OMG, OMG: Taught first class in studio!

OK, so you're all wondering: Was anyone injured? Did she trip over anyone? Did anyone have to leave the room in disgust at her amateurish teaching?

I'm happy to say the answers are no, no, and no! It went pretty well. I was darned nervous. Yesterday I was studying at lunch and thinking I hadn't been so nervous since I played in my first rugby match. Which is actually pretty silly since barring bizarre incident I won't break any bones teaching yoga. (Not that anyone on my team broke bones playing rugby--there were MANY more injuries on the soccer team during the time I played!) MSH and I went to see a movie last night (MI:3--so so, had cool stunts) and it was probably a good idea, because otherwise I would have been obsessing.

I got to the studio at about 7:20. Pretty early. The door wouldn't stay unlocked so I propped it open. I immediately went in and turned on the heaters. It ended up being a big class that included my bosom friend (specially invited, natch,) as well as one teacher (Camille) and--what I had feared--A BIKRAM BEGINNER!!! I was a bit nervous at first, but I gained confidence quickly. I did forget the second set of one-leg Locust poses, but oh well! I said something about it and a few people laughed. I actually really liked that because it means people weren't taking their practice or me too seriously! I didn't really use the stopwatch much at alll, as I thought I would. I just guesstimated how long to be in each posture. This made me feel sort of all over the place in terms of time and it DID run long even though I skipped second sets at the end of the floor series. I hope no one minded.

There was a point right in the middle where I wanted to DASH out of the room, I was feeling really overwhelmed, but I stuck with it and felt much better by the end. I did stumble over my words here and there, and felt at a loss for words at several points. (What to say?!) For the most part, I just paced back and forth at the back of the classroom, I felt weird standing up at the front or walking between people. I think I need to do a better job of looking AT people and their ALIGNMENT, I felt like I was looking down at the floor a lot, or just at Camille, who rarely needs any adjustments! I didn't really call out any adjustments, except for the beginners and the woman who was on her fourth class.

The reactions: My friend said I did great, and I was very consistent throughout, and did well with the beginner. She said when I messed up I corrected myself, but didn't seem apologetic or anxious, which was good as she thinks anxiety can transfer to the students. (Good point!) I asked the beginner "What did you think?" and she said "It was great!" One of the regulars, who I know is very frank, said it was good, she could definitely tell I was a new teacher because there were long spaces in the dialogue, but she seemed positive. And Camille said "You did great!" (Hopefully she'll be able to flesh that out for me later.)

So, in closing, I would say: I need a LOT of work. Having the dialogue truly memorized means that you KNOW when you're about at the end of a posture, without using the clock. Since I don't seem to like staring at the stopwatch. (At least not a digital one...) However, I had fun and the experience just made me want to study harder, and learn MORE MORE MORE. That's gotta be a good sign.

Off to the Sweatbox this afternoon for a four-o-clock!