Top Tips For Teaching Yoga In Schools - Tip #44: The Trouble of Teacher Buy-In
Welcome back to the blog!
I’m so excited to be back with you two weeks in a row for the first time in MONTHS!
Today, I want to touch on another topic that I hear a lot about from kids yoga teachers who are teaching yoga in schools: teacher buy-in.
This can be a tricky topic to navigate, so read on for a few tips on how to navigate teacher buy in, and as always, feel free to leave a comment if this tip resonates with you!
Tip #44: The Trouble of Teacher Buy In
Today, I want to address a struggle I hear from yoga and mindfulness teachers often: the trouble of getting teachers to buy in.
As an educator myself (this is my 10th year teaching in a full-time classroom setting), I get it: our days are long, and when we have outside providers coming in to work with our students, it can sometimes serve as a huge sigh of relief, or be extra anxiety producing. I always feel like I have to be on my A-game when addressing challenging student behaviors because I feel simultaneously judged AND I want the outside provider coming in to have the easiest time possible.
So, I get it: I get why teachers focus on managing behavior instead of participating in the yoga lesson, or why they use the time to check their email inbox or eat their lunch.
I also know how much mandating that teachers implement a program or a mindfulness break can backfire. Instead of leading to engagement and buy in, it discourages it.
I also get how, as a yoga and mindfulness teacher and practitioner, it’s frustrating when teachers don’t participate, especially when you know how helpful these tools and practices can be for them.
If I leave you with anything today, it’s this:
Always invite participation, but don’t mandate it
Create activities / friendly contests that naturally get teachers involved (ex: give kids a HW assignment to take a picture of themselves doing yoga with their favorite teacher that they’ll then bring to class next time and share about)
In the transition time you have before / after class, make time to talk to teachers; ask them how they are, what their go-to strategies are for handing stress, whether they’ve done yoga before, if there’s any feedback they have for you; make an effort to get to know them as people and build relationships with them. This will not only improve your working relationship, but also goes a long way towards getting buy-in!
Tip Takeaway: Don’t get frustrated or take it personally when teachers don’t participate in your yoga and mindfulness lessons with students, even if you know they might benefit from the practices themselves. Instead of mandating participation, think of creative ways to naturally get teachers engaged: get to know them through conversation, create activities for students that involve them, and always invite them to participate, without expecting them to do so. Let go of your attachment to their involvement, and simply let it happen naturally.