PRACTICE TEACHING HOURS GUIDELINES 

Practice teaching is the best way to get the most out of our courses and prepare for successful final assessment. The more involvement you have with a faculty member in supervision of your pre-assessment teaching the better. Think of it as quality control and direct and personal feedback ensuring completion of assessment and graduation with the deepest knowledge of the work and the course. 

Comprehensive programme – at least 250 hours of practice teaching across the full apparatus family and taking a client through a training programme from day one to wherever you get in the system with them. This should include clients who are fit and healthy, clients who are new to exercise and clients with common issues for presenting to a Pilates studio.

Module programme – at least 50 hours purely on the Mat or Reformer, less on the smaller apparatus. The key is that you are confident teaching all of the exercises to a variety of clients and can problem solve when things don’t ‘work’ straight away.

Practice teaching may consist of:

·       Co-teaching with a faculty member if available

·       Conducting sessions independently with your own client, supported by a faculty member. This could be in the format of a zoom session with a faculty member per ten client hours. Or a zoom private session where the faculty member watches you teach your client and provides feedback after the session has concluded. 

·       Contributing to future ACADEMY weekends by assisting the faculty and being ready to co-present an exercise or offer tips to first-round participants

·       Running a weekly low-cost community class for teachers that allows you to practice teach the work at a high level (either mentally +/- physically)

Please note: Any private sessions for support and feedback can be booked and paid for using our Bookings Essential platform. Casual sessions are priced at $130 and bulk purchase attracts a discount. 

ASSESSMENT OUTLINE

1.     Progress physical assessments 

2.     Pilates teaching assessments 

3.     Written Case studies 

4.     Written Learning tasks

Progress physical assessments

Certification requires all participants to demonstrate proficiency and understanding of all exercises in the syllabus. This provides quality control to ensure that as the teacher, you are able to execute and explain exercises as part of your own practice before passing the information on to your client community.

Note: You will need to execute one assessment for each of the major apparatus certifications; this can be done face to face or by Zoom. Allocate 90 minutes per assessment which includes up to 30 minutes feedback designed to guide your future learning.

·       Mat      

·       Reformer

·       Cadillac

·       Chairs

·       Barrels

Pilates teaching assessments 

Course participants are required to participate and pass an assessment to demonstrate their capability and suitability to teaching the work. This will involve a teaching simulation of up to 90 minutes to show your progress in the work and demonstrate your level of understanding of how to best work with a client. You may choose to use your own client or ‘borrow’ a course participant. This can be done IRL or over Zoom.

Comprehensive participants - You will need to complete one assessment for Mat and one for Reformer. A third, combined assessment includes the Chairs, Cadillac and Barrels.

Module participants - You participate in an assessment for each apparatus you wish to be certified in.

Written Learning tasks

These are designed as a soft assessment and learning process which aim to build you up and enrich your learning. Each task asks you to go beyond the surface and consider how you look at the method, the body and how to get the most out of your craft for your client.

You will receive feedback on each task to guide future study and support assessment readiness.

All tasks need to be submitted and passed in order for certification.

Written Case studies

Comprehensive: Eight outcome-driven written client case studies will assist you to work with the full apparatus family and help you to join the dots in the last stage of your teaching apprenticeship

Module : Three outcome-driven written client case studies will assist you to work with your certifying apparatus and help you to join the dots in the last stage of your teaching apprenticeship.

PILATES TEACHING ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Essential knowledge in assessment 

·       Name of each exercise

·       Order of Mat and Reformer including sets / reps

·       Apparatus detail e.g. springs / headpiece up / down

·       Safety concern/hazard management and mitigation for any apparatus

·       Hands on and alternate ways to cue the exercise

·       The parts of each exercise so that if a client can’t work one part, you can modify or even change apparatus to help develop them

You need to show

·       How to move a client through a workout at any level

·       How to coach / teach to enhance their work

·       That you ‘know your stuff’ and are comfortable in any teaching environment

·       That you are able to take direction and guidance without being thrown

·       Compassion and support to your ‘exam body’ 

·       Agency to suggest why / how an examined exercise may be inappropriate for the ‘exam body’

Teaching style

·       Possess vocal authority and vocal technique

·       Stay on the front foot to avoid being tripped up by assessment mistakes

·       Excite and inspire a client to reach for more or to soothe them as needed and temper their enthusiasm to avoid over-doing it

·       Go beyond the manuals and teach with intuition and vibrancy