Day Seven - Desire is Essential Within Group Teaching Technology

In 1976, when I started my training in London, I discovered that I had a choice of what I could do with a teacher: "What would you like to do today?" was asked often of me… Trouble is, there were only two answers: chairwork or tablework. After three years, I got so bored with this, that during my final 6 months of training, I played cat and mouse with my teachers - hiding out in the kitchen, going for a little walks - so I could avoid having one of these precious "turns" that many others felt entitlement towards. No thanks. I don't know what happens nowadays in London, but in Japan, some BodyChance students go for months without directly working with a teacher. Are they learning? You bet they are. They are learning the most important, most fundamental lesson of all: This work is about taking responsibility for your Self. I personally don't mind if a student comes for a year without volunteering to work in a group class - one day they will get it. I've seen it happen many times, and it is a joy to watch their awakening unfold. Finally it dawns on them that the teacher is not going to look after them, until they look after them. Call it tough love, but unless a person wakes up to this fundamental proposition, I don't think my job as an educator in this work can move to much else. It isn't something you sort out before you start teaching a lesson, it is integral to the learning process itself. Admittedly, I will do a bit of sneaky encouragement: deciding we all explore walking, then including the reclusives of the class in that. I still value touch as a communication tool, and if truth be told, I am a bit Catholic around that. It's a conditioning I am not sure I can overcome, because I am not even sure I want to. It's helpful. However, this kind of tasking to students is near impossible in 121 teaching - your student can not really avoid you. Instead, they may demand table turns. You get stuck in a routine of giving them every lesson because God help you if you ever miss it out. I was in situations like this for 7 years, until one day - after meeting Marj - I put my foot down. There were two ways I deftly put my foot down: first, I began teaching in groups; two, from the very start, I didn't offer tablework in 121 lessons. Occasionally, when they heard about it from friends, they wistfully asked me but no, I told them, that's not what I do. This is about waking up, not lying down. I won't go on about this, as I am sure I will offend too many people if I do, but even Alexander was quoted as saying, upon seeing many of his students laying in semi-supine "They are just lazing over there." This is according to Erika Whittaker, who personally related this story. Why didn't FM do tablework? Before my point is lost by ranting on again about tablework, please remember I respect your right to do that, and I am sure you have found a way to get constructive thinking going, where I couldn't. I just don't like the image it gives to people about our work - we are not masseurs - which is why I get exasperated when I see all these Alexander Technique websites full of people laying on tables while being "worked on" by a teacher. However, I once watched Marj give a table lesson - after we badgered her to show us - and I was impressed at how she made her students think - they moved their own legs while she only guided them. Of course it's possible. I never did that, but I know many other teachers can and do. Great. But please keep pictures of it off your website. The point I am really making here, for the final time before moving to the next exploration of group teaching, is that your FIRST lesson is a group setting is this: students set your agenda, not you. Put yourself in the position of leading from behind - get students to pick activities, drive the learning and therefore shape the contours of each and every session you offer. How Can I Get My Students To Lead [NOTE: This second half of my blog is a paid area describing ideas and exercises (to design and market groups) which are explored in a closed Facebook group together with 43 other teachers and students. Don't miss all the discussions - be part of a new community of teachers intent on building their AT businesses. Get 30 lessons this month, but join now for less than the cost of one lesson.] Over the years I have devised a several means to get reluctant students participating despite their confusions and fears. Here's some of them…

Rabbit Trick - Pulling An Activity Out Of A Hat A standard way I have of training students to think up activities on their own is put them in groups, and get them to talk about the things they do in their life. Especially for a new group - it can be important to orientate them to the kind of education you are offering. This is especially true in Japan, where hierarchal learning is standard. Hand everyone a piece of paper before you break them into groups, then ask to write down their activity on a piece of paper. Mix regular students with the new ones - gives them a chance to be educators. Now pull out of your hat (or basket, bowel etc.) and collect each person's paper. As you teach your group: 1. Simply pick each student by pulling a name out of the hat. Give them the option to pass - then you throw their name back in for another draw - so there's still a sense of them choosing each time. The drawback about this method is that you must be sure to get through the whole lot, because the keen person may be the last one you draw out! 2. Alternatively, the hat can be a back up plan. Ask first is there anyone really keen who would like to jump the cue - making it clear you may not be able to get through every activity in the hat. Then if no-one wants to jump the cue, you revert to the rabbit in a hat tick. A Day In The Life Of Your Student This can be a fun way to fill an entire session: spend the class going through typical activities of a day. Task them to get out their notebooks, then jot down what they are doing at various times of the day. Lead them through it: waking up, breakfast, travelling somewhere, how they fill the morning, lunchtime, afternoon - you get the idea? Each period they make note of the activity they are doing, then you move on to the next one. Or you just ask for volunteers as you work through the timeline. On their list, students will end up with quite a lot of activities, now all they need do is choose one for class today. You then teach along the same timeline - starting in the morning, ending at night. This could carry on over several sessions. In can be fun, especially if some of them do interesting things. It's a way to bond people by sharing their "typical day" as a lead in to the group. What Makes You Sore This is a "pain list" exercise, which can work with the right kind of group. Start them off by making a list of every ache and pain they experience regularly. Now they must do a little “detective work” by figuring out what they do that most irritates each pain. Some people will resist this, insisting it is the “same all the time.” Don’t buy into that. Tell them that is a physiological impossibility – pain fluctuates, they just haven’t noticed. Critical to this method is focus – it is not about “getting rid of the pain” but it’s about “exploring the co-ordination plan of the activity that seems to precede the pain.” Share some of your ideas with the group… https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/