Let's examine two common time formats; 1 hour and 1.5 hours.
How I structure my 24 Qigong class?
The 24 takes 45 minutes to do when doing 8 reps at the proper speed. This gives 5 minutes at the beginning of class for a short talk, and 10 minutes for focusing on one move and teaching it. Actually, if it is more of a teaching class then we can do 4 reps, or break the set into three sections and focus on one section per class (especially in the beginning). I think this is an easy kind of class to teach.
How to structure a beginner's Tai Chi class?
We have a short 5 posture "points awareness qigong", that takes about 10-15 minutes.
Then we have something called tension and lightness qigong, which contains many tai chi moves (such as brush knee or wave hands like clouds) done as standing qigong movements.
Thirdly we have "five short sets of tai chi", and all of the aforementioned takes less than 30-40 minutes to do. This leaves 20 to 30 minutes to work on the 24 Simplified Yang form. I think overall that makes a great beginner's class.
How to structure a beginner's Chen style class?
We can start with the first two postures of 5 points qigong, which is essentially 1 or 2 minutes of wuji standing and then 10-20 reps of hunyuan qigong #1.
Since Chen style is a bit more martial we start with ya tui gong. Then we have a short set called "six kicks". Which is line kicking, six different kinds of kicks. This is a good exercise to get the blood pumping.
Then I teach "nine important movements of Chen style" -- this is a set of moves from the form, nine standing versions of moves like buddha's warrior attendant, high pat on horse, single whip, and so forth. This gets the students into a "chen style mood" and familiarizes them with the body shape. If I feel it is necessary we can do some extra silk reeling. The aforementioned takes around 35 minutes to complete. Then we can work on a Chen short form, which is essentially up to single whip, then rub with heel, then a kick, then elbow strike, then wave hands, then into the ending sequence. It's a good feeling short form, I think about 24 or 28 moves. That whole class is about an hour.
If I have an hour and a half, we can often add single movement practice, or work on things like partner exercises, or push hands. But for beginner's classes, esp. 1 hour, the time is pretty tight and I stick to the above.
I am posting this in the hopes that other people can share some of the lesson plans they have come up with. Anything interesting? Any tricks you use as a teacher to keep the class fun and light?