In my last post, I discussed how we evaluate our teacher trainees in Carolina Yoga Company’s 200-hour yoga teacher training. (Our next round starts in January, but we need you to sign up now! Read all about it here.)
If you’re already teaching, think about how you are evaluated. Are you given annual performance reviews? If so, great—they aren’t fun but they can be really helpful for your growth. Are you doing regular self-assessments, especially now that much of teaching happens via video? Or are you letting your class sizes be a de facto form of student feedback?
Here are some ways you can actively seek evaluation for self-improvement:
- Send your students a brief survey to complete
- Invite a colleague to take your class or watch you teaching on video and offer feedback
- Take a deep breath and ask your supervisor for assessment, either by having them watch you teach or by sharing student comments you may not have heard.
These don’t have to be detailed assessments. Instead, consider asking three questions, in a roses/thorns/buds or keep/drop/add format:
- Roses: What is going well in my teaching?
- Thorns: What is confusing, unclear, or unnecessary in my class?
- Buds: How can I help my students better? Where can I grow? And what is the first next step toward doing that?
For lots more on improving your yoga teaching, please read The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook. And if you’ve read it and want to recommend it, please rate and review it on Amazon, Goodreads,or wherever you like!