As part of the Yoga Alliance Social Credentialing system, teachers that register with Yoga Alliance must submit a review of the RYS training program they completed.
Feedback from trainees provides Registered Yoga Schools with the opportunity to understand their trainees’ experiences in order to continually improve their trainings.
By choosing to display comments, schools enable trainees to provide insight into a school’s culture and training which helps potential trainees choose the right teacher training for their individual path with yoga.
-
-
General Comments
The director Daniel Orlansky and assistant Andrea Fotopoulis are broadly and deeply knowledgeable about yoga, the lifestyle, its history and philosophy. They are empathetic, and uplifting people. They created an atmosphere of trust and companionship among our cohort. I sought the spiritual side of yoga, and Daniel introduced me to chanting, breathing, Kundalini yoga and more. I am deeply grateful for my experience and for the associations that I made during the academic year. An issue for me was the amount of time given to develop my teaching voice. Daniel and Andrea agree that proficiency comes with teaching practice. They also claim that this teacher training provides more hands-on teaching experience than most 200 hour level yoga training. If this is true, then I heartily recommend becoming a student of their teaching. Given that I am a trained teacher who has taught middle, high and college students, I know the value of experiential learning, and I encouraged them and to anyone seeking training to consider the extent of personal teaching experience during the training.
School response
Yoga of Energy Flow
May 12, 2023
While I am happy that Charles was "deeply grateful for his experience," but I’m sorry he didn’t feel he had enough student teaching time in the teacher training at Boston University. I’ve been training yoga teachers for 24 years, and the time allotted to student teaching in my program exceeds almost all YTT programs I know, and we are very proud of the quality of teaching that we see in our trainees at the end of the program. The students in all my teacher trainings begin student teaching 4 months into the program, giving trainees five months to hone their skills. Feedback is provided from teachers and fellow students every step of the way. Students first teach 10 minutes, then 20-30 minutes, and finally 45-60 minute classes. For the ten-minute classes they are assigned specific sequences. For the 30-minute classes they work with a partner, together designing a one-hour class. This is done two times over two months. The graduation requirement is that each student teach a 45 to 60 minute class in front of fellow students and teachers. At least 45 minutes is allotted for feedback and constructive criticism. In Charles’s YTT, students taught the entire group with two ERYT-500s observing and providing feedback. Except for the Boston University teacher training, at other locations, community classes are set up for students to teach to the general public, giving additional opportunities for students to gain teaching experience.