What Makes a Great Teacher?

Asking what makes a great teacher is like asking what makes a great day - there is an infinity of ways to make the experience effective, meaningful and awesome! 

Having said that, I have found that the following five principles define the approach that turns a mere discussion leader into a great teacher.

 

Be Awesome

The best way to learn is to teach; and teaching is sure to help you be a better you.

When you teach, you need to be your ideal self; an expression of love, knowledge and kindness. This is not to say that you should be fake, just give it your best every time because…

An awesome teacher is an awesome person.

But being awesome is not enough - you need to let your shine show so that the world cannot help but know how amazing you are. So let shine whatever ignites your unique sparkle and swagger!

 

Be Real

A lotus flower does not form without mud, and the more mud, the better the flower.

It is often the most broken people that make the best teachers. The challenges that they have overcome make them able to understand and relate compassionately to other people. 

We teach best from our own genuine failures and experiences. If your life has been and is always perfect (or you pretend that it is), you will have nothing to teach. Therefore, teach from the inside, from the life experiences that have transformed you and don’t be afraid to show your own limitations, it will help your students feel more comfortable with theirs.

lotus flower in water

Therefore, be authentic to where you come from, who you are now and what challenges you and you can unlock the unique and real experiences and wisdom you have to share from within you.

Don’t pretend that you know something you don’t or you will miss an opportunity to learn something new.

Refrain from trying to be be anything that you are not. If you are not Indian, don’t try to be one by wearing Indian clothes and speaking Sanskrit, and if you are not a constantly zen and relaxed person, don’t present as if you are - people will know if you are faking it, and if you do this you are robbing the world (including yourself!) of the awesome experience of the most prized and precious thing you have to share: your authentic self.

Don’t be swayed; nothing is good for everyone, and everything is good for someone.

Trust that you have meaningful gifts to give to the world that someone will need. When you offer your authentic gifts from your heart, they are sure to be a great service to someone. 

 

Be New

Make your yoga your own, and make it new!

Yoga is not set in stone; it has been evolving since ever. Even the most “traditional” yoga teacher trainings have very little in it that was called yoga a hundred years ago.

yoga with dog

The possibilities are endless and this is how people came up with ideas like Kids Yoga, Partner Yoga, Senior Yoga, Aqua Yoga (yoga in the water), yoga and weightlifting, Doga (yoga with your dog), yoga and knitting, yoga on exercise balls, Yoga Fight Club (yoga and martial arts), Yoga Canvas and Cabernet (yoga, painting and wine drinking), Yoga for Surfers, Yoga for Golfers, Equestrian Yoga (yoga on a horseback), Naked Yoga, Acro Yoga, Circus Yoga, Aerial Yoga (yoga suspended from the ceiling by straps)… and there are very many more!

So, what are your passions, what are you really good at, what have you been working on already for your whole life that has made you who you are today? Don’t forget about all of these awesome parts of yourself when you shift into yoga teaching. 

Life is an evolution rather than a revolution, and everything in your present and your future, has, in one way or another, a foundation in what you have achieved and experienced in your past.

So don't be like the million other yoga teachers out there,  experiment and explore to find your personal and passionate style of yoga to share with the world!

Be Now

Start teaching right now!

Don’t wait until you know everything before you start teaching - no one knows everything. And don’t wait until you are perfect before you start to teach - no one is perfect. Waiting only makes you stagnant and dulls your energy. 

The honest truth is that you learn as you go and you evolve with your students, so get out there and share yourself with the world!

 

Be the Change

What is the job description of a great teacher? I have always read it as, “to make people happy”!

happy child with paint

You are AMAZING (we all are in our own special way) and you are going to change the world - not by talking, but simply by being the awesome, powerful, free and inspiring version of yourself that you have decided to be!

The question now is not if you are ready, but if the world is ready for you.

Of course, the answer is always, “Yes!!”



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MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE WITH YOGA AND MINDFULNESS

Rainbow Yoga trained more than 30,000 Kids Yoga Teachers since 2007. We make yoga fun for children and young people of all age groups and for the whole family too! Our yoga consists of many poses and stretches that have different physical benefits for our health and well-being, breathing, relaxation, meditation and mindfulness exercises for our minds, and social interaction, playfulness, meaning, deep life lessons and fun for our spirit.

Thinking about the impact of all those amazing certified yoga teachers, educators, parents and therapists we have trained to teach yoga to children and yoga for teens; we are making a huge difference for the next generation bringing peace, love, kindness and resilience into their lives. Education departments, schools, health programs and individuals in many countries have adopted yoga as a form of exercise and a method to decrees stress and increase wellbeing. We are the biggest and most-loved kid’s yoga teacher training in the world and we are here tp provide you with everything you will need to teach successful, exciting, meaningful, engaging and fun yoga to children, teenagers and families.

THE BEST ONLINE YOGA TEACHER TRAINING – LEARN TOOLS TO HELP KIDS AND FAMILIES FIND CONNECTION, RELEASE STRESS, INCREASE RESILIENCE AND BRING ON A SENSE OF WELL BEING AND MENTAL BALANCE

Rainbow Kids Yoga offers the most comprehensive, practical, and engaging children yoga teacher training certification in the world! Our course will enable you to deliver children yoga classes that will connects your students to themselves, each other, and the environment. Through unique and engaging practices of mindfulness and yoga your students and community will be able to find connections, enhance well-being and thrive as grounded, integrated and well balanced individuals.

At our training, all while having fun, you will become a children yoga instructor through a lot of experiential practice, insightful theory, yoga poses and sequences, mindfulness practices and relaxation. You will learn how to build fun, engaging, and fitness-level-appropriate children yoga classes for all ages, from toddlers to teenagers. At our kid’s yoga teacher training you will find over 300 videos presenting how to make yoga poses accessible and fun! Believe it or not, yoga can be extremely boring for children and for adults too… In Rainbow Yoga, we make yoga in a fun so that children learn easily and want to do more of it. Yoga is so good for you, but for children to want to want to do yoga you will need to learn to spice it all up and this is what our kid’s yoga online teacher training is for!

This is the perfect resource for yoga teachers, parents, educators and therapists to find and discover hundreds of yoga poses, yoga games and mindfulness practices for children in a way that makes it is easy to learn and easy to enjoy.

Yoga poses for kids: Yoga encourages a positive and healthy lifestyle for the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of children as it helps in the development of strength, stamina, and endurance, high levels of positive energy, resilience, focus, self-awareness, and awareness of our environment.

Yoga for children empowers them with increased concentration, calm, peace, and contentment at a mental level leading to inner and outer peace and harmony. The Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training includes a digital manual (a hard copy that can be purchased) as part of the course. This is specialized online yoga teacher training. Here we will focus on how to teach yoga to children and teens, and how to help them release stress, relax, stretch, energize – All in creative and fun ways while taking into consideration their unique needs, whether they are physical, social, mental, or emotional. 

You will learn to teach the youngest yogis and those with emotional and mental challenges techniques to assist them with impulse control and self-regulation. Our courses provide a platform and a foundation to promote the healthy development of the hearts, bodies, and minds of young individuals.

The Rainbow Kids Yoga Training is the largest and most well-regarded Kids Yoga Teacher Training in the world. Our graduates teach everywhere using our diploma including schools, kindergartens, daycare centers, early learning centers, Yoga studios, gyms, fitness centers, birthday parties, private and group classes and more.

 

AFFORDABLE LEARNING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Join our Yoga Revolution and become a kids’ yoga teacher today through our online yoga teacher training or in-person yoga certification courses. You will be left with a smile on your face, a wealth of knowledge and an ignited spirit to spread the love and joy of yoga.

For our online training, you can allow 24 hours to receive your access and for physical products such as the Rainbow Kids Yoga Book, you can allow 2-4 weeks to receive it by mail. The books are printed on demand before being shipped, but it is worth the wait 😊

HISTORY OF RAINBOW YOGA

Rainbow Yoga is a fun and constantly evolving family mission and lovingly born in 2007, to give people the tools to teach fun, engaging, and creative in=person and online yoga classes for kids, teens, families, partners, and communities. Rainbow Yoga is interactive and social and all about connection; we touch, hug, move, breathe and co-create together our yoga magically and playfully.

Rainbow Yoga offers a variety of unique and comprehensive teacher training certification courses all over the world offering a well-rounded, in-depth learning experience through a combination of play, practical theory, and fun.The Rainbow Yoga Teacher training is renowned for being captivating, dynamic, loving, and life changing. It is condensed with a lifetime of knowledge and hands-on experience from the Founders of Rainbow Yoga, Gopala, and Angel Yaffa. Delivered by world-class faculty around the world.