Day Two - Look FM, No Hands!

He did it, so why can't we? No reason. On my Skype last night with a mentoring client (members know who), we explored her recent group teaching experiences. She had three regulars, then a newbie turned up, so she focused on basics. "How was that?" she asked the regulars at the end. Their response: "We didn't get enough hands on." Oh dear. Students think that way when you teach them to think that way. Before Alexander, innocent. After Alexander, hooked to "hands on". Really, sometimes students talk about it like it's a commodity: "Oh, he's got good hands - try his lesson." Students get hungry for a hit, then teachers get trapped into the Alexander–is–an–experience culture. You may as well go back to 121 (one to one) lessons, because group lessons based on that premise are not scalable. When group lessons are not scalable, you do not have the means to expand your business. This is why you need to be set up your groups differently. It's not about getting an "Alexander experience" it is about "thinking about moving" which is an entirely different culture to create. Students do not need "hands on" from you to learn in the group setting - that is no longer a requirement. It's nice if you do, not imperative that you must. Go back before tables, before chairs, before whispered Ahs or HOBOC. Go back two centuries, when all you had was a young man who had used his mind to fashion an entirely new way to recite his Shakespeare. This was Alexander in 1893, before he had taught his first lesson. It was all thinking then, all talking then, all about explaining what to do to get his same experience. Group teaching is a journey back into the very origins of the work. How To Build The Culture That Supports The Premise of Group Teaching For your own peace of mind, you must first get clear on a basic question. [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 39 other teachers and students. Join now for less than the cost of one lesson - and get 30 lessons in return this month!]

The Question A further step towards clarity is this: what is your job description? My version at the moment is something along the lines of:

My job to is help others discover and play with how they are moving towards what they want to do. Or: my job is to create the conditions that encourage people to discover how to move towards what they want. This is an endless exercise, and there are no right answers.

Reading other people's description will also support you to bring forth the clarity of purpose you need before you start teaching in a group. Share your simple, one sentence job description to our group (or in your note book if you are too shy): https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/ I say "one sentence" because you need to have a handy catch phrase while teaching. For example, most words of my simple description have a unique meaning to me. The words "help others" in my sentence mean to me: "How are they co-ordinating their activity? What is their co-ordination plan? What is their activity plan? What is their purpose?" I could expand my one sentence into an entire book. However, boiled down, I can still say what my job is in one sentence. Can you? Getting to that one sentence will cause you to discover and clarify any confusions you have. This clear purpose will support you again and again as you move into teaching groups. In any moment you have confusion - and this can happen often - recalling your one sentence job description renews well co-ordinated and focused teaching of your group. When you start to worry that "I am not doing enough hands on" you can ask your Self again "What is my job here?" This clarifies what you are doing so you can get on with it again. You can make an alternative definition for your Self when teaching groups. If you treasure "hands on" then it might serve you to do this. One for when your are teaching in groups, one for when your are giving 121 lessons. Why not if it serves you? Look FM, Still Touching! Finally, "touching" (as I prefer to call it) is an integral tool for teaching groups: if you are hearing that my advice is to stop using your hands, let me adjust your idea immediately. I always use touch as a teaching tool in my groups, but intermittedly. I aim to offer every person some kinaesthetic information, but not a continual blast of it. My bias in group teaching (which is all I do) is towards thinking (talking) combined with small doses of laser-focused touch designed to bring confidence to my students' ability to organise their own co-ordination. How do you do that? It's only Day Two!