Learning and Teaching at once!

It's been interesting teaching again, more then regularly too!  Also, its been great having an ever changing number of people attend my classes, some of them repeats some of them new faces to me or to the studio.  And it's REALLY interesting the different thoughts and feelings that run through me week to week.

There are some of the questions that I expected to face: Do they like me? Did they come back for another class because they liked my class? Am I a good teacher?

The one's I had never thought of before were: Are they giving feedback to my peers or supervisors? Will I get this feedback? (I actually want feedback, the good and the ugly!) How do I connect with my students? - Are they "my" students?

Both lists are endless, fortunately I haven't gotten lost in these questions and wonderings, but I do visit a couple of them each week.  But my biggest questions surround figuring out my relationship with the studio.  In my other life I also work with the public, in fact retail.  The culture is: give amazing service whether they have a membership or are buying something, they will always come back for more of the lovin'!  So it is naturally in my dialogue to not only sell our product and our culture but for that person who wants to see everything outside first I am more then happy to help and tell them about the different great places in the city.  They will go there, check it out, develop a relationship and hopefully decide to come back, because hopefully we will always be more awesome, better people, better prices, and better product overall.  And I honestly think 9 out of 10 times, it works.  But can I do that to the studio, or is that frowned upon? I completely believe that no matter what, if you show someone a good time, and they groove with you, they will come back, especially if you remind them of that!

But most of this is superficial, and I only need to remind myself, if there is a problem or if they appreciate me, I will find out. Just like I did last weekend when I got called to sub a class last minute.  At the end I had several of the students approach me and thank me for a great class. What I really appreciated was being thanked for not only being a good teacher, but for the poses or design of the class, being able to create a multi-level class.  Because Asana class IS fun and there is a lot to learn when you push yourself even a little.

So my piece of advice?  Talk to your teacher, we are all learning together! Tell them what you liked, what you didn't like. And teachers, just like when your practicing on the mat, keep an open heart, don't ask to many questions, be mindful of what your doing, who is in front of you and don't forget to have fun!