The Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching on Zoom

I recently offered my 1st Restorative Yoga Teacher Training Level 1 (RYTT) on Zoom, It was a bit of a disaster and also a great success. Many yoga teachers have tried doing classes and trainings on Zoom since the pandemic began. I started by offering a free Restorative Yoga class about a year and a half ago when many places were in lockdown and 65 students showed up! Wow that was really exciting. Since then I have done a variety of classes, one collaboration and two teacher trainings with varying success. I did do a combo RYTT in person and on zoom last year. That was challenging for a few reasons. One was having my attention in two places and the challenge of juggling the two. There were 3 people in person and 2 online. Though the feedback about the training was very positive,

the women on line said it was difficult not being able to be in the same room as the rest of the group. Also my training has hands on assists and that is very challenging to do on line. I have decided to not offer that combo again.

If you are a yoga teacher, you are most likely familiar with the ups and downs of student numbers in your classes. Especially when you are starting out. Sometimes there are 2 students then 8 then 5 then 12 and until you get a following it can be up and down. Even after being known numbers of students can fluctuate.

Some teachers draw more students and others not as many. I think there are many reasons for this some can be known while others remain a mystery.

In the last few months I put out the word about two online RYTT’s I was offering, one in English and one in Spanish. I just finished the one in English. I started with some promising interest and in the end I had three people that committed and signed up. I knew it was much smaller than I would have liked but since it was my first fully on zoom RYTT I decided to go ahead and give it a try. The first weekend was a success though there were some distractions with student’s children being present at times and adjustments to being on Zoom. Between the first and second weekend of the training two students encountered emergency situations, one had a surgery that resulted in complications that led to complete bed rest and the second student’s 5 year old daughter had an accident on the playground that led to her shattering her heel bone and was in a lot of pain and my student who is a single mom needed to be with her. All understandable and unpredictable. Both are planning to complete the training at another date.

The third student was totally committed, so I decided to continue the training and we met for three more days over two weekends to finish. I loved teaching her. She was so present committed and enthusiastic. We finished the training last weekend and she loved it so much we are going to be meeting soon about me coming to England where she lives and offering a training and or retreat in her studio.

She loved my work so much that she asked me if I could train her to be able to teach the Puja Method of Restorative Yoga to teachers in her area. This has got me thinking of developing a next level training, teaching teachers to offer my method as Teacher Trainers of my method. So what could have been a quite disappointing situation has turned out to be a new opportunity with a lot of promise and possibilities for the future. My commitment to my students, my training and persistence is creating a doorway for more adventures with my teaching.

There are no guarantees in life, things can go up, down, sideways and sometimes appear to be going backwards. Every day holds new opportunities. In this instance sticking with a challenging situation has offered me hope for the possibility something bright and exciting in the future.

I would love to hear about your successes and challenges teaching on line.