Koren Paalman’s story of teaching teens yoga is powerful. She has been teaching a 100 high school students a year in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles for over ten years. She is a teacher we can learn from. Her story is worth the read.

YogaMinded is proud to feature Koren Paalman teaching her Belmont High School class in this downloadable video.

This interview by Christy Brock Miele was initially published in 2008. The interviewer’s remarks are in bold followed by Koren’s replies in regular typeface.

 

Tell me about your decision to do this work.

I did not really decide, the students did. I was teaching English as a Second Language while I was getting a Master’s degree from USC. I learned about a technique called Total Physical Response, a learning method that links body movement with language acquisition. I thought it was useful, but realized it would be even more powerful if the body movement was yoga poses.

When I came up with this theory, I tried it in the classroom. It was reallyeffective and popular; so much so that my students would chant “Yoga, yoga, yoga!” when I came into the classroom. I wrote my Master’s thesis on using yoga to teach English as a Second Language. Due to student interest, I proposed to offer a yoga only class. It was a smashing success.

So, that was the start to teaching yoga at Belmont High School.

Yes, I started in 1998 and I offered one class every day for credit. Students from 13-19 could take yoga instead of P.E. My classes had all kinds of students, from the newest freshmen to the seniors who should have graduated the year before. My classes meet (both then and now) an hour a day, five days a week for four months, a semester at Belmont. I have had to close the class at 50 students because I only had 45 mats. With so many students I figured some would be absent so there would be enough mats for everyone.

Three years later I proposed a second class so I then had two classes of 50 students every day. At one point I taught four classes a day but the politics of the situation limited me from doing this for long, and I wasn’t sure I could sustain four classes anyway. Teaching yoga requires a lot of talking, observation, and sheer presence with the students. I did not want to give up teaching AP psychology and health, since I believe they are an important part of a well-rounded education.

Currently the class is only open to juniors and seniors “in good standing” who have passed four semesters of P.E. already. It has changed to be a PE elective. There have been a lot of changes in the way the administration sees my yoga class. Considering that the graduation rate for our high school is only 45% and “in good standing” means passing all classes, you can see that someone was trying to close the class yet I still have a full class. Goodness prevails again!

 

 

Do you want to say more about the politics of offering yoga in school?

There is a lot of politics, in general, to working in an inner city public high school. The poorer the neighborhood, the more conservative the school is. The yoga classes caused a stir in the community because teens were leaving the traditional P.E. classes in droves. My class started out for P.E. credit and now it is for elective PE credit. Even so, I have a credential to teach P.E so I can teach yoga for credit. Additionally I have credentials to teach psychology, health and even English. Not a lot of high school teachers have more than one credential, but that’s what I needed to do to share what I love academically.

What about the parents?

 In general, they are very supportive. On parent-teacher night, many ask me where they can find yoga in their communities. Rarely do I have parents upset about their children doing yoga. In my eleven years of teaching, two students have actually been removed from class by their parents. That is not really a lot considering that I get hundreds of students a year. These parents mistook yoga for a religion, which it is not.

I personally have found that getting support teaching teens yoga is helpful. I’m wondering if you ever feel that way.

I have never had any, but I am curious and excited about being a part of a community of teen yoga teachers. I have learned so much being a member of the Iyengar yoga community and feel that it would be great to work with other yoga teachers working with teens. I’ve been in isolation in teaching teens, though not by choice.

Why do you think your teen students have taken to yoga so strongly?

I teach at an inner city public high school that is the poorest, most gang-infested neighborhood in Los Angeles. Because it is one of the most stressful neighborhoods, the students eat yoga up. Everyone knows yoga releases stress and they have a lot of it!

What does it take to reach this group of students?

There are several aspects:

1) Much of my energy is spent defending the yoga class to the administration of the school. I have always said that if I did not have a yoga practice myself I would have never had the patience to put up with it all.

2) Because this population doesn’t have access to yoga after graduating, I spend time teaching students how to build a home practice, which they should have anyway. Additionally whenever I can I pass out old yoga mats that yoga studios donate. I pass out photocopied sequences and talk about my home practice.

3) I am a very open and approachable person. When I first started out I needed to let students know I was teaching a yoga class so I went around to homerooms. The first day of the yoga class I asked them what made them try it. They said I seemed pretty “cool”. Teens make decisions very intuitively and they sensed I had something to teach they wanted.

4) I am extremely committed to this population, working with people of color, and in communities that are under-served. As long as I can teach them, I am going to. They deserve a chance to see themselves and the world differently. It is that that will bring about change in our city.

What can you tell us about B.K.S. Iyengar’s support of your
teaching?

I have gotten more support from him than I could have imagined. He not only helps me with my own practice but also reads accounts of my work eagerly. I send him pictures of my students and he loves them! He can see from the students and the room we are in the nature of what I do. He reads bodies like no one I know! Most people in the Iyengar community are white and middle class. He is happy when his teachers are reaching out to other communities because as he always says, “Yoga is for everyone.”

It was a sweet surprise to learn how much joy he gets from knowing Iyengar yoga is reaching poor communities and people of color but it is in line with the work he is now busy with. He is currently raising money to build a school and hospital in his hometown Belur, which is a really poor village in Southern India. I can imagine his smile. Those of us who teach teens are so tickled seeing young people embrace the practice. Of course, Iyengar is thrilled… he’s spent his whole life teaching young and old, alike.

Do you teach with props?

I brought belts back from India. I have 50 blocks and I have sticky mats which were donated from various yoga studios. We did not have blankets
for years but now I do have one blanket per student.

Do you start them in a seated pose?

I start them lying down. They start in either Savasana, Supta Baddha Konasana, Supta Sukhasana, or Prone Savasana. Prone Savasana calms the nervous system very quickly. Starting this way allows me to take roll and talk to students with issues or concerns. It also provides a bridge from their normal classes to the yoga class where expectations are different. When I call role, they simply raise a limb. I get to know them pretty fast.

With 200 names to learn, and you do need to know their names, this provides another way to recognize them (by their body parts).

Say more about knowing their names.

I do not use their names to correct. I use their names to praise. You get to know who wants feedback. I use their names to greet them and to direct them. It is part of teaching and essential way to have a very good relationship with them.

Do you have any one on your side in the administration?

Yes, but I also have one constant nemesis. It is not personal, it is protective over the physical education department and a possible aversion to alternative healing modalities. 

Do any teachers do your class?
Yes, they put themselves at the back of the room.

You had mentioned to me that despite the fact that you have students who learn differently or have bodies that do not do yoga as well, that your students are amazing to each other in class. How do you create the yoga atmosphere that “they are amazing to each other”?

I believe in them and model an environment of mutual respect. They see this and do the same. I have wonderful students! I have never had to talk
about treating people well.

Tell me more about your students.

Right now I have mostly boys in my class. There is a lot of “boy energy”. And as I mentioned they are juniors and seniors. They are young men and act accordingly. They give each other a hard time and wrestle a bit, but it is always done on good fun, never as a way of picking on someone for learning differently or being less able to do yoga. They are a cultural mix of students as well, approximately 75% are Latinos, 20% are mixed Asian, and 5% are African American.  There are also all sorts of personalities, from jocks to rockers.

And you’re white.

Yes, and they see a white person who is different from their idea of white people. They see me for who I am. I establish authentic relationships with my students and we
enjoy each other and see past cultural differences.

How do you handle the boy energy with asana?

I teach a lot more Sun Salutations and strength-building poses. Also the boys need their hips opened so we do that. I really adapt things according to the energy of the group that day. I pit them against each other sometimes. I may say, “I wonder who can do this pose best?” I have found that a little competition gets them to work harder. I know that may not sound yogic but we are having fun and they like it. The girls, however, do not need the competition to work hard. This is true formost subjects in high school. Typically girls work harder.

Every other Friday I do a 35 minute guided Savasana. They are addicted!!! That is how stressed out they are. They are all not sleeping enough. They walk around exhausted. They need time to relax deeply. Every other Friday, I do partner yoga. My boys work with other boys or girls and everyone learns how to be comfortable physically.

Do you have any words of wisdom on becoming a more effective teen yoga teacher?

Relationships with your students are the key. You must know them and genuinely like them to be effective. And then you enjoy teaching them as
much as they enjoy learning.

Study their energy in the beginning of class. Use a standing pose as a barometer— are they working hard or being lazy?

Talk them about health, philosophy, psychology and life in general. Share yourself with them. Be yourself. Teach them to love themselves.

Koren, thank you so much for taking the time for this interview.  Your teaching is an inspiration and I believe this interview will be helpful to many.

 

Koren Paalman is a Junior Intermediate level certified Iyengar yoga teacher with a BA in Psychology from UCLA and an MS in Education from USC. In 1998 she started the first yoga program for credit in the Los Angeles Unified School District where she taught Yoga, Health and Psychology classes at Belmont High School for fourteen years.  She currently teaches adults and youth at  the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles (www.iyila.org) and several Yoga Works locations. For more information about her work visit: www.inventiveascent.com .

YogaMinded is proud to feature Koren Paalman teaching her Belmont High School class in this downloadable video.