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Welcome to the Between the Lights podcast.
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I'm your host, Sarah Kaiser, and today we're talking about how there is a tendency to underestimate what Ariel instructors are actually doing and handling in their classes.
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So we're going to break down exactly what it is Arial instructors are working with, why it is so significant, and why it deserves to be taken seriously.
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In teaching Ariel, you are not just showing people how to do skills.
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You are making constant judgments about risk, student readiness.
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You are reading students for fear and discomfort.
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You're explaining and breaking down incredibly sophisticated technique that students have basically no context for.
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So you're really building it for them from scratch.
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And you're managing and adapting to a room full of diverse bodies and brains, and you're working intimately with people in quite a few vulnerable contexts.
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We have the physical risk, we have the potential fear and the pain, we have the embarrassment that can come from trying and failing in front of others.
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And it takes real skill to be able to hold that space and support each student in their unique needs within that learning context.
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And we can think of Arial as a high load learning experience.
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I've created a framework called the High Load Teaching Framework.
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You can find that on my website.
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It's completely free.
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It's a breakdown of exactly what makes aerial instruction and aerial learning unique, in that we have to navigate the layers of pain, of fear, of uncertainty, and disorientation while we are teaching.
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So it's not just as simple as here's the technique, here's the skill breakdown.
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We also have to be able to interpret the student's learning experience.
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Where's their nervous system at?
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Is their brain able to process cues right now?
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Do they need a different approach in order to be able to help every student be successful?
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So the way I put it in the high-load teaching framework is in a high-load movement discipline, every layer of the learning experience is amplified.
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So when the student is physically challenged, disoriented, scared, or in pain, the hidden curriculum of teaching movement becomes more prominent.
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Basically, you can't ignore it.
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You can't get away with here's the skill, here's how to do it, as much without it impacting the student.
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So there might be other disciplines that are lower stakes, lower intensity.
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The student isn't handling as much cognitive load.
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And so their needs are much simpler.
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So to make this even more clear, I'll share an example.
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I have a background in slacklining and highlining.
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If you're not familiar, this is basically tight rope walking.
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We harness in so it's safe, but that doesn't eliminate, you know, the brain's fear response for most people.
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And so if I wanted to teach somebody how to slack line three feet above the ground, that's a pretty different teaching requirement than teaching them how to highline.
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When they get to the highline, they already know how to slack line.
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We don't teach people to slack line typically by putting them on a highline that I mean, maybe somebody's out there.
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Actually, I'm just remembering I just met somebody who learned to slack line by highlining.
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And so it can happen, but typically, if you're if you're doing a logical progression, you're not going to start with a thing that is way scarier.
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Okay, so typically we get the physical, technical side taken care of close to the ground, where the load is much lower.
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And by the way, fear can and will still show up in that setting.
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Um, but when we take it up high, the cognitive load increases.
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And so if I'm teaching somebody how to highlight, the focus is going to be not so much on technique, but more about how can I help them to feel comfortable here.
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There can be some technical differences.
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Uh, high lines, sometimes they're longer than lines that people have walked on before.
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There's another line backed up to it, so it feels different.
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They might not be familiar with transition zones if if they haven't done a lot of long lining.
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So there can be some technique, but it's not as much of a focus.
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In Arial, we basically have both things at once, and there are times when one side gets a little bit more amplified than the other.
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So a student might be very technically advanced, but then they go to a drop, and now the primary thing we're navigating is fear, or a student might have no fear, no problem, and the primary focus is a technical details.
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And an excellent teacher will be tracking where the student is at on both of those levels and tailoring the instruction to support them as needed.
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The vulnerability of the student is where so much of the beauty comes in in teaching.
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And I'll share with you that this is where I really see the teacher's role as incredibly elevated from something that might be a little bit more straightforward, less vulnerable, more technical.
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This is specifically where knowledge of the nervous system becomes really, really, really helpful for teachers because instead of just feeling irritated that the student is like throwing the fabric and moving erratically, we start reading signals.
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So I was working with a student and I noticed um I was having them do something that I thought was pretty simple.
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And they started grabbing and re-grabbing and quickly reorganizing.
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And my body's reaction when I was watching this was to get really tense because I was taking on their quick erratic movements, and so my body went into this state.
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But because of how I have studied the nervous system and worked with students intentionally in this way, I was able to recognize this is actually a gigantic arrow pointing at the student, saying, the student is starting to feel overwhelmed.
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These are signals that the student does not feel grounded.
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So being able to interpret that, I asked the student to pause for a moment and take a step back.
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And then I modified the original task I had assigned them, and I made it basically 50% simpler, where they didn't have to think as much or engage as much.
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And I also specifically talked to them in a way that emphasized how much time we had.
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We have plenty of time for this.
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Let's let's really take our time with this.
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And the result was immediate.
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The student completely changed their state, and they stopped erratically grabbing the fabric, and they had clear grounded movement.
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Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is a silver bullet and it's gonna work perfectly like that every time.
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It's an example of correct interpretation, of correctly interpreting what a student is experiencing and adapting the lesson in real time based on real knowledge of the brain, of the nervous system, and the stages of learning.
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This completely redirected the trajectory of the lesson for that student.
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They were talking about how much they loved the drills that I was assigning and they felt successful in them.
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And so this is just one example of how knowing how to do the skill and even being technically brilliant doesn't cover everything for us in aerial education, that we're working with humans and we're working with the many layers of the student, not just showing them this is how you do it.
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This is often why um aerialists who are extremely good at aerial will wind up a little bit confused in class when their student doesn't understand because they think, well, I've communicated so clearly how the skill works, that should do the trick.
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But what they're missing is that the perfect cues and the perfect breakdowns aren't going to land for a student whose nervous system is activated or who simply can't connect the dots that quickly because they need to feel it first and they need to feel it in simpler and smaller ways.
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And because there's a number of reasons for why a student might not get something, we have to be able to run diagnostics and troubleshoot in class, not just work from formulas.
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So this is something we work through in the Bloom Aerial teacher training.
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We have literal lists of diagnostics of how to understand what is blocking the student right now, and what next step can I take to help build the bridge for their understanding and them being grounded and successful in this space.
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And this is not just teaching skill.
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This is not just being great at teaching, but this is ethics because we are working with students in vulnerable situations, because a student walks in with an opportunity to have a life-changing experience, and that's a responsibility for us not to get in the way of that possibility, for our instruction to be the bridge, not the obstruction.
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The biggest risk in teaching Ariel that isn't a physical safety risk is that a student walks in hopeful for some kind of change.
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Walking in to a potential opportunity to find a new community, to find an outlet for creativity or play that they haven't found anywhere else, to have a chance to see themselves in a new light, to feel empowered, to believe more is possible, and to walk out feeling like they weren't good enough, feeling that they're the wrong body type, feeling that they're not smart enough, they're too old, whatever conclusion they draw of why they weren't successful in class, when what really happened was the teacher was never trained in how to interpret those many layers of learning, and something was missing in the instruction for that student.
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That student didn't feel seen or supported.
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This can happen in a million different forms.
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It can even be that the class design was not conducive to success for the student.
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So it's too mixed level.
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Teacher is great, teacher, thoughtful, even aware of all these layers, but can't implement well because they are spread thin within the class.
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So maybe the class size is too big, the class levels are too diverse, and then a student walks out thinking Ariel's not for people like me.
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And if you haven't listened to that episode, it's the second one on the podcast.
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Ariel is not for people like me.
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We go a lot deeper into what can happen here and why it matters so much.
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So let me come around to my point.
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In the Ariel community, there is a tendency to downplay how much the instructor is actually holding, how much they are doing, how demanding it is, how complex it is, the risks involved, to the point that we say that if you know how to do the skills, then you're pretty much ready to teach, or do a weekend training, or a week-long training.
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That's all it takes to be able to teach Ariel, or you'll figure out the rest on your own.
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So this is ultimately a disservice to instructors to imply that it's so simple and straightforward that you can figure it out yourself, or you can teach after a weekend or a week-long training, and then you can fill in the blanks.
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And this can be used as a justification for lower teacher pay.
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If we all have this idea, this mindset we normalize that teaching aerial isn't like a real skill, like a real specialization, then we can pay a very modest wage.
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Now, this is a much bigger conversation.
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The economics of aerial studios and aerial education and how aerial instruction is perceived is absolutely not the only factor that goes into what they get paid, but it is absolutely a mindset.
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It's happening every day that people are not treating aerial instruction as a serious profession, and so they are not paying accordingly.
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And full transparency.
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When I started teaching Ariel, I thought, oh, I can just do this.
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I can, I'll just show them what I know.
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I'll just teach that.
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And I did, and I had a lot of success, and I had a lot of great reviews, but I also made mistakes and I also missed things.
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And there were students who slipped through the cracks because there were entire dimensions of the aerial learning experience that I didn't even know exist, that so many people today don't even know exist, that are factoring in to students' experience and success in class.
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It was only later that I was able to look back and see that's where I went wrong, that's what I missed, after I had the interpretive frameworks.
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And I think it's one of the tricky things is that it can feel like classes are going really well and feel like we're getting great feedback, but then some students don't come back.
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And then some students never sign up, which is a data point you can't see, touch, or feel.
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It's invisible, but it could be happening because a student learns about your studio.
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This can be even on your website, and isn't 100% confident that they will feel safe there.
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And I don't even necessarily mean physical, although that's relevant too, but they're not sure they'll feel like they belong.
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They're not sure they want to take the risk of trying a class.
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And then there's the injuries that are waiting to happen that eventually do.
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There's boundaries getting crossed, distractions in class, and you start to see it and feel it more tangibly.
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It doesn't have to show up one particular way, but when we are not working with the hidden curriculum as instructors, we're basically just not putting ourselves in as good of a position to have a great teaching experience, and we're creating limitations for our students.
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Better aerial pedagogy enables you to see what you couldn't see before.
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That's basically it in a nutshell.
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And that's being able to see things on the physical level.
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So noticing, you know, scapular mechanics in your students, noticing how they are organizing their core, and then there's all these other layers, like noticing if their nervous system is changing state, recognizing signs that a student needs more assurance that they are safe to try or ask a question.
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It's the most exciting change that I have experienced in my teaching over the years is as I brought in more of an integrative pedagogy and learning more about motor learning theory, the nervous system, neuroscience, deepening all areas of my practice.
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This has made it so that I essentially see so much more in a single class snapshot.
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Because I have interpretive frameworks, I'm not just seeing the surface and reacting to it.
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It's made me more perceptive and it's made my teaching more sophisticated.
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And this is what I bring to instructors in the Bloom Aerial Teacher training.
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And it is so empowering and it is so cool to be running class and looking at it and starting to see.
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Oh, I know what motor learning stage that student is in.
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So I am going to hold off my cue right now, or I'm gonna go for it, or I'm gonna say this particular kind of cue.
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We're starting to see the dysregulation happening earlier and adjusting the class plan to support what the group needs to stay grounded and stay in success, knowing about what contributes to learning and shaping the learning environment around that.
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This is where we truly start to experience teaching, not as a hobby, not as this thing we do on the side, even if you do it on the side, but it really feels like a true profession.
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And we start to experience teaching as craft.
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This is so exciting.
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It is so inspiring and so engaging when you get to that level of depth and detail in your pedagogy and in what you are interpreting in your classroom.
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I have loved teaching from day one.
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I think it's a blast.
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I absolutely love breaking things down for people.
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I love moving around the room and problem solving.
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It has always been incredibly joyful.
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And I can say that just with complete clarity and confidence because that has been my experience.
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But as my pedagogy has matured and my teaching has become more sophisticated, it's given me this even deeper layer of fulfillment and meaning.
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And I mean, we were already pretty deep with that, but this other layer has really brought in a new dimension for me because it has helped me realize the significance of what I do.
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I understand at a much deeper level what I am holding for people and why it matters so much.
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And that is my vision for us in the aerial community is to really appreciate and respect the significance of aerial instruction, of what it is we are doing, the complexity, the demands, the risk we're managing, the opportunities we're providing, the intimacy with which we are working with people, the dreams that we are making possible, the new identities that we are opening for people.
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The way you teach can save lives, and it can change lives.
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And that is why aerial instruction should be treated as a craft people deliberately study: motor learning, queuing, anatomy, psychology, risk, curriculum, communication, leadership, and group management.
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And teachers deserve to be acknowledged that they are holding all of that and that they are really exercising a very diverse and deep skillset to be able to successfully lead class.
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You are already doing more than you probably think as an aerial instructor, and you deserve to be recognized for that.
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If you want to know aerial instruction in this way, you want to experience teaching as craft, you want to have interpretive frameworks to make more sense of your classroom, then you might be a good fit for the Bloom Aerial Teacher training.
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I've included a link for that below, as well as a free training, the aerial teacher upgrade, that breaks this down a little bit more, gives you a little bit more clarity on the certification.
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The fall session is open for enrollment, so be sure to check that out and reserve your spot.
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If you've made it this far into the episode, thank you so much for really spending time thinking about this.
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I think it's such a big and beautiful opportunity in the aerial industry to really think about how much aerial instructors are holding, how meaningful the role is, and the responsibilities and opportunities that it comes with.
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At the center of it all is the students.
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Being able to show up in a way that allows students to have a fair chance to succeed in Arial.
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And if they hate it, it's because they really just don't like it.
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It's not because it was too hard, it wasn't progressed properly for them, or something else in the learning environment that was getting in the way of them feeling like they belong and they can be successful here.
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I have no problem with a student who concludes this is genuinely not for me.
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You guys have fun, I'm going to do something different.
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But I do have a problem with a student believing that it's not for them and blaming themselves when what really happened was the instruction was missing something.
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That is why I built Bloom.
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I hope this conversation has been insightful for you today.
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Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you on the next episode of Between Believe.
00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.640
Welcome to the Between the Lights podcast.
00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:23.519
I'm your host, Sarah Kaiser, and today we're talking about how there is a tendency to underestimate what Ariel instructors are actually doing and handling in their classes.
00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:32.960
So we're going to break down exactly what it is Arial instructors are working with, why it is so significant, and why it deserves to be taken seriously.
00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:38.000
In teaching Ariel, you are not just showing people how to do skills.
00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:43.200
You are making constant judgments about risk, student readiness.
00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:47.200
You are reading students for fear and discomfort.
00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:56.079
You're explaining and breaking down incredibly sophisticated technique that students have basically no context for.
00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:58.960
So you're really building it for them from scratch.
00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:10.159
And you're managing and adapting to a room full of diverse bodies and brains, and you're working intimately with people in quite a few vulnerable contexts.
00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:20.000
We have the physical risk, we have the potential fear and the pain, we have the embarrassment that can come from trying and failing in front of others.
00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:30.719
And it takes real skill to be able to hold that space and support each student in their unique needs within that learning context.
00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:34.400
And we can think of Arial as a high load learning experience.
00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.439
I've created a framework called the High Load Teaching Framework.
00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:39.359
You can find that on my website.
00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:40.799
It's completely free.
00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:54.480
It's a breakdown of exactly what makes aerial instruction and aerial learning unique, in that we have to navigate the layers of pain, of fear, of uncertainty, and disorientation while we are teaching.
00:01:54.560 --> 00:02:01.280
So it's not just as simple as here's the technique, here's the skill breakdown.
00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:04.799
We also have to be able to interpret the student's learning experience.
00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:06.640
Where's their nervous system at?
00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:09.360
Is their brain able to process cues right now?
00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:15.360
Do they need a different approach in order to be able to help every student be successful?
00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:24.400
So the way I put it in the high-load teaching framework is in a high-load movement discipline, every layer of the learning experience is amplified.
00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:32.479
So when the student is physically challenged, disoriented, scared, or in pain, the hidden curriculum of teaching movement becomes more prominent.
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:35.360
Basically, you can't ignore it.
00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:43.039
You can't get away with here's the skill, here's how to do it, as much without it impacting the student.
00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:48.639
So there might be other disciplines that are lower stakes, lower intensity.
00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:51.599
The student isn't handling as much cognitive load.
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:53.759
And so their needs are much simpler.
00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:56.719
So to make this even more clear, I'll share an example.
00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:59.199
I have a background in slacklining and highlining.
00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:01.680
If you're not familiar, this is basically tight rope walking.
00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:09.039
We harness in so it's safe, but that doesn't eliminate, you know, the brain's fear response for most people.
00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:21.360
And so if I wanted to teach somebody how to slack line three feet above the ground, that's a pretty different teaching requirement than teaching them how to highline.
00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:25.039
When they get to the highline, they already know how to slack line.
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We don't teach people to slack line typically by putting them on a highline that I mean, maybe somebody's out there.
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Actually, I'm just remembering I just met somebody who learned to slack line by highlining.
00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:43.759
And so it can happen, but typically, if you're if you're doing a logical progression, you're not going to start with a thing that is way scarier.
00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:50.719
Okay, so typically we get the physical, technical side taken care of close to the ground, where the load is much lower.
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And by the way, fear can and will still show up in that setting.
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Um, but when we take it up high, the cognitive load increases.
00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:09.120
And so if I'm teaching somebody how to highlight, the focus is going to be not so much on technique, but more about how can I help them to feel comfortable here.
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There can be some technical differences.
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Uh, high lines, sometimes they're longer than lines that people have walked on before.
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There's another line backed up to it, so it feels different.
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They might not be familiar with transition zones if if they haven't done a lot of long lining.
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So there can be some technique, but it's not as much of a focus.
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In Arial, we basically have both things at once, and there are times when one side gets a little bit more amplified than the other.
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So a student might be very technically advanced, but then they go to a drop, and now the primary thing we're navigating is fear, or a student might have no fear, no problem, and the primary focus is a technical details.
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And an excellent teacher will be tracking where the student is at on both of those levels and tailoring the instruction to support them as needed.
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The vulnerability of the student is where so much of the beauty comes in in teaching.
00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:23.199
And I'll share with you that this is where I really see the teacher's role as incredibly elevated from something that might be a little bit more straightforward, less vulnerable, more technical.
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This is specifically where knowledge of the nervous system becomes really, really, really helpful for teachers because instead of just feeling irritated that the student is like throwing the fabric and moving erratically, we start reading signals.
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So I was working with a student and I noticed um I was having them do something that I thought was pretty simple.
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And they started grabbing and re-grabbing and quickly reorganizing.
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And my body's reaction when I was watching this was to get really tense because I was taking on their quick erratic movements, and so my body went into this state.
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But because of how I have studied the nervous system and worked with students intentionally in this way, I was able to recognize this is actually a gigantic arrow pointing at the student, saying, the student is starting to feel overwhelmed.
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These are signals that the student does not feel grounded.
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So being able to interpret that, I asked the student to pause for a moment and take a step back.
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And then I modified the original task I had assigned them, and I made it basically 50% simpler, where they didn't have to think as much or engage as much.
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And I also specifically talked to them in a way that emphasized how much time we had.
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We have plenty of time for this.
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Let's let's really take our time with this.
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And the result was immediate.
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The student completely changed their state, and they stopped erratically grabbing the fabric, and they had clear grounded movement.
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Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is a silver bullet and it's gonna work perfectly like that every time.
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It's an example of correct interpretation, of correctly interpreting what a student is experiencing and adapting the lesson in real time based on real knowledge of the brain, of the nervous system, and the stages of learning.
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This completely redirected the trajectory of the lesson for that student.
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They were talking about how much they loved the drills that I was assigning and they felt successful in them.
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And so this is just one example of how knowing how to do the skill and even being technically brilliant doesn't cover everything for us in aerial education, that we're working with humans and we're working with the many layers of the student, not just showing them this is how you do it.
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This is often why um aerialists who are extremely good at aerial will wind up a little bit confused in class when their student doesn't understand because they think, well, I've communicated so clearly how the skill works, that should do the trick.
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But what they're missing is that the perfect cues and the perfect breakdowns aren't going to land for a student whose nervous system is activated or who simply can't connect the dots that quickly because they need to feel it first and they need to feel it in simpler and smaller ways.
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And because there's a number of reasons for why a student might not get something, we have to be able to run diagnostics and troubleshoot in class, not just work from formulas.
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So this is something we work through in the Bloom Aerial teacher training.
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We have literal lists of diagnostics of how to understand what is blocking the student right now, and what next step can I take to help build the bridge for their understanding and them being grounded and successful in this space.
00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:09.919
And this is not just teaching skill.
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This is not just being great at teaching, but this is ethics because we are working with students in vulnerable situations, because a student walks in with an opportunity to have a life-changing experience, and that's a responsibility for us not to get in the way of that possibility, for our instruction to be the bridge, not the obstruction.
00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:46.399
The biggest risk in teaching Ariel that isn't a physical safety risk is that a student walks in hopeful for some kind of change.
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Walking in to a potential opportunity to find a new community, to find an outlet for creativity or play that they haven't found anywhere else, to have a chance to see themselves in a new light, to feel empowered, to believe more is possible, and to walk out feeling like they weren't good enough, feeling that they're the wrong body type, feeling that they're not smart enough, they're too old, whatever conclusion they draw of why they weren't successful in class, when what really happened was the teacher was never trained in how to interpret those many layers of learning, and something was missing in the instruction for that student.
00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.240
That student didn't feel seen or supported.
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This can happen in a million different forms.
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It can even be that the class design was not conducive to success for the student.
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So it's too mixed level.
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Teacher is great, teacher, thoughtful, even aware of all these layers, but can't implement well because they are spread thin within the class.
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So maybe the class size is too big, the class levels are too diverse, and then a student walks out thinking Ariel's not for people like me.
00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.120
And if you haven't listened to that episode, it's the second one on the podcast.
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Ariel is not for people like me.
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We go a lot deeper into what can happen here and why it matters so much.
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So let me come around to my point.
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In the Ariel community, there is a tendency to downplay how much the instructor is actually holding, how much they are doing, how demanding it is, how complex it is, the risks involved, to the point that we say that if you know how to do the skills, then you're pretty much ready to teach, or do a weekend training, or a week-long training.
00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:51.279
That's all it takes to be able to teach Ariel, or you'll figure out the rest on your own.
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So this is ultimately a disservice to instructors to imply that it's so simple and straightforward that you can figure it out yourself, or you can teach after a weekend or a week-long training, and then you can fill in the blanks.
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And this can be used as a justification for lower teacher pay.
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If we all have this idea, this mindset we normalize that teaching aerial isn't like a real skill, like a real specialization, then we can pay a very modest wage.
00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:27.919
Now, this is a much bigger conversation.
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The economics of aerial studios and aerial education and how aerial instruction is perceived is absolutely not the only factor that goes into what they get paid, but it is absolutely a mindset.
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It's happening every day that people are not treating aerial instruction as a serious profession, and so they are not paying accordingly.
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And full transparency.
00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:03.440
When I started teaching Ariel, I thought, oh, I can just do this.
00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:05.679
I can, I'll just show them what I know.
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I'll just teach that.
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And I did, and I had a lot of success, and I had a lot of great reviews, but I also made mistakes and I also missed things.
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And there were students who slipped through the cracks because there were entire dimensions of the aerial learning experience that I didn't even know exist, that so many people today don't even know exist, that are factoring in to students' experience and success in class.
00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:43.200
It was only later that I was able to look back and see that's where I went wrong, that's what I missed, after I had the interpretive frameworks.
00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:53.519
And I think it's one of the tricky things is that it can feel like classes are going really well and feel like we're getting great feedback, but then some students don't come back.
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And then some students never sign up, which is a data point you can't see, touch, or feel.
00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:05.519
It's invisible, but it could be happening because a student learns about your studio.
00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:11.919
This can be even on your website, and isn't 100% confident that they will feel safe there.
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And I don't even necessarily mean physical, although that's relevant too, but they're not sure they'll feel like they belong.
00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:21.039
They're not sure they want to take the risk of trying a class.
00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:25.279
And then there's the injuries that are waiting to happen that eventually do.
00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:32.320
There's boundaries getting crossed, distractions in class, and you start to see it and feel it more tangibly.
00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:50.480
It doesn't have to show up one particular way, but when we are not working with the hidden curriculum as instructors, we're basically just not putting ourselves in as good of a position to have a great teaching experience, and we're creating limitations for our students.
00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:55.600
Better aerial pedagogy enables you to see what you couldn't see before.
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That's basically it in a nutshell.
00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.480
And that's being able to see things on the physical level.
00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:17.840
So noticing, you know, scapular mechanics in your students, noticing how they are organizing their core, and then there's all these other layers, like noticing if their nervous system is changing state, recognizing signs that a student needs more assurance that they are safe to try or ask a question.
00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:36.799
It's the most exciting change that I have experienced in my teaching over the years is as I brought in more of an integrative pedagogy and learning more about motor learning theory, the nervous system, neuroscience, deepening all areas of my practice.
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:44.799
This has made it so that I essentially see so much more in a single class snapshot.
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Because I have interpretive frameworks, I'm not just seeing the surface and reacting to it.
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It's made me more perceptive and it's made my teaching more sophisticated.
00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:59.200
And this is what I bring to instructors in the Bloom Aerial Teacher training.
00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:06.720
And it is so empowering and it is so cool to be running class and looking at it and starting to see.
00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:09.840
Oh, I know what motor learning stage that student is in.
00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:16.559
So I am going to hold off my cue right now, or I'm gonna go for it, or I'm gonna say this particular kind of cue.
00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:31.039
We're starting to see the dysregulation happening earlier and adjusting the class plan to support what the group needs to stay grounded and stay in success, knowing about what contributes to learning and shaping the learning environment around that.
00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:42.320
This is where we truly start to experience teaching, not as a hobby, not as this thing we do on the side, even if you do it on the side, but it really feels like a true profession.
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:46.000
And we start to experience teaching as craft.
00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.879
This is so exciting.
00:16:49.120 --> 00:17:01.039
It is so inspiring and so engaging when you get to that level of depth and detail in your pedagogy and in what you are interpreting in your classroom.
00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:04.400
I have loved teaching from day one.
00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:06.160
I think it's a blast.
00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:09.359
I absolutely love breaking things down for people.
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.319
I love moving around the room and problem solving.
00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:14.960
It has always been incredibly joyful.
00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:20.880
And I can say that just with complete clarity and confidence because that has been my experience.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:33.680
But as my pedagogy has matured and my teaching has become more sophisticated, it's given me this even deeper layer of fulfillment and meaning.
00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:45.839
And I mean, we were already pretty deep with that, but this other layer has really brought in a new dimension for me because it has helped me realize the significance of what I do.
00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:52.880
I understand at a much deeper level what I am holding for people and why it matters so much.
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And that is my vision for us in the aerial community is to really appreciate and respect the significance of aerial instruction, of what it is we are doing, the complexity, the demands, the risk we're managing, the opportunities we're providing, the intimacy with which we are working with people, the dreams that we are making possible, the new identities that we are opening for people.
00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:27.279
The way you teach can save lives, and it can change lives.
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:40.079
And that is why aerial instruction should be treated as a craft people deliberately study: motor learning, queuing, anatomy, psychology, risk, curriculum, communication, leadership, and group management.
00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:54.559
And teachers deserve to be acknowledged that they are holding all of that and that they are really exercising a very diverse and deep skillset to be able to successfully lead class.
00:18:54.720 --> 00:19:02.160
You are already doing more than you probably think as an aerial instructor, and you deserve to be recognized for that.
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:18.319
If you want to know aerial instruction in this way, you want to experience teaching as craft, you want to have interpretive frameworks to make more sense of your classroom, then you might be a good fit for the Bloom Aerial Teacher training.
00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:29.599
I've included a link for that below, as well as a free training, the aerial teacher upgrade, that breaks this down a little bit more, gives you a little bit more clarity on the certification.
00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:35.200
The fall session is open for enrollment, so be sure to check that out and reserve your spot.
00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:41.680
If you've made it this far into the episode, thank you so much for really spending time thinking about this.
00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:57.359
I think it's such a big and beautiful opportunity in the aerial industry to really think about how much aerial instructors are holding, how meaningful the role is, and the responsibilities and opportunities that it comes with.
00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:01.119
At the center of it all is the students.
00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:07.200
Being able to show up in a way that allows students to have a fair chance to succeed in Arial.
00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:11.279
And if they hate it, it's because they really just don't like it.
00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:23.680
It's not because it was too hard, it wasn't progressed properly for them, or something else in the learning environment that was getting in the way of them feeling like they belong and they can be successful here.
00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:29.119
I have no problem with a student who concludes this is genuinely not for me.
00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:31.839
You guys have fun, I'm going to do something different.
00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:43.680
But I do have a problem with a student believing that it's not for them and blaming themselves when what really happened was the instruction was missing something.
00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:46.160
That is why I built Bloom.
00:20:46.319 --> 00:20:49.119
I hope this conversation has been insightful for you today.
00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:53.759
Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you on the next episode of Between Believe.
