Top Tips For Teaching Yoga In Schools - Tip #25: Don't Be Afraid To Teach For "Free"

Hey there!

Welcome back to the blog, or, if you’re new here, welcome to the blog.

Each week, I share a top tip for teaching yoga in schools, right here. These are tips and best practices I’ve gathered over my almost 7 years as a full-time, salaried, yoga and mindfulness teacher in a middle school. That’s right! I teach yoga and mindfulness, as a class, and my students all spend at least half of each of their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade years learning all about yoga, mindfulness, and meditation.

I started this blog to help you navigate the often hectic world of teaching yoga in schools, and in hopes that these tips will save you some time, energy, and stress along the way.

So, enjoy this weeks tip!

Tip #25: Don’t Be Afraid to Teach for “Free”

This week, I want to encourage you to take opportunities to teach for free if and when you’re first starting out. There’s a lot of stigma around teaching for free, and I’ve found that teachers either never teach for free, or always teach for free. The key though, is to find a balance. I always encourage teachers to teach for free if they know there is a need, it will open a door, or give them valuable experience they wouldn’t otherwise get. 

I don’t mean you should teach exclusively for free. This is your business, and you’ve invested a lot of time, money, and energy into your education and training. Your time is valuable and the work you’re doing is important. 

But offering something for free might be just want you need to get in the door when talking to administrators. It may help you get feedback or experience teaching a different age-group / subset of kids than you are used to. It may lead to a referral to another administrator or to a longer-term, full time opportunity if you want it. 

It doesn’t have to be an hour long class, or a 6-week series. It can be as little as a 10-15 trial class, or as much as a bonus class that you offer to teachers at the end of your student sessions. It could be filling in for a friend who is teaching yoga at a summer camp, or teaching at an event for a non-profit organization that works with kids. 

No matter what it is, don’t automatically dismiss any and every request to teach for free. There is always something more for us to learn, or to gain from those opportunities too, whether it is obvious in the moment, or not. 

For example, think about ways that you could be compensated by a school, non-monetarily. For example, maybe the principal acts as a reference or referral, or connects you directly to other school leaders that ARE able to pay. Or maybe, you teach for “free” in exchange for sharing information about your programs (and private sessions for kids if you run them) in the school newsletter. Maybe there’s a way for them to post and share on social media as an alternative way of paying you for your services. Get creative here, and think about not just how you’re helping the school, but how they can help you too.

Tip Takeaway: The next time someone asks you to teach for free, think about it. Figure out what is reasonable for you to offer as a trial class, at no cost. If it’s an opportunity outside of a school setting, consider the experience you might gain, or the people you might meet. You never know where an opportunity might lead.