written November 6th, 2009 · 0 comments

Last Friday I was practicing my Pilates like a good and diligent teacher preparing for my first (German) Pilates class and my neck started giving me such pain! I guess my body just wasn’t warm enough or something or I was pushing myself to hard the week before. I have been trying to play catch up physically after 2 weeks on vacation in the US and 1 week of being sick. It’s tough! But anyhow, I am better now, and I am ready for my class tomorrow.

I have prepared a few changes to the class. I think the students are a lot fitter than I originally thought. So I’ve got to keep them interested! Teaching is so much fun! When I first stepped into the class last Tuesday I thought, oh man, this is going to be a long hour. But you get into it and it goes by so fast! I made a mixed CD for my class and I think I will feel more and more confident. Tomorrow I just need to get the heating right in the studio and I think I have it down pat!

One of the things I think I should really try and do is to make sure that the class knows they can ask me any questions afterward. When I first started taking Yoga I bombarded my teacher everyday after class with questions about the positions and what I am doing right/wrong. I get the feeling that people are mostly shy or are just not so curious, I don’t know. But I want to encourage them to get involved. It only improves your work.

I want to start tutoring some of my friends individually to work on my teaching skills and to be aware of what beginners are facing when they start Pilates. And then I think I will definitely be looking for a place to teach in English somewhere. Right now I am teaching 4 times a week, but it is temporary. When my teacher comes back, she gets all of her classes back, although there has been talk of me getting one of her classes if her schedule is too full. I think it is great to do it in both languages too. I don’t know what I was so afraid of with the whole German thing…it is no big deal to teach the class in German. But, as my boss once told me, we have different ways of speaking depending on the language we speak. It sounds odd, but so true. I think when I speak English I am more natural, relaxed and funny, but when I speak German I am a bit more serious because I am concentrating on the language.