Top Tips For Teaching Yoga In Schools - Tip #33: Plan With The End In Mind
Hi there,
Welcome back to the blog! It’s hard to believe that we are already over halfway through summer break, and have just a few short weeks left until a new school year begins. It always seems to happy way too fast, doesn’t it?
In addition to the school year starting again soon, I’m thrilled that I’ll be hosting another session of my online course, Land Your Dream Job Teaching Yoga In Schools, starting on September 28th. We’ll meet each Tuesday for 6-weeks, and cover everything from visioning your dream job, to preparing for interviews with school leaders, to curriculum development, and so much more! So, if you’re looking to bring yoga into schools in any capacity but are feeling stuck or frustrated by the road blocks that keep coming up, this course is for you!
Learn more and register for the course here!
Speaking of planning and prepping for the fall, today’s tip offers some steps for planning your curriculum, and why it’s important to plan with the end in mind.
Enjoy!
Tip #33: Plan with the End in Mind
As you spend these next few weeks preparing to enter or re-enter schools and classrooms, it’s important to get clear on which skills you’re going to hold students accountable for, and which ones you aren’t.
Which brings me back to backwards planning, one of my top 10 tips, a subject that we spend a whole session discussing in my 6-week online course.
And so, as I heed my own advice and get really clear on what it is I want my students to be able to do at the end of their time with me this year and why, I encourage you to do the same.
I always ask myself these three questions when backwards planning:
What do I want my students to be able to do or accomplish at the end of their time with me? Why?
What do they need to know to get there?
How will I get them there?
Not only will backwards planning, or planning with the end in mind, help your students achieve success in the classroom, it will also show school administrators that you’ve thought about your program, and that you’re walking in with a clear and specific purpose that isn’t just “I want to teach kids yoga and mindfulness”, but something much more tangible and concrete.
Tip Takeaway: Think about and answer the three questions above, and then use them to guide you as you create your curriculum or map out your program for the year. As you’re teaching, keep your end goal in mind, and make sure that the activities / poses you teach, and the discussions you have with your students are all in service of your end goal.