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Overly Helpful Students
I just recently started teaching and wanted to get people's opinions on something that I know is a common problem as I used to do it too (and now that I know what its like to be on the other side of it, I totally understand why they got so annoyed with me). Overly helpful students/student teachers are students that try and teach or are constantly giving corrections to other students during classes.
Before I start, I'll give a little background on how things work at my studio. Pretty much all of our classes are drop in and to make it so that everyone who wants to come can come we made them mixed level (Most of our students are university students so sometimes there are night classes and to make it easier on them, it was decided mixed level would work best for their schedules as most of the classes were already beginner and upper level students were coming to them anyways). Sometimes classes end up being all beginner, and other times its about half and half. Since classes are drop in, I cannot plan out of class because I don't know who is going to be there (which I don't have a problem with, it helps me to think on my feet!).
When this happens, I give everyone the same stretches and warmup but then once we start pole stuff, I'll give the upper level students something different to work on from the beginners because I know what its like to get tired of constantly doing spins and floorwork. I'll ask them to work on something while I go demo a move for the beginners so they have a bit to work things out before I watch them. While I'm demoing for the beginners, some students decide that they want to work on other moves and help each other out. With some its a simple "Oh, just straighten that leg a little more" and others its a "This is how you do this move" and they'll straight up start teaching in the middle of my class. I'll come back to check on progress (and after both level demos are done I'll scan the room watching everyone and give corrections/advice and such) and I'll see that some upper level students are actually working on what they are supposed to be working on while others are completely ignoring what I told them, doing something else, and showing other people how to do something else. It isn't really a problem with the beginners because the most they will do is tell each other what leg goes in front of the pole on a fireman spin (and only while we are working on that spin). With the upper levels, they are working on more dangerous moves and I don't want people showing improper technique and someone getting hurt because of it. That and I feel its disrespectful when you come to class and blatantly ignore what I am trying to teach. I already give people options and go with the majority (ex: would people like do to splits/back stretching, calisthenics, or go straight into pole work) and I'm always open to requests to work on certain things. My top priority is everyone's safety.
I plan on talking to these students after talking to the owner and seeing how she wants it handled then going from there. I want to do my best not to make them feel called out or humiliated because when I was talked to about it, it wasn't handled the best and I almost left the studio after. How do fellow teachers handle these situations and how do students feel about these kind of students? Feel free to give advice and swap stories.
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18 Replies
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How many students do you have in class and do they have to share poles?
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If it were ME, I'd tell everyone that they should be working on what you advise only and to not work on new moves without you being there to correct/modify. No working on moves you have not demo-ed first! Also tell them that, due to insurance reasons, you need to be the one making corrections.
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There are 6 poles in the studio and we allow a max of 12 students so if there are more students than poles then people have to share (the number per class always varies. Sometimes there are 12, sometimes there are 3). With how affordable the classes are, there should be absolutely no complaints about sharing but sometimes the fact that they are on the same pole seems to make them want to teach each other. I definitely plan on saying for safety and insurance reasons not to do it because random students trying to teach is definitely not covered under any insurance policy.
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http://aerialamy.com/blog/2012/01/20/the-10-commandments-of-a-pole-student/
Having been an instructor for a short time, this is kind of where your inner bitch needs to come out. I can see helping if someone struggles with getting a move that was demo-ed. Sometimes another person explaining things a little differently or saying "you know, I had that same issue and this is how I overcame it" is what makes it click. I have had students where no matter how many times I tried to explain something it just was not computing. I will take what the other student said and keep it in my bag of tricks for future reference. That is entirely different than working on something that has not been shown. I personally would not be that rude unless it was a time in class where you were able to work on other things and the instructor maybe taught that in a previous class. Back to inner bitch mode. It is difficult for some people to take command of a classroom but it is essential. If you do not have the respect of your students then you are nothing more than an advanced student. Start the discussion during your warm ups. Just state your rules of the class. Do not single people out.
I also can be a pain for some instructors because I have been active on forums since the beginning and have taken workshops and classes with so many different people and have a lot of knowledge of moves and their "tricks". There are moves that I simply will not do and I make it known. But I am also the type of person who can look at a move that someone is struggling with and see that their hand needs to be elsewhere or they need to turn their hips a little. I will offer up this information. But I would never say show someone how to invert who has never inverted before. Stuff like that needs to be nipped.
If the rules of the classroom are communicated and there are still issues then the owner needs to be made aware of it and he/she should be the one to make the correction.
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I agree very much with Chem on this one – I have been an instructor for years (just not pole) and what I do is give my 'rules' at the beginning of my classes – especially if I have new students. My rules are things like; while I am talking, please pay attention to me and me alone; if you are having trouble please ask me, I am here to give you my expertise; if you are tired from a technique and need to take a break for gossip, do it while working on something else – you are only cheating yourself; please do not show other people what to do unless I have given you express permission to do so (and those of you know who you are) as what I am teaching has a lot of idiosyncrasies to it and to miss some out may result in injury… etc. And then with this, I do over time, choose those students who I know understand the mechanics of something, and I have shown them privately how to teach that one thing, to help with others having trouble- for the exact reason that Chem said (different people learn from different techniques) but also, the amount you learn from teaching is quite amazing as well. Giving verbal permission to a select few to show/help with a small number of things may help keep the advanced students on 'topic' (you would be amazed how people are suddenly more respectful when they are given even a tiny piece of authority), but also, you are making it clear that those without your permission are absolutely not to show things.
Just a thought, it has worked for me 🙂
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Explain to everyone in the beginning of class that there are safety and liability reasons why students do not help other students.. Period.. Also say…even though it may seem harmless, it could potential be very dangerous for the person you think are helping. You might not know that they have a previous injury…blah blah blah. To the advanced students. These are the movements elements we are working on today…if for some reason you cannot or do not want to work on this please ask me for something else to learn. I need to remind everyone that this is not open studio time.
I just recently told a client in my Pilates Aerial Hammock class that she couldn’t come back.. She free styled most of the class and it Really made the other students mad that she was so disrespectful and distracting in the class. It brought the whole class down. She had an excuse for everything.. I had to dumb down the whole class for safety and give everyone a free session…including her. I would say shw was an extreme version. If I had a lot of beginners in the class, she would have been a very unsafe client. Luckily…my other students…just tried to ignore her -
All good advice ladies 🙂 there is one girl though that I've been warned may be difficult. A friend of mine works with her and the girl is disliked because she's undermined other instructors (they teach gymnastics) and she's a know it all. That's why the saying it to the group at the beginning advice is probably the best. I already know if I talk to her one on one she is gonna argue
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Ok… First I want to say, and this is totally NOT bashing studio owner or instructors, but there is a current studio that I use to attend. It is a large studio with about 14 poles and they offer all drop in classes. The owner has always been worried about volume and quantity VS quality. I personally HATE drop in studios like this because I've had a very bad experience with the same problem with students instructing other students, AND I WASN'T EVEN THE TEACHER! The teacher was on the other side of the room talking to one student. I was in the middle of the room with beginners and intermediates, and there was a first timer. One girl was trying to teach the first timer how to do an elbow stand into a cross ankle release. I listened to her explain the move to the other girl without even knowing the terminology (this is another thing that DRIVES ME NUTS) The girl demonstrated an elbowstand first, but didn't do the cross ankle release. The first timer tried to kick up into an elbowstand, but was struggling. Thankfully she listened to her body, and stopped. The other girl went on again about it, and I chimed in and said, "That is a hard move, especially for someone's first time." The first timer was clearly struggling and felt uncomfortable. The other girl snapped at me and said, "NO It's not." And proceeded to do it again to show the first timer. Ironically, the girl ended up missing the pole and falling on her head… All I could do was laugh at her out loud and roll my eyes… I really couldn't help myself and I think pole should be instructed and taught progressively like Veena's method and elbow stand is not the first move you learn and I even said it in a nice way and was only trying to help…
You will probably always encounter this problem since its a different group every time and if the studio owner doesn't make this known as one of her policies. Maybe signs in the office/lobby will help and maybe if it stressed on the waiver and verbally when students first sign up?? Is the owner active on facebook with her business? Maybe she can stress this issue interactively as well, most people are bound to see it… But if the owner is not too worried about it, this will be a recurring issue… Sadly. And the owner of the one in my story, isn't worried about it… She sells herself short by constantly running cheap living social specials for volume.
Thankfully, there is a very knowledgeable, safe, STRONG poler from Ohio named Laura. Chemmie knows her 😉 She was off the grid with teaching for a while to improve her own skills. I plan to start going back to her once she has a set time for class again.
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We have a 9 pole room and 6 pole room. We only allow one lady to pole. All Drop in classes. Our classes are Beginner drop in or Intermediate Advanced drop in. We also have a slow season and when we are slow we only use our 9 pole room as the smaller room can not be cooled efficiently in summer ( our slow season) and this gives us several mixed classes.
We have learned some tricks to alleviate this very problem you are talking about. 1st, we always have an approved apprentice who HAS to be our mixed class, ( or the owner of the studio or another teacher) we have two or three of these a week. The apprentice is training to teach, she is there to help the teacher. Teacher instructs her how to work with beginners as teacher works with intermediate students. I am often there floating around watching how class goes. So, we always have 2 instructors. Actually one teacher and one apprentice helper, or me.
To make these classes easier, we make the mixed classes have a plan that can work with beg and adv students, like Pole Boot Camp, a special workshop like inversion workshop or a Cardio boot, or climbing workshop. In boot camp every one is doing the same thing with variations on spins and climbs, class is divided and teacher leads at front of class demonstrating beginning moves while advanced students know how to already advance such moves. Basic climb for beginners, advanced climb for adv students and so on. Not much new is taught in these mixed classes advanced students get taught new moves in their own advanced class.
An inversion workshop will have lots of things related to inverting, ab work, crunches on pole for beginners while intermediates can advance the crunches. Begin with strength training and move on to Beginners lay on floor and bring legs up to pole to learn proper leg placement. Advanced will be inverting from floor or up on the pole. Maybe some hand stand work, but what ever is taught that day depending on who shows up everyone is doing the same type of move at different levels. This way the whole class is doing the same thing.
A climbing workshop is run the same way, we find this works a lot better than everyone doing something different.
We have had to separate our int/adv from beginners. The mixed classes all the time just don't work anymore once you get some advanced students. This can make it hard on a studio having more classes with fewer students in them. But the health of the student, and teacher student relationship works a lot better. They also get more attention with a teacher and owner floating around the back of the studio and one lady per pole.
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I should add the apprentice already knows what to teach. She already knows all the levels of a move from beginning to the advanced version. She is not being taught how to teach in these classes. She already knows if there is a climbing workshop she helps beginners with a very basic pull up a basic climb, while the teacher is working with advanced students working on an advanced climb and so on.
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We have no office/lobby area. Its literally just one room with 6 poles. Its what allows us to make the classes so affordable. There also are no sign ins either other than when people sign a waiver their first time coming. I think I'm just going to announce at the beginning of each class while we are stretching as a reminder. I also gotta remind people to be on time. For some reason people think its okay to walk in late. I understand when its a complete newbie because our location is a little hard to find but for regulars, they should know. When I was a student, I wasn't a huge fan of the drop in part other than the fact that it meant there were more class times I could make.
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Even if you post signs…which I recommend, people won’t notice them…lock the door after a certain time and hang a sign out.. Class in session.. So they can’t come in. They only be late once.
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First big warning…your students are not ever covered by any insurance plan to assist with teaching, even if you call them apprentices despite any training you have given them. So if someone is injured in your class because of a student helping, with or without your approval, you may not be covered by your liability insurance.
Of course if they did it without your approval and you can demonstrate you've regularly had control of the class I would GUESS that it would go better for you if there is a lawsuit.
That said…take control of your class. As Chemmie said…inner bitch needs to come out. Sometimes students get overly enthusiastic and slip up and give advice. Sometimes they are outright teaching in your place. My students know from the start that it is against the rules to teach another student or help them in class. They get a reminder if they "slip" up and do it…they get a much sterner warning if they are full out teaching.
And as for calling them out in front of others – they are teaching and undermining your authority in front of the class room so it would not be inappropriate to call them on their actions when it is occurring.
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Well maybe the term apprentice is not a good one, these apprentice's are paid teachers. We do have them also help out in classes. This puts 2 teachers to 9 students, It's pretty safe and beginners aren't doing anything dangerous. Teachers with years of experience teach intermediate class. I use the term apprentice because they are helping in peculiar classes but they teach regular beginning pole. My teachers are covered under my insurance whether they teach at my studio or some where off premise.
We do not ever let students help each other ever. It is not allowed, Teachers have to go through lots of training, and continue training.
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Does your studio have open pole or other supervised time when students are allowed to jam out? Tell them to save it for then!
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