I’m a sucker for a good teacher and a huge snob about it.
I don’t really care if you are teaching me to stand on my head or whistle in the dark, if you know how to teach – I’ll follow you. (I may even immigrate to another country, move in with you, and buy your house if you are really skilled!)
The challenge I’m finding is because I’ve had not only good teachers, but great teachers in my life, when I go to a class with someone who is not a good teacher, well, it’s darn right painful.
I don’t care how much I want to learn something, it’s not worth the struggle to stay in a classroom when I’m secretly wanting to poke my eyes out with sharp sticks.
This last year, I’ve wanted to join a class of some kind. The rec. centre here is an amazing place with loads of activities, unfortunately, the times I’ve attended a few different classes, I’ve been too snobby to stay. I blame the instructors.
So, much to my delight, I met Georgia at the Blissful Yoga Studio.
I was gifted a 5 class pass at the end of last year and had a chance to go once. It was nice. I went again yesterday and I am pleased to say, I will go again, and even again, and it is all because of Georgia!
I’m not a huge fan of yoga, but I am a fan of taking classes. I like being a student, and joining a qigong or tai chi class on the coast is not going to happen.
Here are just 5 examples of why I thought Georgia was a good instructor.
#1. Five minutes before class started, Georgia closed the door and hung the “closed†sign up. No one is allowed in late! 10 points!
#2. Georgia actually taught the class. She didn’t practice with us.
#3. She was good enough describing what to do, that I could keep my eyes closed and not feel I was missing anything. When I did peek with a question, she was a mirror to the class. You know….She’d say, “With your left hand…†while her right hand was in the correct position. This is good.
#4. Georgia would bring me back to my breath, each time my mind took off in critique of the class. Good teachers know when a student wanders.
#5. The best, the absolute best thing, I liked about learning yoga from Georgia – was she taught with her regular voice! She did not use that horrid meditation/bliss ninny/guru, spacey voice, that is so fucking slow and full of breath, you’d think she was talking to idiots, or reaching a stereotypical spiritual orgasm. She used her REAL voice.
Bonus reason #6. I knew she might be the teacher for me, when she never once said,
“I invite you to _______ .†Fill in the blank!
What a great discovery! So hard to find a great teacher. And thanks for your list of do’s and don’ts. I don’t think I do any of your don’ts, but I’ll do a self check this term.
p.s. I always thinkof the “I invite you to________” as a kind of equivalent to “Please_____________”, so I don’t mind it too much.
Oh my gosh! I loved this, thanks for the big laugh, am definitely with you on all of that and will share it with Susan (my awesome yoga teacher) too!
Ha! This made me laugh. I’m pretty picky about yoga teachers too. I have to admit that I don’t mind the breathe-y nirvana voice but I HATE it when they use the spacey windchime music- weird, I guess. 🙂