Lesson Planning
One of my favorite parts of my job as a teacher is lesson planning. I love having a completed calendar and that feeling of unlimited satisfaction after a focused batch-planning session. Envisioning my goals and seeing the steps materialize to mirror the writing and learning processes I’m teaching makes me happy. Unsurprisingly, once I became a yoga teacher, my focus was on finding a yoga lesson plan that would work for me.
The Yoga Lesson Plan
Part of yoga teacher training was learning how to design yoga classes with a focus and specific duration. My classes are just under 60 minutes from my opening greeting to the final takeaways before we roll up our mats. Structurally, there are some similarities between the classroom lesson plan and the yoga sequence:
- both have moments previewing the lesson,
- then time is spent digging in and doing the work,
- with a final summarizer and debrief to conclude.
I completed my 200-hour CYT through Breathe for Change and they offered their yoga sequencing tool, the Breathe for Change “Asana Arc” (Breathe for Change, 2021). This helped me understand how to sequence, but just like with other lesson planning templates, I had to adapt and develop my own version for me to be a confident and capable teacher. This is true both in the classroom and on the mat.
Mindful Writing
Planning can be a mindful activity; so can writing. I still take pen to a paper calendar and now a paper template for my yoga lesson plan. Writing it out helps me think and like planning a semester writing course, it also helps me see into the future, again to sequence through the steps and stages of a process. My Yoga-Lesson-Plan is a printable of the sequences of a typical yoga class. In the spaces provided, I can make a quick list of the poses and transitions I wish to teach. Once I’ve sketched out the practice for the class, I can keep it handy, share it, or add it to my yoga journal where I’ve been documenting my yoga teacher journey. Planning in this way is helpful to me. If you are a yoga teacher or practitioner, it is here for you to try too. Let me know what you think!
