Get Paid to Build Your Yoga Knowledge & Resume

From Home, On Your Own Time, With Guidance

• Are you passionate about all-things-yoga?
• Does the vastness of yoga inspire and motivate you to want to know more?
• Are you interested in building your yoga resume?
• Would you appreciate having the motivation and structure to continue deepening your study of yoga?

We offer projects for approved applicants. All projects include a structured task, guidance, and a small payment for your time.

The Types of Work

We have two main types of paid projects: exams and research summaries.

Exam Writing

1. Review assessments for the yoga teaching subject matter you’ll be working on. (These are concise questions and answers that align with corresponding lessons.)
2. Choose which questions to use for exams. Determine a few to be true-or-false questions, and plan the remaining to be multiple-choice.
3. Then comes the hard part: create well-thought-out false answers so that the test-taker must demonstrate real knowledge to get the answer correct. The point is not to devise subtle, meaningless distinctions designed to “trick” the exam taker. Rather, the point is to create answers in a way that endeavors to get to the heart of the matter, and tests the absorption of valuable knowledge. (It’s also a valuable teaching tool because if a question is answered wrong, the test-taker will see a message. The message will be a teaching about that includes the correct answer, offering the test-taker an opportunity to learn while doing.) You’ll have plenty of lesson material to draw from to help you with this, but it’s still a bit harder than one would presume to write wrong answers that could be right!

Research Summaries

Research projects are somewhat like creating a college report or presentation.

1. Review the provided research and readings.
2. Prepare a report designed to support other teachers. The report will roughly follow the structure of lessons on Yoga Teacher Central.

The Support

You’ll get motivation and guidance to help bring out your best:

1. With our reading lists, deadlines and deliverables, you’ll be motivated to dedicate the time needed to develop your expertise in a topic you love.
2. Because you’re submitting a report required to meet high standards, you’ll immerse and apply yourself in a way that only happens when you’re committed to presenting your findings.
3. With our questions and suggestions, you’ll be inspired to be exacting and precise, and to draw meaningful connections… all of which bring you to a much deeper understanding than you would have had otherwise.

The Outcomes

It was a privilege to work on this project, and it has enriched my practice and my teaching so much more than I imagined it would!  I’m thrilled to take on another project! – Allison Broughton

(Allison sent us that unprompted comment after completing her first project. She was one of the first teachers to reach out to us after we announced the research and writing internship in September 2018, and she completed her submission later that month. In early October, her excellent work on the topics of Yoga & Mental Health, Yoga & Anxiety and Yoga & Depression was published with acknowledgement.)

When you take advantage of the motivation and guidance to do good work, you will directly support YOURSELF with:

• An increased knowledge base and inspiration for teaching and supporting your students.
• More expertise for building offerings using other delivery methods such as workshops, interviews, trainings, podcasts, retreats, etc.
• A job and published work to add to your resume and marketing materials.

The Basics

• Our standards and guidance will ensure that the report you provide can be published in our materials, and the report itself will become the property of Yoga Teacher Central.
• You’ll be acknowledged as a contributor and you can list the job and publication in your bio.
• And, of course, the experience and learning are yours to keep!

Add Your Personal Touch as Desired

• Beyond the basic job of researching and writing, you are more than welcome to take it a step further in any way you envision. You may wish to bring your personal touch and creativity with a unique story or poem, class plan, meditation, ceremony or anatomy teaching… via writing, audio, video or any format you desire to help convey the teachings.
• These unique aspects are yours to keep and use freely.
• If you give us permission, we may publish the unique offerings and/or we can direct readers to you.

It’s Not Easy, But It’s Doable

Rigorous Research

• We provide you with an initial topic summary, that in some cases may already be quite extensive. This is usually wonderful material – a really nice gift to get you started : ) but you must thoroughly study it. (For examples of initial topic content, see the links in Sample Content below.)
• In addition, we’ll provide you a reading/research list for further developing the content. This is also a nice part of the structure we provide, but depending on the topic, this may be a fairly extensive reading list.
• Depending upon the topic, you may be expected to consult additional resources such as your own books and workshop material.
• While your personal practice and teaching experience may be an invaluable foundation from which you begin this project, the work itself requires rigorous research and citation of supporting material for all assertions. While personal opinion may be occasionally included, it must be called out as such and serve only a supporting role.

Research Standards

• We require specific reference to the sources behind proposed teachings.
• Underlying assumptions must be clearly stated.
• Assertions are required to be logically developed and presented.
• We expect the inherent complexity of these topics to be addressed with care.

Clarity vs Grammar

• Clarity is our priority. We need your submission to contain crisp summaries and logical teachings. Thus, bullet points with summary statements are fine.
• However, you won’t need to spend a lot of time polishing or creating smooth transitions.
• If English isn’t your first language, or you don’t love grammar, that’s okay!
• We will edit for you.

Summary of Actions

Getting Ready

Sample Content

Since every topic is so different, the report content will take different forms. Here are a few topics covered in the public / free part of Yoga Teacher Central that can give you a sense for how topics are organized and how the content is summarized.

The Yoga Sutra: Introduction & Context

• Note how this topic is broken down into three key areas: About Patanjali, The Sutra Style and Sanskrit. We expect the internship summaries to be clearly organized and labeled in a similar manner.
• Each key area includes about 5 key points, all supported with expert testimony which is cited and linked. There are no opinions.
• Please note that each bullet point is simple and straight-forward. For the internship summaries, we do not wish to have a narrative around each point. We are asking instead that you summarize key points.

Asana Category: Backbending

• This is a good example of how we approach many topics.
• By using  extensive research, we can cover a topic comprehensively, in this case covering backbends from a basic introductory level including types to more complex alignment issues and much more.
• Perhaps the most important thing to note here is the organization.
• Note also the brevity of sentences under Physical and Energetic Effects.
• And as you’ll see under Contract or Relax the Glutes? we highlight industry experts and various perspectives on important topics.

Guidelines for Teaching with Themes

• As you’ll see in the Introduction, we endeavor to begin at the beginning and note potential benefits and/or stumbling blocks.
• Please note the summary of guidelines. We take care when covering “soft” areas within the “art” of teaching to offer specific ways teachers can learn and practice this skill.
• The section under “Teach What You Know” is a rare example of “opinions” for consideration. In cases where there is little offered in the yoga literature, we try to fill in the blanks with ideas for consideration. If you have unique ideas to share on your internship topic, we are happy to hear about them. But often, researching and summarizing will result in plenty of in-depth teaching support.

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