Meghan LeCuyer

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“Easy Twist” Yoga Pose

This morning I decided to wake up and start my day off with yoga. For educational purposes, this week I decided to use FaceBook. FaceBook is probably one of the harder sources I’ve tried to use so far. It mostly kept directing me to yoga groups. I was able to find some groups in my area which was exciting! Once on FaceBook I found a page called Meditation Foundation. Under “yoga” there was this video: 10 Minute Morning Yoga Full Body Stretch. I found the video to be very helpful and one of the better videos I have watched so far. This video didn’t introduce me to any new poses but new variation of poses.

The “Easy Twist” yoga pose is not so easy after all! It requires lots of balance and I am actually quite proud of myself with how well I was able to hold the pose. I’m not sure I would have been able to at the beginning of my journey. So, yay me!

Last week I wrote about how I enjoyed the “Thread the Needle” pose. This week, I got to try the pose again, but with my one leg sticking out to the side. This made me use more balance, but I enjoyed the pose all the same.

It is hard to see in the picture, but in the “Side Stretch,” my left leg is crossed over my right, and my whole body to curved towards the right to stretch out my left side and vice versa for the right side. The pose is simple, but effective for a whole body stretch.

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“Side Stretch “

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“Variation of Threat the Needle”

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Some may argue that TikTok and yoga do not go together, however TikTok can be used to learn how to do yoga! Which is exactly what I did for this week. It took some searching to find a good TikTok video to use but I decided on this one by natalieb_yogi. I chose this particular video because it gave me the names of poses, showed me how to do the poses and well as a proximate length on how long to hold each pose. It was basically a very condensed version of a YouTube video.

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I have done the pose called “thread the needle” a couple times now and I really like it. I found it really helps to stretch out my back and shoulders, which get tight with me sitting at my desk all day doing homework. My other favourite pose from today was the “childs pose.” I started by doing the pose with my arms stretched out front of me, then moved them right and left to stretch out my sides

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Learning from TikTok was okay, but I prefer longer videos. A few of the first videos I watched didn’t really give me much info on the pose, the creator just did the poses themselves. I know the point of TikTok is to watch and create short videos, but it doesn’t always make it the best learning platform.

Before this class, I had never used twitter. I knew what twitter was, and one of my best friends uses it, but I was a beginner at twitter. Now, however, I am slowly starting to figure it out. One of my biggest faults is I keep forgetting to use hashtags when I tweet posts! Not a big deal, I know but it would still be nice to remember. Before using twitter, I had no idea it could be used as an educational source. I just thought it was the place where rich politicians argued on the internet. But now I’m seeing how it can be used as a place to share educational resources as well as collect new ideas for the classroom.

I’ve pretty much followed any page that has “teacher” in the username and a few of the bigger pages have followed me back which is really exciting. While I use many online sources, such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and snapchat, I hardly ever post on my pages. It’s usually only a couple times a year if I do. So using twitter everyday has been a learning curve for me.

I think in the future I want to continue to use twitter, just not as much as I am now. I think I would use it to share activities that my school or classroom has done. I have seen many teachers using twitter as a place to share their Truth and Reconciliation journey. But like many online resources, twitter is only great if used correctly. I do see myself using twitter in the future for educational sources, but I won’t be tweeting at the same level I am right now.

Who knew yoga could be so difficult? Definitely not me! My sister does quite a bit of yoga and I always bug her when she says its hard. Because yoga isn’t that hard right? It’s only yoga. Well, I was wrong. Yoga can be very hard and it’s like a full on workout ( I mean not really, but it seems like it to me).

I used two different tools to aid my learning journey this week. The first thing I had to do was download Chrome onto my computer as it seemed like there were very few options for  Safari. I’m actually glad I learned how to download Chrome because I am more familiar with it and like it way better than Safari. The first tool I used was Distraction Free YouTube. I found it very helpful because I wasn’t looking at at other yoga videos but focused on the one I had selected. Looking at other videos often makes me feel overwhelmed at all the different types of yoga there it. The second tool I used was Lightshot – it took a screenshot of my screen so I can share it with you guys! I had to crop my original image so I could insert it onto my blog, but you get the idea. The only thing on my screen is the YouTube video I had selected to watch!

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Distraction Free YouTube I think would be helpful in the classroom because students don’t get to see any other videos that may be distracting and they don’t see what I (as the teacher) may have looked up previously. I think ultimately Distraction Free YouTube would be best if it was implemented on all school computers, so when students are using the computers, they will hopefully get less distracted. It also cleans up the screen and makes it look that much more aesthetically pleasing. Within the SAMR model, Distraction Free YouTube fits into the Augmentation section. It’s not redesigning the task but helping as a tool to aid learning. It can also make YouTube easier to navigate without all the distractions.

I think Lightshot has many uses, especially in the today’s world where everything is online. Lightshot would be the most beneficial in online classrooms. When doing an online tutorial, the teacher can use Lightshot to screenshot their screen so the students can see what their screen should look like. An example would be navigating a website when trying to find something specific. Lightshot also fits in with the Augmentation section of the SAMR model. It is a great tool used to make learning more beneficial.

Now onto week 4 of yoga…….

I am finding it easier to manage my breath when holding poses. When I first started I really struggled with breathing, I would get into a pose that was hard to hold and I would forget to breathe. Seems silly, I know. Then I would release the pose and I would be gasping for air.  I did do a couple sessions that focused strictly on breathing and I think that really helped.

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Out of the poses I did today, this one was my favourite. It was easy to hold and I could really feel it stretching out my hips. Ideally, I should be able to bring my legs all the way to my chest, but that was not happening! Maybe after a couple months of steady yoga I will be able to do it.

I chose to use YouTube this week, because it would work best with the tool extensions I had chosen, and it’s personally my favourite way of learning yoga. I didn’t do Yoga with Adriene this week, but instead I used this video of a different creator.

I didn’t like it as much as Yoga with Adriene because this video was a little more rushed and this instructor I felt like didn’t talk me through the poses as much. However, it was still a productive session of yoga.

Have a good week to everyone who is reading this,

Meghan.

Last week was my first week of yoga and I am overall proud of how it went. On Wednesday, I did a combined lower back and hamstring video. I was able to do most of the poses with relative ease, but my form could get better. my goal is to strengthen my hamstrings so they aren’t bent in poses like downward dog. Also last week I did a session of Equestrian Yoga with Adriene and it was more difficult that I was expecting. Halfway through the session I had to pause and take a breather. Normally I give up when I get to this point in a workout, but I preserved and finished the whole video.

Today, I started my second week of yoga and I decided to use Instagram. I can already tell that I am not going to like it as much as YouTube. I used the image below to guide me through my session. I did like how it gave me the names of poses, but in the video I am told how to do the poses correctly and often given words of encouragement to keep going and finish.

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Here is a picture of me doing the chair pose. It was like doing a wall sit without the stability of the wall. However, I really liked this pose and I think I will be doing it more regularly.

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I also did the tree pose! Personally the tree pose is my favourite pose (mostly because it is easy to do). I was a little wobbly getting into the pose, but once I was in form, my balance was really good!

Between Instagram and YouTube, I like YouTube better. YouTube gives me the sense that someone is doing yoga with me and it encourages me to keep going and not give up halfway through. I’m finding yoga to be as much mental as it is physical. I just have to believe that I can do it, and then I can.