Colleen Cash

I’m certified to teach yoga and physical education. My classes blend ancient wisdom with modern research in neurology, biology, and psychology.

Fifteen years of experience teaching yoga allows me to pull from multiple traditions, including Vinyasa, Kundalini, Yin, Restorative, Hot, and Prenatal yoga. I practice Vipassana meditation and Yoga Nidra, and I enjoy weaving the wisdom from these traditions into my classes.

A freelance career in yoga instruction and freelance writing lead me to teaching children yoga in after-school programs. However, I noticed that too often only affluent families could afford my kids yoga classes, which were typically offered at private schools. Some children–particularly children of color in low-income situations–were less likely to access the incredible tools of mindfulness and yoga. So, I decided to be the change I wished to see. In 2015, I earned my Physical Education endorsement, allowing me to teach PE to kindergarten through 12th grade students in the State of Oregon. I began teaching yoga and mindfulness in Portland elementary schools that fall.

My ultimate goal was to create a physical education program that combined gymnasium-based traditional PE activities with studio-based mindfulness and yoga. In 2016, I found my dream job: Teaching yoga at Rigler Elementary School, a Title One (low-income) school in Northeast Portland. The following school year, I was hired to teach P.E. full time at Rigler. Over the years, I have advocated for and created an on-campus yoga studio where students can learn the amazing tools of mindfulness, including self-regulation, self-awareness, and compassion for themselves and others.

I teach PE and yoga to kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Each student receives one class per week in the gymnasium, where we practice outward-focused PE skills, such as catching/throwing, teamwork, and endurance. Their other weekly session of PE is in the yoga studio, where we learn internally-focused skills such as flexibility, awareness, balance, and more. Classes in both spaces are designed to meet Oregon PE standards.   

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a geek. My hunger for knowledge has led me down fascinating paths. Most recently, I’ve studied English as a Second Language (ESOL). Rigler is a bilingual school; every student there studies both Spanish and English. As a result, I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn Spanish as well as teaching techniques for English Language Learners. For the past two years, I have taken ESOL courses through Portland State University and last spring I completed a practicum in teaching ESOL. My endorsement to teach ESOL to K-12th grade students in Oregon should be official in the fall of 2022.

Having achieved my dream of teaching elementary school students yoga and PE in a title one school, I am now crafting my next big dream. My ESOL endorsement this fall helped me see the power of including speaking goals in specialists classes such as PE. I incorporated sign language to help students practice key words for narration, such as first, second, then, and last. I found this technique not only helped ESOL students remember the critical sentence frames, but it also empowered all students to exceed state literacy standards for retelling a story. In the next ten years, I envision pursuing my interest in mindfulness and language education by completing a doctoral degree. I aim to put my expertise in classroom management, physical education, mindfulness education, and multi-language education to work by teaching the next generation of teachers.