220 - Creating a Classroom Experience

There are so many things to pay attention to while teaching--movements, words, people in the room, music, where to stand in the room, and why. And more. It's a lot. 

Today we talk about what I think is one of the most important aspects to pay attention to and cultivate--and it may surprise you. 

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Produced by: Grey Tanner

Transcript

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Bonnie (00:01.642)
Welcome back to the podcast. It is with great joy that I'm here showing up, sharing with you a teaching tip of the day. And this one is a little bit tricky and it's going to require you to pay attention to your feelings while you're teaching. And there are so many things to pay attention to when you teach. 

Bonnie (00:27.118)
What sequence are you going to teach? What movements? What words are you going to say? What's the temperature in the room? What direction are you going to have people face? Who are the new people? Do you remember their names? And are you on your mat or are you off your mat? What about the lights? And what about when somebody has RBF, resting bitch face, and it throws you off and you have to reconnect back to who you are, what you're doing, and why 

Bonnie (00:56.33)
really feeling it with you because that's legit. And it is something that you face as a teacher to say like, okay, how are we interacting together as a teacher and students in this room? And we don't always know and students aren't there to show up to please us as teachers. It's not about us. And it's not about them looking smiley and happy to be there. 

Bonnie (01:24.522)
I really actually dislike the cue of any sort of smiling in the face and the way that some people cue to bring some sort of slight grin to your face or smile. Because if I'm relaxed in my face, then I'm usually not smiling and maybe I have a resting bitch face. And that's great. Another time I am truly giggling as I go through practice. So you know, there's some wiggle room there. 

Bonnie (01:55.69)
But today I want to encourage you as a teacher with all of the things that you're having to hold, to remember to hold a hand to your own heart and to take care of yourself in that process. Because I want you to show up in the room and teach and not just be a teacher. And maybe that sounds weird to say.

Bonnie (02:23.574)
But I want you to think about perhaps the time that you've been teaching. And if you have yet to step into teaching, this will probably come a time when you're teaching though, I want you to think about a time you were teaching when somebody said something to you while you were teaching class, where you were just going along, giving instructions and all of a sudden somebody asks a question or makes some sort of comment about what is happening in class. And if you all of a sudden get thrown out of. 

Bonnie (02:53.006)
presentation mode, where you were kind of in a lecture space where you were just giving directions to some bodies in the room, not necessarily to people. And I say this really lovingly because I'm a teacher too, because I do this. And I have felt this and where it is this jolt of an experience. 

Bonnie (03:20.75)
And you're like, wait a second, hold on. There's people in this room and they are having an experience. And not that I don't know that, and not that it's like not an understood thing that we're here in this experience together, but that sometimes we do get into this flow of delivery of our subject of teaching yoga. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. 

Bonnie (03:51.314)
But my encouragement to you is to just be aware of it and to remember to pay attention to the way you feel in different parts of your teaching, in different parts of class, from class to class, and what makes each class different and which ones do you feel really connected to the students. 

Bonnie (04:18.534)
I have been in a class and kind of felt that jolt. So I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I was in a flow of delivery. And again, we like being in flow, right? But I was in a flow of delivery and somebody saying something has. Has affected me in a way where I'm like, there's like a, uh, an a screech, uh, look, wait a second. Okay. Like we're going to pause and address this and then I'll keep going. And I can feel like the energy in me shift. 

Bonnie (04:48.498)
And I have to say that I was 100% that student when I started taking yoga classes and my, my teacher friend, Cindy, she was teaching definitely when I did speak up in class and where there would be a classroom of, you know, like full of people and nobody walks into a yoga classroom thinking I shouldn't speak. And if a teacher is there presenting something, you have a question, like in a classroom, you raise your hand. 

Bonnie (05:18.662)
And I would just like to invite you to think about the yoga room as a classroom. And you're teaching somebody how to move and why, and the nuance of it and how it feels, how it feels in your body, how it feels in your breath, how you think about it, and that if somebody has a question, like to quite literally like be like, raise their hand or say something. And I was definitely that student who was saying things. Bonnie (05:46.898)
or making some sort of comment. And I definitely ask questions and thinking about it now. I kind of, I love that, that baby yoga Bonnie did that. And that was 10 years ago this year when I first started practicing. I started practicing in August of 2014 was my very first yoga class. So this year is my 10 year anniversary of practicing yoga, which feels 

Bonnie (06:14.306)
Like that sounds like such a long time, but it feels like it's been a short time. So my invitation for you as a teacher is to create a classroom experience. And that doesn't mean we can't get into a flow of our delivery and be feeling it. And I think that that's totally okay. And there's a lot of different ways to teach a class. And you can teach it flow. You can teach it skills and drills. You can teach it with a whole ton of props and... 

Bonnie (06:43.43)
and you could teach a restorative and you can teach just inversions. You could teach acroyoga, you could teach chair yoga, you could teach all the different types of yoga. And we might get into, in any of them, a delivery where we're kind of in a sense of flow of instruction, right? So, it's interesting though, because I have heard from some 

Bonnie (07:09.874)
students and some other teachers have had this conversation where, you know, maybe a compliment even of, you know, you teach, you're not just a teacher. Or I've heard like, I got going to teachers that actually teach. And that feels a little bit tricky to decipher because it's the same word teach and teacher. Like there's the same root of the same word there. But for today and for the purpose of this podcast, I've been... 

Bonnie (07:38.402)
thinking about this and how can I break this down? How can we kind of examine this? And I have a couple ideas and maybe you have more and I love to hear them. So after this episode, send me a message, send me a message on Instagram, post about it on Instagram and then I can read it or send me an email at hello at bonnieweeks.com and then we can continue this conversation because I'd love to hear your take on it. So my thoughts with this is to really be with them. How do we teach and not just be a teacher or like, 

Bonnie (08:07.502)
Well, you won't, I will just say like, I wanna receive the comment that I really like that you're a teacher who teaches. 

Bonnie (08:15.406)
And I think it is first step is to really be with your students. And that can be scary as hell because 

Bonnie (08:24.806)
It's a lot, it requires a lot of bravery to stand up in front of the room and to be with people and to say I'll be the one to take on the role of sharing my voice and my body and what I think and how I have created something and this piece of art and craft that I'm weaving together that is this experience that I've created. 

Bonnie (08:47.69)
And so to do that at the same time as saying like, I'm also human, I also might mess this up. I also have a life outside of this room and your thoughts and beliefs on those things. Like those all might come up within your interactions with people and within your teaching of the class. And so really being with them is a tall order. It's a tall ask, but I think it's a really vital thing in that relationship building of 

Bonnie (09:17.326)
teacher and student. And I love how we can be each other's teachers. Like I can take a friend's class who is a teacher and they are my teacher in that moment. And they can teach my class and then I will be the one teaching them. And we can have this flow between people. So even if there's other teachers in the room, they still take that time to teach. And this could open up a whole conversation about perhaps the 

Bonnie (09:47.462)
the fear that can come up when other teachers show up to your class of how am I doing the things? Am I going to do it okay? And what if they think that what I'm doing is dumb or not right, etc, etc. And like all the fears that might be contained within like the thought process around having another teacher show up. But we're going to set all those down because that's not going to help you show up and teach and be the type of teacher that teaches. Right? So I think 

Bonnie (10:16.058)
that when you really want to step into this space, I think it's a space where you are not moving through the motions. So you're going to give yourself a bit of grace because especially if you're a new teacher, you might be really moving through some motions because you need reps. How do you say the things? What lands with students? You're going to use your training, you're going to use other teachers, you're going to use like a lot of other online or books or things. 

Bonnie (10:45.25)
that you're gonna say, okay, I'm gonna start putting this through my body to see if this lands and what lands and how it lands and there might be some motions that you're going through. And to be clear, all of us go through motions, like any sort of flow or body is in motion, right? So what I really mean by this is that it's motions that perhaps you don't know if they work or not or how they work because you just literally don't have experience. So you're gonna have to... 

Bonnie (11:14.958)
Put something in motion that you don't know how it lands, that you've been taught how to do, or putting together that you don't know. And every class is an experiment. I'm practicing every single time I'm going to teach a class, it's a practice. But especially when you're new, you don't have a lot of experience. So give yourself permission to go through the motions, but pay attention while you do it. Pay attention to how it feels, pay attention to what the students are picking up. 

Bonnie (11:44.854)
like all of those things and remember that RBF is real and people might not look happy in your class, but it does not mean that they are not happy to be there. It just means that they feel relaxed and they don't feel like they have anything to prove and that's exactly what you want, okay? So to be a teacher that actually teaches, you are going to be with them. You are going to be aware of when you're moving through emotions and give yourself some grace and... 

Bonnie (12:12.81)
try to remove yourself from just going through the motions of just saying anything that's regurgitated and really ask questions. I think that's such a big key piece of being a teacher is you're going to keep questioning the way that you do it. And after every class it's the question of what could I have done even better or how did that land or how could I make that part of the class smoother? Maybe it's the specific sequencing or maybe it's how you 

Bonnie (12:43.29)
And I think in that way, it is a conversation that you are continuing to have with your teaching and with your ability to hold space as much as it is teaching is a conversation between you and students. How are we doing this thing? And because I have had this experience where I felt that jolt, where I'm like, oh, I was in a flow and there are people in the room. 

Bonnie (13:06.046)
and I would like them to, I would like to create space for them to respond to me. So I'll actually introduce at the beginning of class, I'll say like, you know, I'm here as your teacher and we're gonna go through some things and learn some things today. If you have questions, please ask me as we go. Most people do not ask questions, but opening the floor for that, and then maybe creating some pause moments where there's slow enough space because... 

Bonnie (13:33.242)
you can teach a power vinyasa class, you can teach a level two class, you can teach these classes and still have pause moments, you can still have workshop moments within these types of classes. So we're letting this be a conversation between teacher and student and as a teacher between us and how we're delivering class and continue to ask questions. And you're going to take care of yourself in it. And I think that's a really important piece of being a teacher too is holding 

Bonnie (14:02.55)
You can't show up and hold space and do the things and all of the things that you have to pay attention to without holding a hand to your own heart. And if that means you need to have them pause for your own breath, for you to take a minute, then do it. They won't know the difference. You have them pause in any sort of pose. You can close their eyes or just rest for a moment, even if it's just for five breaths. 

Bonnie (14:30.91)
And that's for you when you go to the back of the room and you take a breath and you close your eyes and put your hand on your heart and you're like, okay, I am here. I am the teacher. I got this right and give yourself a little pause moment. You can do that. And if that helps you stay with them, then do that. You have to take care of yourself while also take caring of other people for that time together. So don't be afraid to pause. And I think that goes in not only for yourself, but also with the students. 

Bonnie (14:59.838)
If it feels like in that moment that there's something that is getting stuck for them, you can pause. I will often, before I maybe go into teaching something that might be an atypical movement or transition, I will lead them down. Let's say they're in Downer Facing Dog. I'll say, set your knees down on the mat, sit back on your heels, sit up and watch me for a moment. Take a drink while you're waiting. You know, you can pause everybody. Whew, now they're sitting. 

Bonnie (15:26.25)
and then they can watch me and I can give some instruction and I say, okay, now we're really gonna pay attention. We've been in this position and the way that we're gonna get to this next position is we're gonna do this. And this is where we're gonna start and then these are some ways we're gonna do some other things or add whatever, right? Like whatever it is, I'm just making shit up right now. But I can demo and talk through things because a lot of people are visual learners. So you give them a little break. 

Bonnie (15:53.878)
but you keep them right in it because you go right into a demo, then they see it with their eyes before then, you're like, okay, everybody, down or facing dog, right? Or stand up at the back of your mat or whatever it is, right? Then you say, let's try this on and then you go. And in that pause moment, you could say the things and say, does anybody have any questions? And then you can go. So you can create those spaces in there. And I've talked to a lot of teachers who feel fearful about... 

Bonnie (16:21.718)
making pause moments within class. So that would be a pause instruction moment where you could have some conversation, right? And then after you show it, you're gonna do some excellent cueing and you're gonna walk them through it. And if they don't get it the first time, you're gonna say, that's okay. Like we're all on different legs, great. We're gonna try this again. And they are gonna try it again. And this goes to repetition where I'm like, repeat, repeat. Like that will get them more and more comfortable with what they're doing. 

Bonnie (16:50.91)
and you're gonna refine how you're teaching it and helping them really drop in. And then to take this to the next section is like, you can pause, but then you can also workshop. And I think the difference between a pause moment and where you might teach and a workshop moment is a pause moment I'm having people sit in stillness and observe. And in a workshop moment, I might have them sit and observe, but then I have them do. And... 

Bonnie (17:20.418)
the doing part isn't trying to be orchestrated necessarily with the group. Sometimes it might be where I say, okay, we're gonna try this out. We're gonna do left and lift your left leg and set it here and then right and whatever. And hand goes up and down and you know, and then we might set it down. I'll say, okay, now go ahead and try it on each side two more times. And then people just move through their own space and in their own space and time. And then I'll say after that, just pause. And we're gonna regroup. 

Bonnie (17:49.322)
and then we're gonna put it all together. So it can be that, a workshop moment could be a very particular posture or movement pattern that I'm teaching, and then there's some wiggle room for people to just play with that movement. And for me to walk around as a teacher and to answer any questions or help in a very personalized way. So that'd be a workshop moment. And I use these pauses and workshop moments as ways to teach. 

Bonnie (18:19.218)
Again, as you step into teaching, especially if you're a new teacher, you might not know what even needs to be workshopped because you don't have the experience. So you're going to give yourself grace and you're going to watch. You are going to watch those students as much as you possibly can. And my high encouragement to teach and not just be a teacher is to watch your students the entire class. If you are demonstrating a warrior too, and you want people to look at their front hand, maybe your eyes go to your front hand for a second, but then they turn right back around to your students. 

Bonnie (18:49.106)
Anytime that they have their heads down, you're looking at them. Anytime you're in any posture, you're not going to be looking where they would look or in the manner that they would look. You're going to have your eyes on them. So you can demo, but you're watching them no matter what. Because there's no way that you can give cues that land if you don't see what lands. There's no way that you can support them if you don't know what they need. So you have to watch them the whole 

Bonnie (19:18.978)
time on any, wherever you're standing in the room, the front, the back, the side, if you're walking in between them, your eyes are on them. So you know how you're teaching and if what you're teaching is making sense because you'll see them move or not move and you'll see them pause and you'll see them try something. You might see them, like you won't be able to tell if, if somebody has lifted the 

Bonnie (19:47.134)
wrong leg or arm if you don't have your head up to see what they're doing. So that's so important is to watch them. Okay, so watching them and as you workshop, you're gonna watch them. And then workshops and pauses, when I put them in class, when you're really having this opportunity to teach, then I will weave it back into everything else that I'm teaching. If I'm teaching flow in particular. 

Bonnie (20:13.358)
So if I'm not teaching flow, if I'm teaching around a certain sort of skillset or around a certain body part or certain movement pattern, those might not necessarily be a flow class, but I teach primarily flow. So when I think about teaching flow and a workshop moment, then I'll say, okay, we're gonna use exactly what we just practiced and weave it into what we have already learned. 

Bonnie (20:36.138)
And so a workshop moment, then we'll be weaving together pieces of what I've already taught and helping them connect those pieces in some sort of way. And remember the first time is often a little bit tricky and a little bit sticky sometimes. People, rights and laughs are like a whole thing. You like yoga is like trying to figure out how, how to tell your rights and lefts apart. So let that be playful and interesting. Bonnie (21:03.862)
and then workshop and bring that workshop back into the flow and into the flow experience of moving from pose to pose. But I think the magic really is in that pause, in allowing there to be a little bit of space that's less structured. It gives people an opportunity to ask questions. It gives you an opportunity as a teacher to walk the room and to look at people. 

Bonnie (21:32.734)
and to maybe work one-on-one with people. And if there is a particular thing that you see a lot of, then you can stop everybody. Do not use somebody as the example of what not to do. Be like, everybody look at Bonnie. This is what you should not do, right? That's not gonna make anybody feel good if you use them as the example of the thing that's shitty. So... 

Bonnie (21:56.674)
Don't do that. Flip it in reverse. I'm always telling my kids joke in the positive, joke in the positive. Like use something positive as the lesson and you can add your own tweaks to it, but it doesn't need to be at the expense of somebody else's sense of belonging. 

Bonnie (22:19.242)
And I think that's really at all lands. We want to teach and not just be a teacher. And by teach, we mean that we are going to show up attentive and aware of the students in the room in a way that helps them feel belonging and not just like they're being talked 

Bonnie (22:44.842)
and that we are willing to get a little bit into like the weeds of learning how to do something. And that we're not showing up into the yoga room as teachers expecting that people know how to do all the things and that we're showing up in a playful way ready to experiment with them. Everything's an experiment. And when we bring this sense of play that, ooh, what are we gonna find today? And today we're gonna play with 

Bonnie (23:09.262)
X, Y, Z, right? Fill in the blank. What do you wanna play with in class today? And approach the class, like start the class. Be like, okay, everybody, I'm stoked to be here today because today we're gonna play with fill in the blank and we're gonna workshop. You can tell people you're in a workshop, but also you can just stop it in the middle of the class. You do not have to preempt it. And talking to the teachers that I have worked with is a lot of people that feel uncomfortable about that. 

Bonnie (23:35.346)
and how to stop a class and to have a little moment where you're actually teaching and diving into something, but it's very simple really. You just have a moment where you're moving through your flow, moving through your class, then you'll stop, demo, have them practice, walk around, answer some questions, then say, okay, let's weave it together. And then you begin again. It's just that. It's not a lot. It's not too much. 

Bonnie (24:05.062)
and it is okay for you to do that. Will there be some people that don't wanna do that? Sure, absolutely. Will there be some people who love it? Yes, absolutely. Thus is the nature of living that not, not like one thing won't please every single person in the whole world. So that's true and that's okay. And different people will have different definitions of what it means to be a teacher. 

Bonnie (24:34.454)
But for me, it really means to be with them. And for those students that I'm with to know that I'm with them and that they can count on me to hold them in that experience. And that if I don't know something, I will say that I don't know something, that I will go research that, that I will come back to them, that I'm just going to show with exactly what I have and I don't have to be more than that. 

Bonnie (25:00.978)
And even if I'm a new teacher, if you're a new teacher, or if we're in a new space with new students, we're gonna show up with grace for ourselves and for them because they don't know us either. We're gonna be okay with RBF and we're gonna give people permission. Like for ourselves, we're gonna give people permission to not have to prove their joy to us of being in class. And we're just gonna be with them. We're gonna be with them. 

Bonnie (25:31.178)
We want to be teachers who actually teach, who prepare and who think about how to help people really learn how to feel the postures and the experience of what we're teaching. Because it's not just about, it is about the postures, but it's about that feeling of dropping into real presence. And that's something that as teachers we learn over time. 

Bonnie (26:02.222)
through repetition, through showing up and facing ourselves because our students are mirrors. And if you find yourself freaking out, you're like, what the hell am I even doing? Nobody likes it. I cannot be here. This isn't for me. And you wanna run away in the 

Bonnie (26:19.)
middle of class? Bonnie 

Bonnie (26:22.55)
I want you to know that's real. I want you to know that you're not alone in that. And I want you to know that you can stay and that you can hold your own hand to your heart. You can have them pause. You're gonna remind yourself that they don't have to prove anything to you and that you are not there to have to prove yourself to them. You're just there to help them move and breathe and rest. And you can do that. Wherever you are. 

Bonnie (26:55.906)
whatever place in teaching you have found yourself, however many years you've been doing it, however many students you have, thank you for being a teacher. Thank you for wanting to teach and being willing to keep asking questions and learning from so many different movement spaces that's not just yoga so that you can bring other language to the experience of yoga. And help people drop into the 

Bonnie (27:24.)
presence 

Bonnie (27:24.798)
of themselves because that's really what we're talking about. That's really what we want. If yoga is this practice of paying attention, that is when we're in deep joys, when we're so lost in something that time disappears. It's like when you're reading a book and all of a sudden you're like, oh my gosh, I've been reading for hours just staring at these pages and I'm like in this store. That's when you're in flow. That's what we're hoping for. 

Bonnie (27:48.778)
And so when we drop into that experience as teachers, we get in flow where we're so enmeshed with our students and with paying attention to them that we are nowhere else. And that is what our hope is for these students is that they feel us drop into that experience with them. And if it's uncomfortable for us, you bet your ass it's gonna be uncomfortable for them too. They're students, they have no idea what the hell you're gonna teach. They show up in total. 

Bonnie (28:18.806)
non-expectation because they don't know the lesson plan and they just signed up for the time and maybe if their regular students are like, okay, I think I have an idea of kind of the type of class that perhaps we're going to do. But if it's a Vinyasa class, they don't nearly know what's going to happen. That's brave. 

Bonnie (28:42.506)
and they want to belong and you want to belong. And you, when you are a teacher that really teaches, you're going to help them feel like they walk out of there big in their body and like they learned something that they could turn around and say, Oh my gosh, this is what I learned in yoga today. It makes them feel successful. And 

Bonnie (29:11.134)
It does not have to be every time that you stop and pause or workshop. It doesn't have to be that. So that's not necessary, but it's even within the flow of class of how you speak to the things. And you're not gonna make shit up. You're gonna say the things that you really know and you're gonna keep asking questions and learning, but do not be afraid to really teach them and not just move through some motions that you feel like or have been taught that you must do. There's so much room to move. 

Bonnie (29:43.938)
Hand to heart with you. If this has brought up any ideas for teaching, for really being a teacher that teaches, I would love to hear them. Send me an email or post about it on the gram and tag me. 

Bonnie (30:04.99)
And thank you. Thank you for being a teacher. Until next time.