Teaching B1 on Zoom By Margaret Olmsted ~ (Nov 2020)

In October I decided to give teaching B1 online a try. I had no idea if this was going to be a good idea or a bad idea. I heard that Anna Teeples from Nashville wanted to teach a B1, so we teamed up. At the FOI I met Claudia Gebhart of Austria who had done the B1 apprenticeship in January but had never had a chance to do yin because of Coronavirus and I invited her to join our team. I really love that on Zoom we can teach with anyone anywhere.

Promo:

• Anna created some nice promo pages we could send to our own mailing lists.
• The class also was also in the weekly class mailing from the TCF.
• We ended up with 32 students, about 24 of whom were new.

Payments

• We’ve been charging $40 for 4 classes and free for repeaters. Students can pay by Venmo, Paypal or check.

Tech work

• Anna started out doing the tech work, with some help from me but after about 3 classes it became clear that we need a 4^th member of our team – a tech person – so we could focus on teaching and not on changing spotlights! We asked Michael Barnhart from Portland to join our team.
• Some suggestions:
  • Be sure everyone is using the latest version of Zoom – this is really important!
  • Anna sent out some guidelines on how to use Zoom
  • There will be some confusion in the beginning.
• We often have the spotlight on Claudia from the back and either Anna or me from the front. We also found that sometimes one of us is spotlighted from the side for a different perspective. And Anna has a foot cam which the students really like. With 3 of us we can also take turns watching the students in gallery view and see what the students need. And we can face in different directions during rounds.
  • If students don’t have the latest version of Zoom then they won’t be able to have the split-screen view.

Challenges

• A challenge for us is not always being able to see their whole body. Not everyone has a good enough camera. And, if they are far enough away to be seen, they can’t see us! So sometime we all get close to the camera and look at the arms or the hands.
• Because they are always turning their heads to see what we are doing, we have sometimes changed their “front wall”, so that when they turn and step to ward off right, for example, they will be facing the camera. I anticipate doing the same thing when we turn to single whip.
• No hands-on adjustment! This lack of physical contact and the use of touch to convey relaxation is a real loss. So we make sure we let them relax into the positions for a bit. We have used guided relaxation and have asked them to imagine us putting our hands on their shoulders and helping them to relax. We also had them try stroking their own arms to deepen their relaxation.
• Telling right from left on Zoom is not like looking in a mirror. For the last class Anna brilliantly suggested we all tie something around our right arm and leg. Some used scarves. I used a strip of white tape around my black arm and black pants. This was very helpful! We also suggested that they put blocks or pieces of paper around on the floor so they remember which way is front/back, left/right.
• No social time! It’s been strange not having time for socializing before and after class so at our fifth class we asked them to stay 15 minutes longer. We broke into two smaller breakout rooms so people could introduce themselves and share any feedback with us. Students commented that they liked
  • The recordings of the class.
  • Our teaching method and how we break it down
  • The foot cam
  • Our patience with them and with Zoom’s limitations

Conclusion

• Teaching this class is really fun. We know we will lose some students but that always happens. Learning tai chi is not easy, and is harder on Zoom.
• We are enjoying being creative in our approach.
• Next week, in our 6^th class, we will get to single whip. I will keep you updated on our progress and any other tips we come up with. I would love to hear from others.