Top Tips For Teaching Yoga In Schools - Tip #19: Transition Time Is Key
Welcome back to the blog! This is a late night post because frankly, as a new blogger, I haven’t quite gotten a clear and consistent posting schedule down…anyone else with me on this?
Today’s post is all about transition time being key when teaching yoga in schools, and I find it fitting, because certainly making time to transition to blogging from whatever else I’m doing is a growth point. So, I’ll be taking my own advice today and adapting it a bit!
Please, please, please, leave a comment if this post resonates with you, or let me know in the comments what topics you’d like me to cover in future posts!
Tip #19: Transition Time Is Key!
Today, I want to talk a bit about the classroom setting, and how your students transition into, and out of, your space. I hear from a lot of yoga teachers that their time is so limited with students, that they just jump right into the practice, without giving students time to adjust to the space.
Whether you’re teaching during a PE period, right after lunch, after school, or first thing in the morning, your students are always coming from somewhere else, and you’re asking them to engage in a dramatically different way than they are used to. This holds true even in the virtual space.
So, it’s essential to start every class with a short (no more than 5 minute) warm up activity that students can complete independently when they first come in to allow them time to settle into the space, and make the shift from academics, or recess, to yoga and mindfulness. I also hear that sometimes, this dramatic shift sometimes leads to challenging student behaviors that yoga teachers don't always have the time or space to handle.
Warm ups should not, and do not have to be complex. They can be as simple as giving each child 5 minutes to silently color a mandala. You can have kids create a list of what they’re grateful for in the moment, ask them to pick a flavor of ice cream to represent how they’re feeling in the moment, and more! The possibilities are endless! In the virtual space, your transition time might look like giving students 2 minutes to move freely before they start class, or to answer a question in the chat box.
Giving students (and yourself) this time to shift into a different gear before jumping into yoga and mindfulness practices is essential, and I can almost promise you it will help eliminate challenging behaviors that can arise when students are asked to transition from activity to activity too soon.
Tip Takeaway: Set aside 3-5 minutes at the start of class for students to complete an independent warm-up to help them land in the space. Begin to create one-page sheets with fun prompts asking kids to reflect on what they’re grateful for, compare their emotions to a food, lake, color, animal, and more...or simply print out a mandala and give your students a few minutes to color in quiet before jumping into your lesson. If you’re still teaching virtually, think about what warm-ups can look like in the virtual space.
Notice what happens with this simple addition to your class structure, and let me know how it goes.