How To Teach Groups - 7 Important Ways To Increase Your Effectiveness

This post describes an online course for Alexander Technique teachers and students on how to teach and market groups. It is running in November 2013, than remains available after that to anyone who joins my online coaching group. You can join here now: http://atsuccess.com/membership-plans My journey with group teaching began in London back in 1980 when I formed YAAO with Duncan Woodcock to run evening classes. (YAAO stands for Yet Another Alexander Organisation). Duncan and I were totally clueless, but because we both had experience of working in the theatre, we wanted to find a way to translate teaching Alexander's Discovery in a group setting. At that time, we had virtually no models to guide us. Since that time till today, I have gathered a mountain of information on this topic, and now teach exclusively in groups, and have done so for many, many years. During this online course, my goal is to download all that I know into an actionable plan for you to implement in your teaching situation. To gather a group, to teach a group, and be effective at both of those.

7 Key Techniques You Need To Activate In Your Groups

  1. Put Desire at The Centre Of Your Lesson The image you may have is that "I have to think up what to do," but one of the secrets to successfully running groups in Alexander Technique is to give that job to your students. First you create a themed group to attract people, then you give students the job of coming up with activities and questions to drive learning in the session. Part of successfully achieving that involves honing these tools for your teaching kit:   2. Start Asking Questions About Your Touching Touch is one area that is unique and special to our work - it is the key innovation that Alexander created in his teaching pedagogy. It is so extraordinary that, as a teaching method, it takes over some lessons. I once used to carry the idea: if I don't touch them, I am not teaching Alexander Technique. Today I see how arrogant that is in undermining a person's ability to realise their own co-ordination through their intelligence, just as Alexander did. So these days I take my hands off a lot, and ask questions. During my course I will explore: What kind of questions do you ask? What do you do with their answers? How can you develop a group exploration around these questions/answers?   3. Show How Thinking Can Generate Experiences The way I used to teach was to give the experience first, then help the person come to understand it. 121 (one to one) chair work is great for doing that. I even have an email from Walter Carrington where he describes his teaching approach exactly that way. However, in groups you fundamentally do not have time to deliver intensive experiences to everyone who attends. You need to become effective in communicating ideas that students feel they can effectively implement on their own. You will explore: What kind of ideas? How do you present them? How do students use them? What experiences can you expect them to have? What do you do with these results?   4. Use Language As Your Second Pair Of Hands With thought and application, language is another precision tool you use in teaching. Listening to how your students speak about what they understand they are doing is incredibly revealing (once you start to ask). Syntax and vocabulary, used effectively, offer you another way to deliver experiences to your students in large batches, not just "one at a time" So how do you illicit this information? What do you do as it is expressed? What words are you catching? How do you transform them?   5. Co-opt the Group As Teachers Of Each Other You can see another person better than you can see your Self - isn't that often true? You can use this phenomena to co-opt each of your students to be observers and supporters of each other. For that to work effectively, you need a strategy from the start - a way to warm them up to this role, both in the way you introduce the workshop in your flyers, to what you say when you start. However, harnessing the minds of the whole group can exponentially push the learning beyond even your own initial idea of a session. I have had this happen to me innumerable times, and when it happens it is simply wonderful. I learn just as much as my students, if not more.   6. Make Your Learning Fun A new biz slogan these days is to "gamify" your work, which is to say: make it fun. Putting in meaningful games that both entertain and teach is easy to do, once you get clear on the methods of thinking up new games. I've spent many years, while teaching the ProCourse in Japan, giving my Self the task of coming up with a new game every lesson. My game had to connect to the theme I was exploring, be fun and involve everyone in a non-threatening way. I learnt from that: games are infinite. There is no limit to the number of new games you can invent. Over this month, I will explain how easy they are to create, and when and how to introduce them.   7. Using A Yes Plan Back in London, I learnt a two step Alexander Technique style: inhibit, then direct. I used to teach my students this way, but then I came to understand that inhibition is the activity that doesn't let the old habit take place. When I started thinking this way, I discovered that if I gave my students a yes plan - something they could think about as a positive rather than a negative - it was more effective. A simple way of saying this is: when you move your head forward and up, haven't you already inhibited it going back and down?

For Less Than The Cost Of Lesson You Can Learn How To Dramatically Increase Your Effectiveness in Teaching Groups

That's some of the juice I will be dispensing during our month long workshop together. A workshop like that with me, in person, would cost hundreds of dollars. However, for this whole month, it only costs you $48 - the price of a monthly membership. In addition, during this month, I will be linking this process of group teaching into how you are building your business. Each of the points above is also a component of a marketing plan for the very same group workshop. If you want to learn more, sign up here: http://atsuccess.com/membership-plans When you participate, you also get an electronic copy of my newly edited book on my three month course: 12 Steps To Creating A Successful Alexander Technique Career. So when you join you will get that, access to past courses (including the recent 30 Day Challenge), access to teaching videos, and lots more. I will also bring you into our closed Facebook cmmunity where there is a lot of leeway to express ideas and ask questions without fear of the Alexander police! Some of my members says that this is the most powerful component of the learning - being able to throw around ideas and get feedback for the other 30+ teachers doing the course. If you're reading this and it is already past the start date (November 1st) you can still join up. My course is online, so reading it later does not reduce it's effectiveness in supporting you to become more effective at what you do. Just join immediately and start reading from Day One. Sign up at this link: http://atsuccess.com/membership-plans