NON-TECHNIQUE TIPS TO PREPARE YOUR STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS
A few days ago I taught my first in-person level one class in THREE years! While I love teaching online, you can imagine how excited I was to finally get back to a regular weekly class. All the students did an amazing job.
Since this was the first class, ALL of the students were brand new. Even if they danced with me pre-pandemic, that was a long time ago. Nine perfect strangers showed up not knowing what to expect. You can imagine the level of nervousness in the room.
Even after all these years I still thoroughly prepare for every class. I’m talking typed class plans, curated playlists and rituals to get myself mentally and emotionally ready. I even wear specific jewelry based on how I want to feel AND how I want my students to feel during class.
How you show up as a teacher is not just about how well you can breakdown and execute a step.
Every single thing about your class impacts the success of your student.
This includes the way you greet them, the room lighting, sound quality, music that is playing when they arrive and especially your own personal energy.
Sure, it’s great when you can feed off the excitement of your students, but what happens when it’s a brand new class and there is more nervous energy than excitement?
As the teacher, YOU are responsible for influencing the energy of the room. You must control it, feed it and guide it in the direction you want based on the experience you want your students to have.
Your energetic state vastly impacts your physical expression of movement. This is true for you and your students.
This means its imperative that you arrive physically, mentally AND energetically prepared. By energetic I mean the “woo woo” kind, not the triple espresso kind.
How do you do this?
This is a much broader topic than just this week (in fact a huge chunk of my Alignment course is about energetics, their influence to your physical anatomy, technique, performance and those you dance with/for).
This topic also involves adequate self-care and “filling your cup”, but here are a few broader tips:
Prepare and plan your class – It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been teaching, walking into class without a clear plan has a nervous system impact on you and many of your students. They’ve placed their time, bodies, trust (and not to mention money) in your hands. Stay humble and don’t assume you can just wing it. They need to feel confident in what you are delivering.
Take at least an hour to mentally prepare yourself – Sure you could just take a few deep breaths before walking into class, but think about your class as a performance. Even the act of getting ready, picking out your clothes, the music you listen to, reviewing your plans and driving to the studio will impact how you “perform”.
Set the Stage – Arrive to the studio as early as you can (sometimes that may only be 15 minutes) and setup your teaching space, start some background music and create the” vibe” you want for the class. You want to be able to greet your students as they arrive. If you don’t have a big turnaround time, consider hiring one of your more advanced students to setup the music, your zils, etc. to leave you free to meet with your students.
These few things alone will have a huge impact on the success of your students and your classes!
If you are someone that relies “on the energy of the students” when you teach, then please consider diving into this topic a little deeper. I’m absolutely happy to help with more resources. It’s a huge topic.
These are also applicable for teaching online, though some tiny details would change. If you are an instructor that I coached during the pandemic, hopefully this is already a part of your practice.
I’d love to hear from you. What are some of your pre-teaching rituals? Do you have special jewelry you wear to teach? How do you ensure your energy matches the experience you want your students to have?