My final piece

I have decided today in class to take the advice of one of my classmates and have my final piece be me teaching a short yoga class to my English class. I think this will be a good way to showcase what I've learned and present the information in an interactive way. I will also have a little booklet that I will make to recap on poses and also describe some of the other information I have found out from my research. So today during class I watched many instructional yoga videos during the time we had to work on our projects. I took notes throughout the poses/videos I liked and I am hopeful to incorporate the poses I observed from the video today into my yoga class. The only thing is I hope people in my class are up to do yoga for my final piece. When the parents come to see all the projects, I think this is when I will present the videos I have taken of different people performing yoga. I am happy I have finally figured it out because as much as I said I did, I never really had a clear understanding of what my final project would take shape as. I had many ideas but now that I know the one solid and concrete idea, I think it will be easier for me to get work done in order to receive my end goals. Outside of class I watched more yoga videos and took more notes. I think next time I have class, I would like to watch a few more videos and then also get done part of my book. Reading my book is the only part I haven't been able to keep up with but I hope to get a lot more of it read in the near future. I'm just really busy this term so it's hard to find time to read it.

Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley Review

Yesterday at 8:00 am I took the hot yoga class I have been dreading to take at Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley. I didn't think anything could be much better than the Union Study class I took but I was wrong. Immediately upon, arriving I was greeted by all the staff and they seemed to know I was new to the study so they gave me a brief synopsis of the class I was about to partake in and showed me the way to the studio. I stepped inside and immediately had to take off my sweatshirt due to the heat. The room was enormous and so many people came to take the class, it was almost full. I will talk about the yoga soon but I was a little surprised to see people many times talking loudly and getting up and walking about. It was not as controlled of an environment as Union. The teacher didn't do anything about it though. In total we went through 26 different poses and two breathing exercise. I have to say that each pose was extremely challenging for me. I think part of this was due to the heat. It really prevented me from performing to the best of my ability. I had to stop many times to take a drink of water but after leaving the studio, I can't say I have ever felt better in my life. For those who have never tried hot yoga, I highly suggest it. The teacher moves at an accessible pace when taking into consideration the heat. The positive energy the instructor had really helped with my negative energy of being nervous that I'd get dizzy and nauseous. But I didn't once feel any of the 'symptoms' that I have read about online.

For today I have constructed more yoga poses to film for this week and I believe I have a very hefty schedule for filming people. I feel so relived to have actually participated in yoga and it makes my project seem even more 'real' for me. I like that I am having these personal experiences that I can related back to what I've researched. I intend on researching more tomorrow outside of class about some different yoga aspect. 

Sorry Mr. Igoe :(

So I spent about half English class today trying again to get Mr. Igoe's video from my phone to my computer. I think I have tried everything. I've uploaded it to facebook and tried to take it from there, i've emailed it to mulptiple email accounts, I've texted it to someone else, I've plugged my phone's USB into my labtop but nothing has worked! If anyone knows how to do this, please please please let me know. Maybe it's just my phone that won't let me but I have tried to many different things. If no one knows, there's a possibility I might have to videotape Mr. Igoe again if he's okay with that, sorry :/ Unfortunately my camera does not want to charge so I recorded Cat, Maddie and Victoria today using Photo Booth on my labtop. These poses were fairly simple but I was surpised that it was difficult for some people to perform them so it took a while to find three people who could semi-do them. I think it worked well on my labtop because this way, it is already there and accesible. I should learn to not count on electronics. When I got home today, I planned on spending thirty minutes trying to find something out about yoga. I ended up googling why people perform yoga and found many many different responses, ranging from answers about improving sex to preventing injuries in sports. I like researching yoga and I think I should incorporate more of that into my project. I am so excited to see other peoples' projects tomorrow and I hope it will inspire me to get going and possibly to give me new ideas.

Opinion of Presentation and Preparation for tomorrow

Yesterday we ended up giving presentations to the class and I was, to my dismay, picked to present. I felt ready but also pretty nervous that it would be too short but I think I ran into the opposite problem. I read a story from my book and showed a video clip and then went into my powerpoint, trying to cover a lot of the questions. I found that I would cover a slide and go into great depth and then move on and in the next few slides I would encounter the same topic that I had already discussed. I thought that it went well overall but then again I didn't know exactly what needed to be said and done to be considered "good". I am so relieved I got the presentation over with and I'm very excited to see what everyone else has been and will be doing.
Today I planned on spending 40 minutes outside of class finding three new yoga poses and it took me the allotted amount of time. I had to make sure to find one that doesn't require a lot of knee bending because one of the people I'm recording tomorrow can't bend her knees so that was a challenge but I think I found the right one. Also I finished looking up the poses and read ten more pages of my yoga book. This was the perfect amount for me to read tonight. I also am charging my camera right now so hopefully I will not run into technical difficulties tomorrow when I film. I am excited to have long block English to get some more filming work completed.

Presentation Preperation

Today in class I planned on reading my book because I thought our presentations wouldn't be until thursday and friday but I found out they were and I decided it would be the best use of time to work on my presentation. So I spent the entire class making a powerpoint and brainstorming ways to make my powerpoint last as long as it should. I'm a little nervous about my presentation because it seems like it will not be quite long enough because I can't possibly think of how I can talk about yoga for ten minutes. But I'm planning on relaxing, taking my time and saying all the thoughts that come to my head about my senior project. So I decided to read tonight for homework and I did this for about 45 minutes but was very distracted because I knew I had to write a paper for history after I read so I sort of rushed through the reading without paying close attention. I am anxious to get back into filming but I don't think I will be doing that until Thursday. I just feel like I want to get everything done ahead of time but I know I can't do that because I have to pace myself. Also for homework I went through my presentation and what I will say but I know it will probably be a completely presentation than what I practiced when I do it for real.

Video Clip of Nikki for Presentation tomorrow

Review of Union Studio

I walked into Union feeling pretty nervous because I had no idea what to expect. My mom had been there before and said she loved it so I was excited to see why but nervous because I figured I'd be the least prepared in the class. The room was small, relaxing, and the lights were off. About ten other people, including one man, made their way inside by the time the class began at 8:00. They were all doing warm up stretches as I was sitting on my mat, unsure of what to do. The yoga instructor entered right on time and introduced herself in a very soothing voice. She began the class with instructing us through pretty simple poses while giving us instruction at the same time. She was great by telling us how to avoid injury and how to fix our wrongs. We did a lot of breathing exercises and I realized by the end of the class, that most of the other people there were beginners as well. Although I've done yoga in the past, this experience was very different than my other experiences. I found the poses to be a little challenging at some points, but not impossible. The cool part was some of the poses we did in class are some of the poses I have been teaching to people for my video. The hour and fifteen minutes went by quickly, with about the last 10 minutes having us do Shavasana- which is a pose of total relaxation. After the class, I  realized I didn't focus on anything outside of the room but was just focused on doing yoga to the best of my ability. Although I have nothing really to compare this Union Studio class to, I would say it was a great experience and the perfect class to kick into my routine of going to a yoga class once a week.

Another good day

I've decided to post today about what I accomplished yesterday and I will hopefully do a write up of the yoga studio tomorrow. But yesterday was also very successful for me. I planned to record two people during class and one outside of class and got this done very easily and efficiently by recording Marc, Jake and Mr. Igoe. I thought it went well and they all took direction without hesitation. I did have to change some poses on the spot and find new ones because I realized the ones I found are challenging and I should stick to poses that aren't easy but doable. My camera decided to die so I also had to change to using my phone to record for Mr. Igoe and I still can't figure out how to put that video onto my computer but hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do this. I am proud that I was able to adapt so easily to plans becoming disrupted. I feel really good about where I am and how much I have done in my project. I attended a yoga class this morning but I will talk more about that on tomorrow's post.

Sucesses

Today has been a very successful day for me. I brought in my camera to record people and set a goal of teaching 2 people yoga today. I planned to spend all of English long block on this today but it took me much quicker than I expected! I got two people's recording finished within 20 minutes and then I had the rest of the block to get done a lot of reading for my book. I was smart last night and wrote down three different poses for today just in case and I was able to videotape a third person during m/x. It seems that it helps me better if I plan to do less work and that way I can get a lot more done! Outside of class I hoped to spend roughly 20 minutes researching three new yoga poses and was also able to get this completed in about 20 minutes. I'd say overall, today has been the best day for me regarding this project. I know I still have a lot of work to do but hopefully I can pace myself and accomplish things I will be proud of. I really enjoyed teaching people yoga and then having them perform what I taught them. I also liked giving them tips on how to perform to the best of their abilities.

Just a picture from today:

Researching the poses

We didn't end up having class today but yesterday for class, I aimed to get my 25 pages of reading done and didn't end up accomplishing that so instead I finished the rest of the reading today and I was very relieved that I could do that. I looked at online sources to find the yoga poses I would have people perform. I found two that I will be teaching to two people hopefully tomorrow. I think I will explain the pose as a voice over when I go back and edit my video. I will text the people I will work with tonight for tomorrow and hopefully get outside to record the yoga. My only problem is that tonight I need to find a device of which to record the people with. I am thinking my camera as of right now, which should work well except my camera has a history of dying. I've learned from my own self that it can take me a while to get started but once I do get started, I can perform pretty quickly. I enjoy the book I am reading because it teaches me a lot of differences about yoga back in the day and now. I like the author's perspective on yoga. I need to start videotaping quickly because I want to have something to show for my midterm presentation but I also don't want to do too many people at once because that is when I start to get unorganized so I will just start by doing two people tomorrow.

Time Trapped

Today I think I planned on biting off much more than I could chew. I just got my Yoga book yesterday and decided in order to finish the book in the allotted time that I would read 25 pages today which I believed would take about 30 minutes. I also planned on using 50 minutes of class to research yoga poses but I ended up forgetting my computer so I decided I would read in class and do the yoga poses as homework. But the reading took all class and I just spent a while finishing it. I think it's taking so long because I'm really thinking about what the author is saying but so far I am enjoying the book. I have already learned so much in just the first 25 pages. What i found most interesting was how a man locked himself in a small container for 40 days without food or anything and was able to survive. This man was a true 'yogi'. I later learned that they did this by breathing only about 3 times per minute before they went into the tight space. This yogi who spent 40 days might be a myth but I still think it's fascinating that yogis were thought to be able to do the impossible. And I think it's interesting that it's changed immensely today and you are not a magician if you are a yogi, but rather just looking to get some excursive.  I will plan to start researching yoga poses tomorrow. From today I have learned that I need to allow myself more time because I can not always do things as quickly as I may think I can.

The Interview Questions

Today was a weekend so we didn't have class but I had a goal of coming up with questions to interview people with and it actually came pretty easily to me. I spend about half an hour jotting down a ton of ideas for questions, knowing that I don't have to actually use all of them when I talk to people. I am excited to put their answers in my video and I believe it will be a good way to show what our community thinks about yoga. I will ask the people questions who will be learning the yoga and video tape their responses but I will also include people who are not learning the yoga. I am nervous to learn all the poses because I want to teach them right and I think I should probably write them all down to have with me in case I do forget. It will remind me a lot of studying for a test.  I have to pick up the yoga book tomorrow and possibly begin to read it but we'll see how that goes. For about 15 minutes today I had a struggle with whether or not I want to just take pictures of the people doing the poses or do a video. But I finally decided I would do a video because some of the poses are ones that flow from one to another and I will enjoy the challenge of making the video a lot more than if I were just to do a slideshow. I've noticed that I've been getting anxious about my schedule and feeling overwhelmed but when I sit down and think about everything, it makes it all easier to breathe. Maybe I should start doing yoga now!

Scheduling!

Yesterday I had a goal of scheduling which yoga places I would visit and when. This was much harder than I though it would be because many places had times I could not attend or walk-ins weren’t allowed. I spent almost all class doing this and a little bit of time outside of school scheduling. I finally have my schedule developed for visiting the yoga studios. I will be visiting four different studios. I’m very excited because each week it appears as though I will be doing a different kind of yoga, starting with ‘Beginner Yoga’. A few people have offered to come with me to the different studios and I will be happy to take them up on their offers. Outside of class, I spent about 30 minutes finalizing the schedule and calling this one place who I had called during class but they hadn’t answered. I just wanted to ask if they had walk ins because they’re a studio that does ‘hot yoga’ but they said they didn’t. I was happy because I ended up finding a different studio that does. I actually thought scheduling would be easy and take at most 15 minutes but there ended up being a lot of different things to consider regarding the classes and which ones to attend. I wanted to begin my interview questions but I didn’t accomplish this because I was busy the whole time. I will try to get my questions done tomorrow. I really hope I can stay on the schedule I made because it might get confusing if I don’t. Lastly I ended up changing my book because I found one I am more interested. It’s called “The Science of Yoga” and I will pick it up on Sunday. I hope to read it in about four weeks and for right now this seems like plenty of time but this could change. I am on a college visit this weekend so I will hopefully be able to get my next blog up tomorrow night.

Studios I will visit:

April 20- Union studio for Beginner Yoga at 8:00 am

April 27- Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley for Hot Yoga at 8:00 am

May 5- Yang’s for Vinyassa Yoga at 9:00 am

May 18- Robin’s Yoga – Kind of yoga and time is unknown for now. I have to call back in May.

Stressed about Yoga

I have decided to narrow my project down a little more and not only to focus on basic yoga but also on the idea of practicing yoga to relive stress. We didn't have class today but I spent time in the library writing my proposal, which I found to be relatively easy because I think I know exactly what form I want this project to take. I also found a book today that I will be reading in order to dig deeper. Tonight I will work on my calendar and plan everything accordingly. My only problem in the future will be using other people because sometimes it's hard schedule wise so I know I will have to let people know in advance. I also need to find a way to get my hands on a device that takes videos. My camera can do it if I can't find a video camera of some sorts. I felt very proud at the end of my proposal because I felt like I had a solid understanding on what needs to be done and when. I will spend some time organizing everything before I dig into anything, which I know will help alot. Lastly I have decided to name my project, "Stressed about Yoga". :)

The Discovery of my Topic

I am very relieved because I finally decided what I want to do for my senior project today. I was debating this idea before but I couldn't think of what my schedule would be if I worked with this idea so I overlooked it but kept it in the back of my head. The topic of my senior project is Yoga! This idea has evolved because I decided how I wanted to incorporate different aspects of the topic into a project. In class today, we started with a partner exercise that helped give ideas of what others are doing and to help come to conclusions of how to approach your own topic. I worked on my proposal a little bit and brainstormed what exactly I want to do. I plan on attending yoga classes at different studios and giving reviews, researching either through the internet or a book on if yoga does relax people and teaching yoga to people and having them demonstrate the poses on video. I am anxious to get started and delve into the world of yoga :) Tonight, I have been working on my typed proposal that is due on Friday.