Rising to the occasion

To support my colleagues in presenting Moshe’s method online, demonstrate the potential of video conferencing to enhance our teaching, and give us a chance to meet together, I offered two Zoom meetings about The Art of Teaching ATM® Online this past weekend.

In the few days between announcing the meetings and conducting them, 384 teachers of the Feldenkrais Method® of neurophysical learning from all over the world registered for these meetings! From prior experience, I expected only some of those who signed up would show up. There were 80+ participants on Saturday. Yesterday 100 people were in the meeting from the beginning, which is the capacity of my Zoom account. That meant anyone trying to join in after was, unfortunately, not able to connect to the meeting.

Only after the meeting ended did I find the flurry of emails from folks expressing their disappointment and frustration at being locked out. If you couldn’t get into the meeting, I’m so sorry you were not able to attend!

Because of the timeliness of the subject and the interest, we’re making the recordings of yesterday’s meeting available immediately. The links below are public, you do not need a Mind in Motion Online account to access the recordings:

The Art of Teaching ATM Online

Part One — before the breakout groups
Audio-only
Video

Part Two — after the breakout groups
Audio-only
Video

Though the material is focused on teaching ATM, it is certainly pertinent to other somatic practices and to teaching in general. You are welcome to share the links with colleagues and associates.

In case you’re wondering about what happened, here’s what one of the participants wrote:

Dear Larry,

Thank you for the opportunity to join your zoom meeting "The Art of Teaching ATM Online."

I'm Nicoletta Amato, I finished my training in Florence in 2017. Sorry for my bad English, it's simple for me listening and reading English, it is less easy to speak or write with the same fluency and depth of thought (feeling) that I have with my first language.

I was very skeptical before trying to teach online and I had to change my mind about the potential offered by this tool: I appreciated the fact that I could FEEL, almost the same sensations in me as when I watch my students live. I also appreciated the possibility of modulating tone, verbal indications and timing according to what I see.

I have taught 4 lessons so far. I have learned, thanks to the Feldenkrais Method not to be afraid, to accept small or big challenges. I have learned to ride the wave of uncertainty, making it a learning resource. With this feeling inside me and the hope of being a model to cope with changes, I invited my students to start this adventure, adapting them together to the new mode.

You said you were curious about what we learned from this online meeting. I learned new practical things, and, above all, I rediscovered ( I connected again with) the importance of LEARNING. Teaching is like a dance, you said. For me (I was thinking about it yesterday), it's almost a need. I don't know how ethically correct it is: it corresponds to the need to make deep contact with other beings. Then, through this contact, I can transmit a dimension which is a human contact. Another sense of being together. This is why I really loved how often you repeated the importance of being a community that learns and learns to learn. "breathing together", "having a sense of a wholeness", "giving the feeling of inclusion", these are some words that touched me.

By narrowing down the field of learning, as far as I am concerned, I would like to learn to "disappear" during the lesson. I found very helpful your advice to listen to the audio recording you get at the end of the lesson. Usually, I notice that I have a tendency to speak a lot. When I am in the role of a student, in post-training or peer exchange, I also like the quality of the teacher to "disappear", to give space for feeling and let the attention wander.

I would like to add one more thing, which I felt especially in this meeting. There is something very subtle that goes through seeing and listening to a person. I probably became more sensitive due to the situation. I felt that your words came straight to the heart, and moved something emotional in me.

Thank you for all
Nicoletta

Here is a list of a few resources you might find useful:

• Parisian Feldenkrais® teacher Isabel Audinot created a French summary of yesterday’s meeting, which you can access here.
• The book I mentioned — A Soprano on Her Head by Eloise Ristead — is about dealing with stage fright, the inner critic and much more. Having had the good fortune of attending one of her workshops as an undergraduate, I love how her writing conveys the wonderful way she taught in person.

• Fellow Feldenkrais trainer and business coach Allison Rapp recently recorded her conversation with wonderful Australian Feldenkrais teacher and online coach Angela McMillan about dealing with tech challenges and with finding clients on social media. Allison added this video to the other resources — including the recording of a conversation that she and I had — that she makes available here.
• The folks from the Embodied Facilitator course made a recording of their information-packed How To Do Online Workshops – A Free Geek Aid Workshop available for replay.

And here are the files they’ve also made available online:

- Confidence and Connection on Camera by Pamela Crane

- Geek aid yoga studio by Vidyadasa

- Videos about Top tips on Zoom by Daniela

Even though one of the videos is about yoga, you might find it instructive . . . along with these YouTube links from Pamela Crane:

- How to teach yoga online with zoom

- Confidence and Connection on Camera

- Conquer Your Fears of Being on Camera

I’m offering A TRAINING SEGMENT ONLINE (ATSO) for Feldenkrais teachers starting this week.

This first time ever opportunity lets you do all the sessions of an 11-day segment from home by giving you access to video and audio recordings. You’ll be guided through your learning — on your own and with a study buddy — in the Mind in Motion Online School and you’ll get to interact with the other participants via an exclusive Forum. On top of that, we’ll meet twice a week to reflect on the curriculum and unpack the learning strategies in the training from the trainer’s perspective.

Because several people wrote asking for time to make arrangements and to decide to sign up, we extended the early registration deadline until 11:59 PM Pacific time this Wednesday, 25 March.

If you’re curious about the content of the ATSO, you can view the logs for the entire segment, free of charge, here. If you have questions or concerns, please let me know. You can send me an email by clicking here.