Yoga Teacher Training Online

Yoga Teacher Training is ten modules over one year. You attend as many of the weekly meetings and meditations as you can. Yoga is subjective to your current schedule and I believe that yoga teacher training should be adaptable as well.

Tuesday/Thursday: 6:00-7:00AM (Pacific Time Zone) Meditation/Ashtanga (Online)

Tuesday: 4:00-6:00PM (Pacific Time Zone) Virtual meeting

Learning in a community of inquiry (COI) creates a deep and meaningful experience for participants because everyone’s contribution is valued. Social, cognitive and teaching presence are three elements of learning that COI focuses on.

Your commitment is as much or as little as you need it to be. The curriculum contains 200hours of content, but your immersion in yoga might deviate from that time limit.

The 200hour metric is part of the now out-of-fashion Carnegie unit of education. The Carnegie Unit is a correlational metric where a prescribed amount of time in class equals a credential. I am not convinced that teaching and understanding yoga is well-represented by the Carnegie Unit of academic accomplishment.

Land and Heart Yoga Teacher Training is a mentorship, a lifestyle and a place of inspiration

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Your learning experience includes weekly online classes, relevant workshops and practice-teaching. But you will decide how much or how little you need to participate. Your learning style will be taken into account and at the end of the year-long mentorship program, you will be confident in sharing yoga with others.

The videos, textbook and online resources provide the framework for your learning, but you must do the hard work. Your time is divided between living and giving your yoga:

Practice (asana)

Community service (seva)

Meditation

Reflection

Teaching

Live your Yoga -weekly time distribution

1. Ashtanga primary series. (inspired by) Do this with me at 530am (Pacific Time) on Tuesdays and Thursdays online. Ashtanga Primary Series is in this program because it’s a set sequence and doing the same list of poses over and over holds you accountable. The poses never change; the only variable is your attitude and fitness. Ashtanga Primary Series is a mirror of your evolving self.
2. Other yoga practice. Two hours. Yin, restorative, creative vinyasa. Try it all. Find what works. Push yourself or take it easy on yourself. You’re discovering how yoga practice fits your current circumstances. Do this at a studio, use my Youtube videos (more coming every week), or go online.
3. Meditation. Three hours. Work up to it if this is daunting. Try walking meditation, singing meditation (mantra) and mindfulness meditation. You don’t have to just sit on a pillow in the corner. But you can just sit on a pillow if you want. No sleeping though.

Give your Yoga – weekly time distribution

1. Real time meeting with your peers and with the teacher. Three hours each week. We will use Zoom. This is for questions, practice teaching, insight, progress report, accountability.
2. Practice teaching. Two hours. Start right away. If you have a willing student nearby, teach them. Otherwise, teach yourself with video. This is indispensable learning and even if we weren’t working online, I recommend self-video. You’ll notice habits, nuances, timing and you’ll be able to self-correct. Record the video and then take your own class.
3. Community service. One hour. As simple as picking up garbage, or walking dogs at the SPCA, or coaching community sports. Anything that represents selfless service and will be rewarding and manageable for you. My preference is garbage pickup because it’s simple and outside.
4. Reflection and journaling on the week’s topic. Three hours. Write it all down, ask yourself questions, think about what it all means. Everything will come together in the end, but make sure you’re taking notes along the way.

Document the learning process in an ePortfolio. Choose an online platform to share your ePortfolio. The intention is to record your reflections, acquired knowledge, questions and videos in one sharable location. You’re learning about yoga and its application in your current context, but you’re also discovering creative avenues to share your knowledge. If you’re not tech-savvy, this is your opportunity to learn a new skill! Yoga’s beauty is its adaptability to any circumstances. Capturing your entire 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in an ePortfolio exemplifies yoga’s enduring relevance.

Yoga poses are the technology to represent the practice. Beginner yoga students often mistake the poses for the entirety of the practice. But the poses are only a fraction of the practice. The rest of the practice – the ethics, the meditation, the mindfulness, the benevolent compassion– make up most of yoga. But the poses are the technology to manifest the practice. The poses on the mat open the yogi’s mind to possibilities off the mat.

Online learning is the technology to represent knowledge. Distance learning is mistaken for being monotonous and one-sided. But the technology – the videos and texts – are but a fraction of the learning. Distance learning that allows for robust interaction between teacher, student and material will illuminate the content in a way that exceeds traditional classroom learning.  The videos and online applications open the learner’s mind to the possibilities in the content.

The intention of Yoga Teacher Training is to guide you to understand yoga in your own context. Yoga is generations old. Yet it evolves and stretches to accommodate anyone who dares to practice. The system of yoga can shrink or expand to fit any teaching method. The learning method, however, is unwavering. You must open your mind to the timeless ideas of yoga and you must adopt the practice into your daily life. The poses are the technology to represent the practice, but yoga is a timeless tradition that goes beyond the mat. Learning about yoga online expands the realm of possibilities for teaching. The avenue to share and organize your knowledge is broad. You’ll explore different ways of teaching yoga’s timeless essence through constructivist learning: by engaging with the online material through multiple formats, you will actively construct knowledge. You will define yoga for yourself by understanding its history, philosophy and practice. You will collect new knowledge through poses, community service and practice teaching. You will put it all together in an ePortfolio. Your goal is to create a personal understanding of yoga and embed new ideas into your life story.  Welcome to Land and Heart Online Yoga Teacher Training Program.

1. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:

Suggested Version: Satchinanda, Sri Swami (translator). (2012) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Buckingham, Virginia: Integral Yoga Publications.

3. Land and Heart Practice textbook:

Covello, Kate. (2021) Yoga Teacher Training: Land and Heart Practice.