This week the University of Victoria has one week off in the middle of the second semester to allow students time to catch up on assignments. Taking advantage of this week off, I decided to go home and visit my parents. I have been very dedicated to staying on top of my assignments throughout this semester which has benefited me greatly. Due to the fact that I am caught up on my assignments, I chose to take advantage of this time and begin the teaching hours needed to complete my Pilates certification. As I mentioned in my first few blog posts, in order to complete my certification, 90 hours of teaching experience is needed. This teaching experience can be friends, family, or a class, but it is extremely difficult to find an open studio or a mentor who will assist you. Back home I have a very knowledgeable, energetic, and generous teacher who I have been going to for years, she is very successful and now owns her own studio. Meanwhile being home she offered to have me observe her classes, ask her any important questions I have, and utilize her studio space to teach my close friends and family. I was so grateful that she was willing to allow me to use her studio space, so I ensured to take advantage of this opportunity and teach as much as I could.
To begin my first teaching experience I chose to curate a class for my mom. I chose to begin with my mom as she is familiar with the reformer but still getting to know the basics of Pilates. Because I have only completed my Reformer 1 and Movement Principles course, I only have full knowledge of the beginner foundational movement of pilates, so my knowledge is very aligned with what my mom is able to execute right now. In the workout I created I incorporated beginner foundational moves which were meant to be built upon to give her the option to either stay at the beginning or progress her movement to make it more challenging. Throughout the workout I tried to balance detailed instruction, memorization of my workout, and ensuring that I was supporting and correcting my mom’s movement to the best of my ability, but it was much harder than it seemed. Trying to remember so many things while ensuring that she was safe and correctly executing the movements was quite confusing. At times I felt that I was maybe over-correcting/overwhelming her, that I was getting lost and forgetting what was next, or maybe even making the moves too easy or too complicated. Due to the doubt I was feeling I began to get a bit overstimulated… My mom told me that I was doing great for my first time but to just calm down by taking a few breaths. She suggested that I try to just slow down my pace and maybe make only the necessary corrections and variations. We began from the top again and I took what she said into consideration. During the second round, I was much more calm which allowed my pointers to be more approachable, I recalled what the next steps were, and my mom felt less overwhelmed as I was more cognizant of my correctivness. After we finished I took notes of what went well and what needed more improvement and practice then had my mom reflect on anything I may have missed which gave me maximum reflective points. With this feedback, I created a more adaptive lesson that matched my reflection for the next class.
Throughout the week I taught a total of 5 classes, some being my mom, one of my friends, and the studio instructor! Each of these classes teaching different bodies at varying levels gave me some very good practice. I experienced more bumps in the road but also had some very successful moments. I reflected and gathered feedback from each experience to maximize my knowledge and use the feedback for improvements in future classes. This reflection and feedback will also support me during my observations or classes as I can listen and observe how the teacher I am with creates cues, instruction, or structures classes to answer my reflections.
All of these experiences are what will allow me to grow and learn how to be the best instructor I can be. I hope that I will be able to create an environment that is both calming but also energetic and motivating. An environment that encapsulates my personality and energy is very important as my nature is what I believe draws people to me. This will be a long process to achieve my 90 hours of teaching but it is what is needed to ensure I am ready to teach and achieve my goals.
