Tonight I have my first co-teach beginner pole class and I can’t believe it’s already here. Granted there’s still a lot left to learn in our instructor training, but we had to split our group up to do half this term and half the next term. I’m flattered that Paula believed I was ready to start co-teaching this term already and I have to believe her when she says I’m ready and can do it. I’m so full of nerves because it’s a whole other thing to talk about how to teach others or train us on what to do in situations but now you actually have to put those things into practice and become the teacher or in my case, the co-teacher.
Flash forward, I’m coming back to this blog after actually co-teaching now and overall I think it went well. It’s a very weird thing to be the teacher now, I’m not going to lie. I’m so used to being the student that it’s for sure going to take some time to hone in on my teacher persona and embody what I’ve enjoyed as a student for so long, into someone I hope other students will like and enjoy too. The class was a really good group of women, and co-teaching with Instructor Steph made it really easy to loosen up as well. She’s always so bubbly and welcoming that from my perspective, instantly made the other women comfortable in the room.
When it came time to lead my section of the class, in my head I was like “omg it’s here, holy crap, okay, you can do this! Just keep up the positive energy!” On the outside I thought I was calm and collected though I’m sure some of the students could pick up on my nervous energy a bit. But regardless, I taught some of the moves and really had to remember what Paula and Kim have taught us so far. Being aware of how to describe certain moves, making sure the students come to the floor for this move or making sure hand placements are right before swinging your legs in that move. Honestly, after doing my section of moves, it went so quick, but all the women were so eager to learn and were doing so well, I really was nervous for no reason.
After class, Instructor Steph and I went through what went well and what can be improved upon and I’m so grateful that I have an entire term to get comfortable with teaching. You can talk about how to do things for as long as you want, but putting things into practice is the best way to learn and improve yourself. I know teaching will get easier and I have to remind myself to not be so hard on myself, I just want to be a good instructor for the other students though. So as the weeks go on, I’m going to keep improving and learning and getting the other students excited for pole and aerial, because I want them to be able to love them as much as I do!