman’s understanding of the human body. While I am a firm believer in studying anatomy (yes, yes, more please!), we have to encourage our students to be realistic about their expectations. Help your trainees understand that their scope of practice as yoga teachers is to teach a healthy population a safe and effective yoga practice, and to offer students common sense modifications when appropriate. That’s it.

Inspire

The human body is amazing! As anatomy teacher trainers, we have the privilege of helping students understand the magnificence of the human body. What astonishing work! Have you seen a human tendon? Exquisitely beautiful. Have you considered the relentless and steadfast beating of the human heart (85,000 beats a day for your entire life)? How awe-inspiring. How about the mysterious electrical machinations of the nervous system? Sorcery!

If you are excited about sharing this mystery, your students will get excited too. Share your passion and enthusiasm. Not only will your energy make teaching anatomy fun, it will inspire your students to connect more deeply and respectfully with their work as asana teachers. After all, as hatha yoga teachers, we use the physical body as a vehicle for divine expression and transformation. How marvellous to appreciate the mysterious depths that lie within us  – right at our fingertips.

Teach well.

Plan your lessons carefully. Be clear why this information is relevant and important. Use photos and videos (respecting copyright of course) to make the anatomy visually exciting and understandable. Incorporate group exercises and fun activities that will bring the anatomy to life.

To get some inspiration and see how I do it, check out one of my free anatomy lesson plans. Plan in advance how you will get students out of their heads (memorizing details and words) and into their bodies (applying anatomy to the practice). Experiential learning is where the anatomy will best stick.

Happy teaching!

Market for success: what blockbuster movies have to do with being an entrepreneur

The Force Awakens cost $245 million dollars to make. And it cost between $100-150 million dollars to advertise.

More than one-third of their total expenditure on that movie was in advertising.

Surprised?

Even though The Force Awakens seems like a no-brainer for success, Disney invested more than $100 million in promotion. And this percentage is typical of major motion pictures, who routinely spend 1/3 of their production costs again to market their films. In the case of The Force Awakens, the investment was well worth it: Disney has raked in more than $2 billion dollars in global sales. Now while we don’t all need to go out there and make $2 billion dollars, the lesson from this blockbuster is applicable to all of us: it’s not enough to be awesome; to be successful, you must significantly invest in advertising your awesomeness.

You cannot take success (and word of mouth) for granted. Disney didn’t sit back and say, “Well, heck, everyone in the world has been waiting for this movie since those terrible prequels; we’ll be fine!” It’s no longer enough to create a great product and hope people hear about it. In a noisy world, only the loudest and most persistent voice gets heard. Marketing – for better or worse – is an essential component of doing business. Here are four tips to get you started.

Rule of Thirds

If you are an entrepreneur and doing a lot of your work yourself, then it’s important to allocate some substantial work time to growing your business and online presence.  Spending time and resources on marketing can feel counterintuitive; after all, I’d much rather spend three hours developing and editing curriculum than figuring out how to promote my Facebook page!

Do the “rule of thirds” reframe to shift your perspective.

You may have heard of the rule of thirds in photography: divide your frame into thirds and place your object of interest along an intersection. Now you can think of the rule of thirds for your marketing strategy. One third of your resources needs to go into marketing. Not only your money, but your time. If you’re working a nine-hour day, spend three of it on your marketing strategy. For the agile, DIY entrepreneur, this may mean that you spend a couple hours each day engaging with social media. Plan on spending a third of your budget on advertising and promotion.

Cross-promote

The big blockbuster movies don’t pay out of pocket for their advertising: they cross-promote. By partnering up with other vendors and products, they help to defray their own marketing costs with a little win-win. Take a lesson from the big boys: find similar vendors who would find an alliance with you advantageous and create partnerships that help you both.

Delegate

As entrepreneurs, we often feel that we need to do everything to get our small business to run. But once you accept that marketing is a high priority, you may realize that creating a team of helpers can save you time, money, and effort. Hiring a marketing strategist can help you to make sure that you are putting your precious time and effort in the right place. There’s nothing worse than spending a lot of time on marketing, only to have your strategy fail. Consider how much your own time is worth. If you can hire someone to do some legwork for you at the right price, having some marketing hands in you corner may help you to focus on what you do best. Use automated services like Planoly and Hootsuite to batch your advertising tasks and save you time.

Be consistent

Marketing can be exhausting. However, it’s not just the loudest horn that gets heard; it’s the most consistent horn. Set yourself up for success (and avoid burn out) by creating a slow and steady marketing strategy that allows you to stay in for the long haul. Cultivate patience. Be the consistent horn.

Regardless of whether you have a $100 or $1 million dollar marketing budget, the lesson is the same: marketing oomph is essential if you want to be successful.

Take it slow, have a plan, delegate when possible, and shine your light!

Are you a yoga educator? To hear more on marketing your educational courses, check out Marketing For Success.

How To Choose A Yoga Teacher Training Format

I was on the phone with a client this morning, who was considering revamping her course format. “Everyone is running their 200 hour teacher trainings in two weeks,” she said. “I don’t know how they do it.”

“Oy. Thirteen hour days, and no days off,” I said. “Now, that thirteen hours of training, which means that students are in the classroom from 6:30 am-10:30 pm, because you need to take an hour for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can do it, but it may not be pretty.”

And you could.

But first you must consider: who is your ideal student?

When you set the format (days and times) for your teacher training, the first thing you must consider is your student and their lifestyle.

Your Ideal Student

Is your target audience full of adventurous travellers? If students are travelling (ie: a retreat or coming from out of town), then they may want to make the time as intensive as possible in order to reduce the amount of vacation time that they have to take off (and likely the cost of the retreat itself). However, if you are running your training for your local 9-5er’s, then they are clearly going to prefer a format that will integrate well into their current lifestyle.

Popular Formats

Some popular training formats:

  • Weekends (great for for local trainings that need to appeal to working folks)
  • Intensives (cram it all into a shorter amount of time, great for retreats and destination trainings)
  • Bursts (5 day training x 4; great for folks who can travel every couple months to train)

or a combination of the above. For example, maybe you start your training with a five day burst, then run it on weekends.

To figure out which training format is best for you, consider:

  • what does the day to day of my ideal student look like?
  • what worries my ideal student (family obligations, evening obligations, early mornings, money, time)
  • are students travelling to come to the training?
  • are these students morning people/night owls?
  • when during the year can they take the time to train?
  • is there a financial incentive tied into a shorter or longer training?
  • how much homework or outside work does my course require?
  • how much integration time does my course require?

Get Information

To create your training format, it’s helpful to investigate the training structure of your direct competition. Usually, they’ve figured something out! Do some online research and make a chart of what everyone else is doing; this will give you some context. While it may mean that your competitors have stumbled upon the best training format for your area, it’s also possible that offering something different from your competitors would actually position you to appeal to a different segment of yogis.

Remember: don’t just investigate studio schedules. Check out what individual teachers who are popular in your area are doing as well.

Get information from your own students. Do a Facebook poll, send them a survey. Your own students are coming to you for a reason, and there may be something unique about their needs.

For more information on creating an awesome course format and choosing a training space, check out our online course!

For Yoga Teachers: How To See Your Students In A Yoga Class

When you’re learning to teach yoga and you begin to understand the principles of alignment, a whole new world opens up. All of a sudden, the hidden actions of the yoga practice are exposed like Illuminati secrets in a Dan Brown novel. The code is suddenly everywhere!

When this happens, it can be very tempting (especially for A-type students) to dive in – eagle-eyed – and start “fixing” student. But before you zero in with well-intentioned zeal, take a mental “whoa, Nelly!” and consider these five guidelines.

1. See the whole student.

Before you fixate your beady eyes on your student’s misaligned knee in warrior two, step back and see the whole picture. See the whole human.

  • What’s your student’s energy?
  • What’s their facial expression and emotional aspect?
  • How’s their muscle tone and tension?

Remember that this student has a life outside of the yoga class (job, family, stresses, love, loss). When you take time to see the whole student, you will be less likely to treat him or her like an object and more likely to approach them with good intent. At the very least, you’ll have the opportunity to take a breath and think, “Is this assist really going to elevate my student’s experience?” If the answer is no, then move on.

2. Speak to the foundation first.

We usually become fixated on what seems most obviously out of whack. While it’s normal to see the most blatant misalignment, pause and look to the student’s foundation. It’s amazing how much compensation can happen in the hips and upper body when the foundation is off-kilter. Look at the feet first (or hands, if they are weight-bearing), and work upwards from there. A well-adjusted foundation can shift the entire expression of a pose.

3. See the good.

Before you jump in to correct, notice what your student is doing well. Although I’m not shy about assisting students, it’s nice to give a positive note first: “Marjorie, good work with the straightness of your back thigh. Now, roll that right hip down a bit. Awesome!” Seeing the good first trains us to mentally affirm and celebrate our students’ progress and share that positivity with them. Students grow best when they are confident; by training yourself to see their good efforts, you will support them to celebrate their own.

4. They’re doing the best they can.

Remember: your students are doing the best they can. Sure, they may benefit from your intervention and loving support, but they have come to yoga class, gotten on their mat, and started to move. Some days, just getting to class is a triumph. As teachers, it’s important to remember that their presence in class is a testament of their dedication to their self care and the practice.

5. Be patient.

They’re not going to get it all today. Don’t fuss over the fine details. Your students’ practice will evolve at just the right pace for them. And sometimes, that may feel really slow. (My teachers are still giving me the same assists I was getting fifteen years ago. Learning to change our bodies is a slow, organic process.) Remember, aiding your students’ progress is your privilege, but ultimately their practice is their responsibility. Support and affirm their work, but give ownership of their practice back to them.

Happy teaching!

For what to do next, see, “Three steps to give a verbal assist.”

Three Must-Follow Rules For Marketing a Workshop or Teacher Training

Wouldn’t you love to know the magic formula for advertising?

I’d love someone to take me aside and say, “Psssst….put in $500 worth of Facebook Ads, three blogs posts, eight Instagram stories and you’re golden!” Yay! Mystery solved!

No such luck. Marketing is a fickle beast and every campaign is different. But while there may not be definitive recipe for maxing out attendance in your programs, these three must-follow rules will set a solid foundation to help you on your way. They seem simple, but you’d be amazed at how easy it is to miss these three basic principles!

Check it out.

Rule #1: go to where your people are.

Find out where you connect with your community and go find them there. By “your people,” I mean your ideal student. Not everyone. Your very specific, quirky, and unique ideal student.

In the virtual world, check out:

  • Where they hang on social media: Facebook? Instagram? Snapchat? Pinterest?
  • Do they hang out in online forums or Facebook Pages?
  • Are they reading blogs or online periodicals?
  • Are they participating in conversations in sister industries like naturopathy?
  • (Also find out where your competitors are making an online splash; chances are, there’s a strong community of students there!)

IRL:

  • Which studios are they at?
  • Where do they live?
  • Are they at neighborhood coffee shops, restaurant, juiceries?
  • Are they reading periodicals, listings?
  • Are they working with other service providers (chiros, naturopaths, retail vendors)?

And once you know where the majority of your people are: go there. Presto, this is where you should focus your energy.

Rule #2: build community before sales.

In social media, the number one mistake that people make is advertising to a cold audience. Social media is not a sales platform; it is a community platform. As my Instagram mentor said, “Compel, connect, convert.” This means that you put your party online, invite people to your party, and then you eventually tell them that – hey! – you’ve got something for sale that they might like.

Like Captain Picard says, “Engage!”

To create community on social media, it has to be a two-way street.  If you’re just posting your own stuff without connecting to what’s going on with other people, they are going to feel the lack of love. Engage with your community through discussions, commenting, and showing that you care about their lives and their photo of that really cute kitten.

Rule #3: Tell people what you’re doing.

Sometimes half the battle with marketing is just opening your mouth!

People won’t know about your offerings unless you tell them. It can be super uncomfortable at first to tell people what you’re doing if it feels like you’re just making a sales pitch. Reconnect to your greater purpose for creating your course (for a free course that helps you with this, check this out), and your mission as a yoga teacher. Feel the power of your mission in your bones. Think about your experiences as a student and how transformational it has been for you to work with your favorite teacher! Now, imagine that you are providing that same amazing experience for your students.

When you remember why your work is so darn important, you’ll realize that sharing it is just another way to deepen your connection with your peeps, and help make the world a better place.

Now go be successful!

For more how to’s on marketing, check out “Market For Success.”

Three Steps To Register for Yoga Alliance

Registering for Yoga Alliance is a pain in the ass.

And the bottom line: registration does not mean that a program is any good. Yoga Alliance lacks the manpower to enforce or monitor the standards of its schools, so being approved is unfortunately not an indicator of quality. However, if you’re running a teacher training, I usually suggest that you pay up and register. (If you’re registering as a teacher, however, it’s a toss up whether or not it’s worth it.)

Here’s why:

  • most students recognize and look for the affiliation
  • it’s currently the most widely recognized affiliation, at least in North America
  • it forces you to do some legwork that can be darn useful

If you’re new to creating education, the registration process can seem overwhelming. Here’s how to keep it simple and make the process work for you.

1. Brainstorm Your What

Step one: do a giant brainstorm. Think about your ideal student and what they will be able to DO and KNOW at the end of your training. Imagine your perfect graduate: how are they showing you that they understand your material? (Bonus: How to Avoid The Great Mistake.) Think about their actual teaching performance (cuing, voice, teaching skills) as well as what they need to be able to draw up on in knowledge (anatomy, philosophy, ethics, business, sequencing).

Then, group your brainstorm content into the Yoga Alliance buckets:

  • Techniques, Training & Practice – this includes all asana work, cuing, teaching skills, in class practice and asana labs
  • Teaching Methodology – this is a smaller bucket and includes “how to teach,” sequencing, and the business of yoga
  • Anatomy/ Physiology – includes both physical and subtle body
  • Philosophy – includes philosophy and ethics
  • Practicum – includes practice teaching, evaluation, class observation and class assisting time

I highly recommend that you use a spreadsheet for this (excel, Google Sheets, Numbers) and use one line for each primary learning requirement. We’ll call each of these a “topic.”

2. Brainstorm Your How

For each learning requirement, write a brief description of how the students will learn. Examples:

  • “Though discussion and lecture, students will learn to apply Ayurvedic principles to their class plan and create a targeted sequence for each dosha”
  • “Through discussion and practice teaching, students will learn strategies for teaching a multi-level class in a group class setting.”

Your “how” might include activities like lecture, group discussion, practice teaching, partner work, practice, powerpoint, or worksheets.

3. Estimate The Time

For each topic, take a guess at how many class hours you will allocate to this topic. You may have several lessons that fall under one topic, so you may allocate five hours to learning about Ayurveda, even if it’s broken up in your course into five one-hour sessions. You can designated these hours as “contact hours” with your Lead Trainer (registered with Yoga Alliance), contact hours with a non-lead Trainer (doesn’t have to be registered with Yoga Alliance) and non-contact hours (time they spend on the topic in the form of homework or outside the classroom).

Register!

Your sweet little spreadsheet now includes – in a wonderfully organized way – all the information that you need to get registered for Yoga Alliance. And you’ve also managed to take a good first draft at organizing all your course material.

Expert Tip: Register early

Don’t wait to complete writing your course before your register. Register early in your creation process so that you can start marketing your course as “Yoga Alliance Registered”as soon as possible! You’ll want to market your course at least six months in advance, so get registered first, start your marketing, then take your sweet time to build your awesome program while the buzz increases.

For more information on how to register for Yoga Alliance, check out this course that takes you step by step through the whole process (and includes sweet templates to make life easy! Yay!).

Stop Procrastinating And Make Your Dreams 80% Come True

We all procrastinate for different reasons. And usually they’re really GOOD reasons. (Gotta take care of the kids, gotta get to the doctors, need to clean the house, or I need ME time, dammit!)

Have you ever taken an online course? Students finish three weeks of the course and then disappear. Course progress remains half done. Attrition in the big massive online courses (MOOC) is about 95%. (95%!) The passion that drove us to sign up in the first place begins to wan in the mundane work that it actually takes to cross the finish line. We start thinking, “it’s not really that important, is it?”

Here are three tips to getting past procrastination so that you can do the stuff you say you want to do. For real.

1. Kill your children

Not literally.

But we all have those things in our lives that we love to do (your yoga class, your morning walk, your tea date with your friend). Here’s the thing: your life is already full of stuff that you do (and like to do). And you’re going to have to sacrifice something nice in order to get your new goal accomplished. It will not just “fit in.” And thinking that we’re going to get it all done at 10 PM after the kids are in bed is not realistic. We lose discipline during the day, and by 10 PM at night, you’re likely going to want to nothing more than to drink a glass of wine and watch Rupaul’s Drag Race.

So you’re going to have to kill your children.

Last year, I published “Head Over Heels: A Yogi’s Guide To Dating,” and I also finished my Masters in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies. What I gave up? My two hour morning ashtanga practice. I simply didn’t have the time to do it all and work a full time job.

Accept that you need to kill your children. You can always resurrect them on the other side.

2. Stop striving for perfection

Here’s another reason that I procrastinate: I want it to be perfect.

I think I have to have to have it all figured out before I start creating. I just don’t want to screw it up, or have to redo work. When I created my online course, I agonized over the course structure. I was afraid to start because I didn’t want to do it wrong.

Accept right now that you’re only going to get it 80% right. It will not be perfect. And there are things that you will learn that you can only learn through the creative process, by jumping in and getting your hands dirty. I already know a million things that I want to tweak in my online course. But now at least I’m 75% there. And 75% is a heck of a lot better than 0%.

Shoot for a solid 80%. As one of my mentors said, “Done is better than perfect.”

3. Work when you’re uninspired

We often wait to feel inspired to do the work. This is backwards. Sitting down to DO the work will lead to inspiration. If you wait to “feel like it,” you will consistently fail to do anything. It’s by actually sitting in front of the blank page, logging into your online course, or starting your market research that you being to feel inspired to be there. Do the work and get inspired. Not the other way around. There will probably be a good five minutes of grouchiness when you sit down to dig in. It will pass. And if it doesn’t, then you’re still five minutes closer to your goal than you were before. And that should give you a tiny warm fuzzy.

Finally, give yourself some appreciation. It’s freakin’ hard to change your life. We think it will be magical unicorns and flowing bliss, but in reality it’s elbow grease, stop-starts, and grouchiness. So when you put in the time on your project, take a moment and give yourself a huge pat on the back in appreciation. Even five minutes makes you a warrior.

Check out this procrastination e-book from my fabulous friend and coach Christine Young for more inspiration.

Here’s the thing.

Making your dreams come true  – even if you get to 95% – will probably never match your image of what you thought it was going to be. You may always have that restless feeling of dissatisfaction and longing. There may always be “the next thing.” But the process of digging in is enormously rewarding in and of itself. Every creative act is an affirmation of your self-creation. And that’s a great reason to start now.

Why You Should Embrace Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice questions get a bad rap! They’re usually seen as simplistic questions that only test very basic knowledge. And for must of us, they bring back memories of stultifying standardized tests.

But I want to bring back multiple choice! Multiple choice questions – when created properly – can be excellent at assessing knowledge. And assessment – both at the end of your training as well as throughout your training – is absolutely essential for you to ensure that your students are truly learning.

Multiple choice questions can be the trainer’s friend. Here’s why:

  • multiple choice quizzes are quick and easy ways to create review opportunities throughout a training
  • using multiple choice questions can save you time, effort, and money – because they can be graded quickly by the teacher – or automatically by software online

While you may want to asses your students more formally, you may not want to grade twenty quizzes after teaching a nine hour day. And while you can grade your quizzes as a group in class (which is a nice way to do a review the next day), you may need to use your class time another way.

In our online age, you can now easily assign students an online quiz to take as homework that is graded automatically by  software. And the software can show you trends in understanding, which is helpful for you to direct your training and in-class time. Yay! But software can usually only grade automatically when you are using true false, multiple choice, and multiple answer style questions.

So let’s take advantage of multiple choice, but let’s do it right.

Here are five tips for creating multiple choice questions that don’t suck.

1. Don’t use “all of the above” or “none of the above.”

When you use “all of the above,” students only have to recognize two of the answers are right to click that box. Usually none of the above questions are too obvious. Make ’em work harder than that.

2. Make your answers the same length

It’s sometimes tempting to make the right answer a lot longer or shorter, check this out.

Example:

Why are the yoga sutra important?

  1. They explain the secrets of yoga
  2. They itemize key yoga poses
  3. They articulate the key principles of mindfulness by proposing that we are not the thoughts in our heads.

When one answer is a lot shorter or longer than another, it’s a tip off that it’s the right answer.

3. Use plausible answers

Example:

Who wrote the yoga sutra?

  1. Patanjali
  2. The Queen of England
  3. Oprah
  4. Swami Bhajan

If you add in silly answers (or really obviously wrong choices), students can use the process of elimination to find the right one. You want them to answer from knowledge, not because they realize “Queen of England” isn’t a good choice.

4. Use consistent grammar

Use good grammar. Be consistent. Be clear.  You don’t want crappy grammar to get in the way of a student understanding the question.

Example:

What is something the teacher should consider before giving a hands on assist?

  1. Time of day
  2. Ask the student if they are receptive
  3. Is the room crowded?

5. Ask higher level questions

Most importantly, ask higher level questions. With multiple choice, it’s easy to default into asking questions that test memorization.

Let’s look at an example.

What’s a risk factor for warrior two?

  1. the knee caving inwardly
  2. pressure on the glenohumeral joint
  3. cervical compression

That’s a simple question, testing memorization. Add the application of knowledge to turn the question into something more interesting. Something like…

Which of the following cues would be most effective for addressing a common risk factor in warrior 2?

  1. press your knee wide until it aligns over the ankle joint
  2. hug your shoulder blades onto your back
  3. lift your chin slightly as you lengthen the back of your neck

In this second option, the student needs to think beyond the first layer of the question. It will take more work for you to create higher level multiple choice questions, but once you have them locked and loaded, they are yours to use forever!

Happy assessing!

For more info on astute assessment, check out my “Assess for Success” mini course.

Where Most Yoga Trainings Fail: Creating Great Assessments

How do you know if your training is actually working?

I’ve been to so many yoga trainings that are enlivening, exciting, entertaining, and emotionally elevating…but absolute failures when it comes to teaching yoga skills.

While an inspirational experience can certainly be a powerful component of your student’s learning (yes, yes!), too often I have seen emotional juice replace efficacy. This happens when the teacher doesn’t create enough opportunity for something called assessment.

Assessment is a way to check in whether the student is really learning.

There are two kinds of assessment: summative assessment (at the end of the course, like practicums and exams) and formative assessment (the less formal check ins that you can do during the course to see if people are picking up what you’re throwing down as you go along).

While most training programs have a summative assessment like a practicum or exam, many of them don’t quantify performance. In other words, there’s little objective standard! Sure, students may get subjective feedback, but they’re not being evaluated against a standard that is clear and measurable.

Consider the difference between these two standards:

  • “Students will cue effectively.”
  • “Students will cue the pose by using direct language, cuing the correct foundation, addressing one common misalignment, and including a root rebound cue.”

Which one is more measurable and clear?

Here’s the thing: unless you tell the students exactly what they need to be able to do to pass successfully, they’re not going to actually know what to do.

The trick? You have to know exactly what constitutes a meaningfully successful performance for your training, and put it in writing. What an amazing opportunity to get clear about your training priorities!

Sure, you could continue on with wishy-washy assessments; but if you’re running a training program, your training program should be a calling card for your brand out there in the world. Implementing specific assessments is an effective way to elevate the professional standard of your program quickly.

By creating measurable standards, you will help your graduates succeed – and be amazing ambassadors for your program – by giving them the measurable tools that they need to hit your mark.

For more information on assessment, check out “Assess For Success.” 

Yoga Teachers! Three Things To Consider If You Want To Create An Online Course

So you want to create an online course, but aren’t sure where to start?

Okay! First of all, take a deep breath! Creating an online course is an exciting way to expand your reach by connecting to people who are geographically distant or unable to meet you in the real world. Here are the first three things you need to think about.

1. What do you want to share?

Be specific. Be real. Be you.

How can you use this course to help improve the lives of your students? What sweet, juicy kernel of information do you want to share? Start small. You do no need to create a twelve-course opus when you start out! How about a mentorship course? A favorite technique for practice? Make your first course something short and sweet so that you can get your feet wet with a smaller offering. You can always build from there!

My advice:

  • Choose something specific and targeted
  • Be simple
  • Get very clear on what you want your students to be able to DO as a result of your teaching. (More on why that’s important here.)

2. How Can You Share It

Teaching in person is not the same thing as teaching online. When you’re sharing online you need to get very clear about the structure of your course and how you are going to lead your students from point A to point B (another reason to start with something simple!). Then, consider the tools that you can use to share your information one step at at time. And with every step, consider, “what do I want my students to be able to do as a result of this information?”

Most people immediately default to video and pdf. While these are good tools, also think outside the box! How do you want your course to feel? Think of other tools could help students learn:

  • audio recordings
  • online classes
  • journal entries
  • worksheets
  • online articles
  • personal practice
  • etc.

Remember, your guiding star as you create your course is not, “what can I tell my students,” but rather, “how can I move my students from point A to point B?”

3. Platform

Your platform is how you host your course. If you’re tech savvy (or have tech savvy friends), you may host it on your own site. Frankly, I do not recommend this. More likely, you’ll want to use an online platform that already has some of the bugs worked out and makes it easy on you. I use Thinkific for my courses and like them so much that I’ve become an affiliate for them. They have a great platform that’s easy to use, they’re super responsive, and they put learners at the center. Other top contenders you can research: Teachable, Kajabi, or Udemy. You can play on many of them for free, then see what you like the most.

Here are some things to think about as you get started!

Want more help? Book a free consult with me. Creating great education is my jam, and my mission is to elevate yoga education in the world!

Happy creating!

 

Are You Ready To Run A Yoga Teacher Training?

So how much do you need to really know to offer a teacher training?

This is a great question – and one that is not to be taken lightly, especially when teacher trainings seem to be cropping up almost everywhere!

Here are five questions you should take to heart before you jump in.

What’s my intention?

Why do you want to create a teacher training?

Which of the following resonate:

  • It’s my dream to share my passion for yoga with everyone
  • I love teaching teachers
  • It’s a great additional stream of revenue
  • My students are asking for it
  • I want to be on a beautiful retreat island for a month
  • Everyone else is doing it, so shouldn’t I be, too?

While it’s not a problem if the idea of revenue or having a destination program is part of your “why,” unless teacher training and education is a core value in your heart, you won’t have enough gas in the tank to make it through. Have a heart to heart with yourself to get to the root of your intention. If you feel it in your heart that creating a teacher training is part of your mission as a teacher, then that’s a sign you’re headed in the right direction. (To go in-depth through this process, take my free online course, which includes everything you need to think about before you decide to create a training.)

How’s my energy?

Creating a teacher training – if you want to do it well – will take a lot of time, effort, and love. Is your “why” strong enough to see you through the the hard parts? Can you commit to taking the time that will be necessary to create a quality training (about 8-10 hours a week for four months to create a 200-hour). Do you have the bandwidth to commit, and are you willing to create space in your life to make this happen?

Is there a need?

Is there a need in your community for a teacher training?

Are students asking you, “when are you going to do this program?” Before you commit to creating a program, find out if it will serve your community. There may be other offerings (retreats, workshops, immersions) that are a better fit. Ask your students, put out a poll on social media, and get some feedback. Do some research in advance to see if there will be an audience. Now, we can never know for sure, a bit of due diligence can save your a lot of time and effort.

Am I ready?

Being a trainer doesn’t only require that you have expertise to share; trainers must also be role models for their students emotionally and professionally. Stepping into the seat of the teacher trainer requires that we look at our own habits (being late, procrastination, emotional reactivity), and be willing to do the work to elevate ourselves. While this is an enormously exciting opportunity for personal growth, it is not for the faint of heart. Said frankly, your own crap is going to come up. Are you ready to do the self-work to be a leader?

What’s in my way?

One of my teachers said, “if you’re asked to teach, then teach.”

We often don’t feel ready to take the leap to leadership. However, feeling ready and being ready are two different things. Fear is often a sign that we’re engaging in a process of self-discovery and growth. Drill down.

What’s really in your way to making the leap? If it’s fear and self-doubt, then it’s time to cast those aside and take a  jump forward. We never “feel ready.” Leap and you will create your own net. After all, you’re here on the planet to grow, not just be comfortable!

Happy creating!

You can also check out my companion article, “What you need to think about before you create a teacher training.”

How to be a great yoga teacher trainer: the activation principle

Want to be a great yoga teacher trainer?

Here’s one of those sneaky skills that you can use in the classroom to help elevate the quality of your students’ learning. It may seem obvious, but unless you’re thinking about it, you may miss doing it.

It’s called the Activation Principle.

Learning is promoted when learners activate relevant cognitive structures by being directed to recall, describe, or demonstrate relevant prior knowledge or experience.

So what does this mean?

It means that learners learn best when the content is related to something they already know. It tells their brain how to plug the new knowledge into what’s already in their heads. (Sort of like it’s easier to remember a name when the person in front of you reminds you of Uncle Jimmy, and J is next to K in the alphabet, so surely it’s obvious that this guy’s name is Kevin.) Making links with prior knowledge helps us to remember new stuff.

Some ways you can easily do this:

  • relate the topic at hand to their experience as a yoga practitioner (“have you ever been to a class where…”, “how does it feel when…”)
  • relate information to stuff you’ve already studied
  • ask them to think about examples from their own lives (“has this ever happened to you…”, “think of a time when…”)
  • ask them for personal examples
  • have them do a journal reflection
  • organize the knowledge clearly, so they know how to connect the dots

Learning is personal, and each person will relate to the new information in a different way.

Part of your job as a yoga teacher trainer is help each student create a mental breadcrumb trail between what they already know – and the new information you want them to learn.

 

Please Stop Dumping Your Brain On Me: How Not To Teach

Have you ever been subjected to a lecture-vomit?

In the “sage on a stage” model, the learned expert shares their knowledge through a presentation while the students act as passive recipients. Though used in many classrooms, the lecture-vomit can fall woefully short where learning is concerned.

And the problem? Well, sometimes yoga trainers act like sages on stages. In subjects such as anatomy and philosophy, it’s fairly typical to have the ol’ “let me tell you what I know” expert come in and hold court.

“It’s a point of discipline,” said one (well-respected) teacher than I know, regarding her habit of lecturing students for a couple of hours. “Can they have studentship? Can they maintain focus and receive knowledge?”

It’s true that there is a historical precedent for the “student as vessel” model of learning. In the Upanishads, yoga students have had to prove their merit, often undergoing great tasks to show their teacher that they were ready to learn. However, while a student’s willingness to sit and listen may show discipline, it does not correlate that learning will result.

The sage on the stage model of teaching is an example of what I call “The Great Mistake,” where the emphasis is mistakenly put on the teacher’s performance rather than the student’s learning.

David Merrill, a well-known educational researcher, proposes several “First Principles of Instruction.” One of these principles is called the “application principle” and states that “learning is promoted when learners engage in the application of their newly acquired knowledge or skill [and] application is effective only when learners receive intrinsic or corrective feedback” (Merrill, Prescriptive Principles for Instructional Design).  In other words, students don’t learn when they’re bystanders.  Students learn by doing. Then getting feedback. And then doing again. Without the application of knowledge, sitting through a lecture is like watching TV. Sure it could be entertaining, but that doesn’t mean anyone is learning.

Fortunately, the solution is easy!

Application.

If you’ve got a lecture or Powerpoint in your hot little paws, consider what you need the students to be able to do as a result of your lecture. What task can you create that have them demonstrate their new knowledge, attitude or skill? Can you incorporate this demonstration of new learning into your lesson plan, and include the necessary time to give the learners feedback?

Presto: the one way lecture street has become a learning superhighway!

If you find yourself with a lecture or Powerpoint on your hot little hands, think to yourself, “How will the students demonstrate their learning to me? And how will I give them feedback?” By focusing on your student’s performance, you will ensure that your educational objectives are hitting their mark.

 

How To Choose The Right Teacher Training Format

You may think that the make or break it factor in your teacher training is the excellence of your course content and the charisma of your lead faculty.

Wrong.

One of most important factors in the enrolment success of your program is your course schedule. While you will have some students who will make the leap for a particular faculty member, most students have to fit teacher training into their lives.

If they’re doing a retreat training (heading to Bali for example), chances are they have to fit it into the vacation days and around family obligations. If they’re doing a local training, they’re working around their work schedule and holidays.

By scheduling smart, you’ll put your training on the map and and make it more likely that students will enroll.

Here is a snapshot of three things to help you make a good choice:

1. Look Around

What are other successful studios in your area doing? Not to be a copy cat, but it’s a good idea to do some solid market research before you commit to your format. If another studio is doing well,  take note of how they’ve locked it down. By researching your competitors, you’ll see how you can either tow the standard line, or offer a different schedule that may be a unique selling feature.

2. Know Your Students

Who is your ideal student? Planning a training to appeal to 9-5er’s is going to look a lot different than a training designed to appeal to stay-at-home parents or vacationing college students. Who is in your community? What kind of schedule would they prefer? When in doubt, do a poll! Easy enough to get some feedback by either asking your students directly, or throwing up a Facebook poll. Don’t guess; get information.

3. Go Short

As much as it pains my nerdy, educational side to say so, shorter course programs are often more accessible and more appealing to students. People are busy and they want a good bang for their buck. Shorter programs cut down your program costs (and cut down your faculty hours, if you are hiring faculty). Balance the logistical appeal of running a shorter program with a keen eye towards your learning objectives to find your happy place.

Want more? For an in-depth look at choosing your ideal course format, check out the online course. 

Three tips to empower your yoga teacher training students

There is an old school idea of education that involves rapping kids on the knuckles (I keep imagining nuns), motivating students through “tough love,” and generally being a jerk to inspire learning. While this idea has generally fallen by the wayside, but there are still echos of righteous ferocity in yoga trainings. Think of Iyengar, rapping students on the legs and yelling to get them into the pose.

We could debate the merits of emotional intensity and wholesome discipline (we won’t, here), but I think most of us can agree that it’s better to empower our students than to undermine their confidence, especially in a teacher training. Students learn and perform better when they feel successful.

Unfortunately, it can be easy to accidentally demoralize your trainees. I’ve seen situations where skillful trainers – even with the best of intentions – have reduced their students to puddles of anxiety. And once students get scared of looking stupid or being wrong, it’s hard to recover the sense of safety that helps learning flourish.

Here are some quick tips to help you improve your students’ confidence, and their learning.

1. Don’t pick on your introverts

It’s great to be an extrovert in a teacher training. You naturally speak up and it’s easy for the teacher to see that you’re engaged. While introverts may be less likely to talk right away in a training (especially when it’s a large group discussion), they are still participating with their attention. Trainers are often tempted to “call out” quiet students. While there is merit to getting your quieter students to speak (after all, if they’re going to be teaching yoga, it’s good practice to share their voices), it can feel very daunting to be singled out. Give introverts the space and time to be heard through incorporating partner discussions and journal work.

My fave tactic:

At the beginning of the training, ask everyone to pay attention to how they participate. Do they immediately jump in? Do they always hold back? Create a deliberate opportunity for extroverts to practice holding silence, which may give your introverts more opportunity to offer a thoughtful opinion.

2. Affirm your students’ answers, even when they’re wrong.

Sometimes students say the wrong thing. They’re not always right. But it’s important to give them kudos, even when they’re wrong. Creating an environment of enthusiastic failure will help students take risks, get feedback and learn faster. They will do this more happily when they feel like it’s okay to be wrong.

My fave tactic:

When a student gives a wrong answer, I always look to see where where they’re coming from. Usually I’ll say something like, “Oh, I see why you might think that….because… (blah blah blah), but what about considering this?…”

3. Relate what they’re learning to stuff they already know

Your students already know a ton of stuff! Their time as a human and a yoga practitioner has given them lots of experience to pull from. As much as possible, relate new information to stuff that they have already encountered. This will help empower them to pull on their personal experience, and create a bridge from the old knowledge to the new.

My fave tactic:

When there’s a new subject, I’ll find a hook that links it to their practice, or to content we’ve already studied. “You guys, have you ever….?” or, “You know when you….”

Be aware of your own agenda. Often, trainers accidentally undermine students when they are afraid of failing as a teacher or looking foolish themselves. Notice your own state, and stay in a generous spirit.

Empower your students to fail fast, fail hard, and fail with enthusiasm.

The learning space will thrive!

For more learning tips, check out the education blog.

How To Create Good Education: Start At The End

You love yoga and want to share your understanding more deeply with others. So you think about different options: perhaps it’s an immersion, perhaps it’s a training, or a workshop.

So when you start planning, the natural inclination is for you to start by thinking about what you know, and how you’re going to share it with your students.

Makes sense, right?

Yes, absolutely. But unfortunately, this isn’t the best way to help your students learn.

You’re what the educational field calls a “content expert.” And it’s natural for most content experts to think about generously sharing their knowledge to their students. And if we could do a Matrix like download and somehow get it into their brains, that would work just fine (take the red pill, Neo).

However, learning doesn’t quite work that way. So in order to channel your knowledge goodness in the right way, here’s a simple and radical piece of advice: start with the end in mind.

In order to channel all your knowledge goodness in the right way, start with the end in mind.

Consider:

  • what you what your students to be able to do at the end of your time with them
  • how they’re going to demonstrate their learning to you

Once you have your assessment in mind (whether it’s a practice teach, a practice, a show and tell, a project, or a test), then work backwards to create your content.

Working with the end in mind puts your student at the center and clarifies exactly what you need to teach to help them succeed. This clarification is essential because it helps us to avoid a major training trap: giving too much information.

Working backwards helps us avoid the training trap of giving too much information.

When you crystallize your learning objectives (what you want students to do as a result of the training) and work backwards, you will discard the superfluous material (interesting as it may be!) that doesn’t relate to this goal. (This is what I call, “killing your children.” Although it’s painful to leave material out, it’s better for the success of your students!) As content experts, we usually want to give too much, which overloads our students and undermines learning.

By starting with the end in mind, you are setting your students up for learning success, and taking a strong step from being a teacher – to being an educator.

For more information about creating awesome education, check out the resources in my online course: Create Your Training.

Three Tips for Creating A Good Teacher Training Schedule

So you’re creating a teacher training. You’ve got an idea of what your content is, but you’re not sure how to fit it all together. It’s like looking at a blank page. Where to start? What should come first?

Whether you’re creating a continuing education, immersion, or certification program, all that white space can look daunting at first!

Here are three tips for getting out of “blank page paralysis” and getting a toehold into creating your course schedule.

1. Create your bookends

Every training needs bookends. What do I mean? Bookends at the beginning and end of the day, bookends at the beginning and end of the training. Even bookends at the beginning and end of a lesson plan. At the beginning of the day, you need a little buffer time to transition into the room, set the tone for the day, and set an intention. At the end of a section, it’s good to review, do a little Q&A, and get the students to reflect and integrate their experience. Don’t skip this part! Start by plan your bookends into your calendar or planner, and you’ll have a solid framework for filling the rest of your content in. Add a 10-15 minute about every 2 hours as well.

2. Order your lessons

This may seem obvious, but put your lesson plans (the topics of chunks of content that you’re teaching) into their appropriate order. Some stuff needs to be taught before other stuff. Put it in its optimal list, then voila! You have a roadmap for how your training should be laid out.

3. Keep it agile

No one likes to do the same thing for eight hours straight. Where you can, mix up your topics so that students are engaged in different kinds of learning and topics throughout your day. We are lucky with yoga trainings, because we can mix up the academic stuff with physical activity: what a bonus! Keep your students engaged and energetic by switching it up.

A common sense tip: your day shouldn’t be longer than about eight classroom hours unless you’re on retreat. Students will simply implode. An ideal length of day usually pulls in at five-six classroom hour. And it’s more civilized for you, too.

Check out my online courses for more detailed intel on creating your course format and planning your daily schedule.