Your Strategic Teaching Plan: Creating Strategic Teaching Plans

We invite you to begin drafting a “Strategic Teaching Plan” — a high-level look at your teaching over a period of time, such as a season, month, or week. You can create a basic plan in less than an hour and see how it makes you feel as you use it to guide your teaching. Then you can build on it over time as you wish.

Here we’re referring to something different from an individual class plan. (For individual class planning, see the Planning & Sequencing Hub.)

With a Strategic Teaching Plan, you clarify your intention for a particular time period or multiple time periods. The plan may be designed to:

1. Balance the effects of seasons.
2. Honor holidays and observances.
3. Respond to particular conditions.
4. Guide students deeper on a topic, whether philosophical, physical or other.
5. Or, progress through a series of related topics.

Adaptability is Assumed

Most teachers have learned that even if they like to come to class with a plan, the situation may call for a spontaneous change. The information you’ll find here is based on the fundamental assumption that you recognize there is always a need to be responsive to the situation at hand.

On a related note, you can always grow your adaptation toolbox, and we provide lots of detailed support on how to adapt practices for various needs such as Adapting for Conditions and Ayurvedic Principles. The fundamental way that you can adapt for various needs is to know how practices build from a foundation through increasing challenge, refinement or subtlety. So, for example, it’s critical to know how and when to teach preparatory breath practices as opposed to more advanced pranayama, and so on. For such specific teachings, see Pranayama & The Breath Hub, Asana Hub, Meditation & Mindfulness Hub, Planning & Sequencing Hub or the Study Library.