Final assessment ‘ring of fire’
December 16th, 2006
The final Vajrasati teacher training assessment
To be awarded the Vajrasati Teacher training certificate, students must:
1/ Have successfully met with all the criteria as highlighted by the Vajrasati conditions of graduation document and be demonstrably aware of points one to six therein.
2/ Compose and teach a Pranayama class to be assessed by senior Vajrasati member (re assessment marking below)
3/ Teach a set class of asanas from syllabus to be assessed by a senior Vajrasati member (re assessment marking below) Note that the class will be drawn from a selection of classes and the teacher will be handed the class list only at the beginning of the assessment. Hence particular focus on improvisation and creativity
4/ The trainees will given a written exam comprising of a selection of questions from previous written and on the spot tests from the course as well as questions extrapolated from homeworks. This will include questions on Vajrasati, asanas (Sanskrit pronunciation and translation, anatomy, eight limbs, yamas and niyamas and the satipatthana sutta (sutra)
5/ A final assessment will then be held with other potential graduates where asanas will be taught from selection from the course.
Students will be marked on
A/ observation
B/ clarity of instructions (language)
C/ adjustment- appropriateness, sensitivity, method and reason
D/ correct use of equipment
E/ anatomical understanding
F/ classroom management
G/ exemplification
H/principles of yoga
One comment on “Final assessment ‘ring of fire’”
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[…] This month sees two new graduates from the Vajrasati teacher training school as well as a new intake of students… April is a time traditionally associated with birth and the Easter festival often falls in this month. The Christian message of the death and resurrection or rebirth of Christ follows an older lineage of rebirth festivals at this time of year. The Easter egg is not from the Christian faith, and is a natural and obvious symbol for birth, both actual and potential. It is a symbol of birth on many levels. Birth is usually the result of contact on some level, whether the birth of a being a feeling or an idea. The Vajrasati teacher training program is a point of contact, between an individual and yoga, with little else between. Over time, this relationship creates the energy for an egg to be created, which is the potential yoga teacher, waiting to be born. The last stage of the training course is a series of assessments with feedback sessions, homework and a written exam, which is known for several reasons as the ‘ring of fire’. It is through this ‘warming up’ that the new yoga teacher is eventually born. It is out the other side of this heating process then that we find two new teachers emerging, Donna Shilling and Anita Hall. The contact with yogic ideas, the chance to experiment, constructive feed back, tips and discussion all are mainstays of the training, and also continue once each teacher comes through there passage of entry through the teacher training to the Vajrasati teachers’ community. The Vajrasati yoga school is still developing and this year we hold our first Vajrasati teachers’/trainees’ yoga day as well as our first exclusively graduates’ development day. Graduates have had input on the web site through book reviews, tips on savasana and the much relished letters from India, as well as organising their own yoga morning workshops. They also attend one another’s classes, pop back as guests to the teacher training sessions and as students to the end-of-term assessments. They also participate in the buddy system, which works to connect the Vajrasati trainee and graduate communities. It is in many ways more clear, therefore, to see the graduation not so much as leaving the training community but an entry into the graduate community. Vajrasati yoga, if it is to realise its full potential – to support, diversify and expand, the continued development of each graduate – must find ways to initiate and support events and activities that lead to a sense of shared knowledge and intuitive understanding, with a strong focus on accessibility. As long as Vajrasati adheres to the principle that the group grows with the individuals within it, and not that the individuals have to limit themselves to the current understanding of the group, then Vajrasati will be able to retain its creativity and its recognisable identity. […]