Top Tips For Teaching Yoga In Schools - Tip #39: Let Go And Listen

Hi there, and welcome back to the blog!

I’m heeding the theme of today’s blog post, and letting go of my own expectations around blogging each week. I’m listening to my own needs for more rest and more time away from the screen. That means that for now, this blog is happening once every few weeks, and I’m okay with that.

This seems to be a theme for this school year, too. In conversations with many experienced educators around the country, I’ve noticed a collective theme: this school year is unprecedented. We are all experiencing challenges that we haven’t before (or maybe we have, but not to this extreme), and it can be incredibly exhausting and discouraging.

For me, this school year has been a lot about letting go and listening. So, this week, I encourage you to do the same.

Read on for this weeks blog, and leave a comment below if it resonates with you!

Tip #39: Let Go and Listen

My tip for you this week is simple: let go and listen.

With schools back open this fall, albeit many with COVID protocols in place, many of us are finally back to engaging in the work of bringing yoga and mindfulness to our students in-person. I’m not going to lie: I’ve been a middle school teacher for 10 years, and teaching this year is so, so tough. There are SO many tasks and behaviors teachers are having to juggle right now, and so many people telling us how we should or shouldn’t be showing up, that it’s easy to get discouraged by it all and feel like you aren’t doing enough. 

To that, I say let go of expectations about how you feel you should be running your classes, how many kids are showing up (or aren’t), how to keep kids engaged while teaching outside or in shared spaces, etc…

Let go, and just teach, from your heart. 

And then, listen. Listen to your students when they tell you how they went from feeling stressed out before class to feeling calm now. Listen when they tell you that before class they felt angry and now they feel more free. Listen when they tell you that you know, they’d like to do an energizing practice today. And then do that. 

Listen also, to the leaders of the schools in which you work. Ask them how you can best be of service to their students AND families. 

Listen to what you’re hearing from your students, their teachers, and their families, and let go of the rest. At the end of the day, what they are telling you is what is needed in the moment. 

Let go of your expectations for how your classes should look, or how they were before the pandemic. Listen to what you’re hearing, and adapt your teachings and offerings from there. If a school wants you to offer virtual sessions for families and not just students, do it, if you’re able. If they want you to offer classes after school too, do it, if you’re able. Think outside the box. Less is more. 

Tip Takeaway: There is no right way to teach, or to show up during this time. The only thing we can do is to let go, listen, and adapt. Let go of the expectation that your classes are going to look the same as they did before the pandemic. Let go of trying to do everything. Do what you can, and then make space to listen. Kids will tell you what they want and need, we just have to create the space to listen, and then adapt our teaching from there.