RETURNING TO THE SOURCE VII

Become a Better Teacher

RETURNING TO
THE SOURCE

A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE ON CLASSIC LESSONS

 
Since its inception less than two years ago, over 200 Feldenkrais® Teachers — from Eastern Canada to the South Island of New Zealand, from the heart of Texas to the capital of Russia — have participated in RETURNING TO THE SOURCE (RTTS). This is the first course in Mind in Motion’s new, state-of-the-art program about preparing, promoting, and presenting successful Awareness Through Movement® (ATM®) classes and workshops.

This introductory course to the art and science of teaching ATM answers the question:

What do I need to understand about an ATM® to teach it well?

Feldenkrais trainer and movement scientist Larry Goldfarb, Ph.D., answers that question by turning to the timeless lessons from the book, Awareness Through Movement. Examining six of these ATMs — such classics as COORDINATING FLEXORS AND EXTENSORS, SEE-SAW BREATHING, etc. — that Moshe chose to introduce himself and his method to the world. You’ll discover how to unlock the secrets of the lessons by learning to:

  • Identify the most important aspect of a lesson.
  • Know where to find the clues needed to figure out what holds a lesson together.
  • Understand which aspects of a lesson you can change, which are the ones you can’t, and why!

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced teacher, you can deepen your understanding of Moshe’s method while improving competence, contentment, and confidence in teaching ATM.

The RTTS participants weren’t the only ones learning. Working closely with the 200+ Feldenkrais teachers and trainees who’ve taken the course in the past two years, listening to their feedback from the participants, and observing what worked and what didn’t, Larry reconfigured and revamped the program last year, putting together Version 2.0 of RTTS.

We’ve gone for a 21st-century version of correspondence course, using email instead of the postal service, to becoming a completely contemporary program that integrates video conferencing and online learning to connect you with fellow learners and to bring next level training to you. This new version is more user-friendly, concise, and intuitive. Not only that but having the trial run with RTTS VI gave the MIMO team a chance to smooth out any remaining rough edges.

Other than the reminders you’ll receive about meetings via emails or SMS/text message (your class – your choice), the new, improved RTTS meets via a virtual classroom and then everything else happens in the MIMO online school. That’s where you’ll find:

  • Links to all online meetings and to their recordings.
  • Homework assignments, including questions for you to ponder and respond to, assignments to do with a study buddy, a quiz for testing your own knowledge, and more.
  • Interactive discussions with classmates on the forum.
  • Private messaging.

Before we “look under the hood” of each lesson, you’ll have a chance to do each of the lessons from the comfort of your home during two convenient weekend mini-workshops. (Scroll down to the schedule.) If you’re unable to attend, you’ll receive access to recordings. Each week, you’ll also receive access to the recordings of me teaching two contemporary versions of the same ATM I’ll be unpacking that week. On top of that, you also get the recordings the mini-workshops from a few previous editions of RTTS.

Once a week for six weeks, the course takes a deep dive into one of these transformative and all too often perplexing ATMs. Making the tactics and techniques explicit, uncovering the crucial biomechanical underpinnings, understanding the essential compositional structure, and connecting it to Moshe’s personal history and professional formation reveals exactly how the lesson is designed to make learning happen.

When you find out what’s behind each lesson — what holds it together and makes it work — you can teach it with poise and calm conviction. You’ll know what’s important and why. You’ll be able to figure out what an ATM has to teach and how its learning logic moves the student along, how it brings us to moving as well as we can. You’ll know just how the access and harnesses the learning abilities built into our nervous system. This means you’ll have the observational acuity and conceptual tools needed to figure out how each ATM makes learning possible.

(Rest assured, as the class progresses, Larry will suggest how you might apply what you’re learning to the way you teach ATM . . . and to how you practice FI, as well.)

All told, RTTS meets for six live Question & Answer sessions, during which you and your classmates will discuss the lessons with Larry. You’ll be able to ask your questions, have them taken seriously, and answered kindly. Each one-hour Q&A meeting is scheduled for 75 minutes so that when the conversation is lively — as it often is — Larry won’t have to cut it short.

This time around, we’ve scheduled the presentations and one of the Q&A sessions to make it easy for anyone in the Pacific region to participate. The other Q&A is at a time more convenient for those on the Atlantic side.

Because we know you’re busy, we will be recording everything: the two live mini-workshops, the class presentation about each ATM, and both weekly Q&A sessions. That means if any part of the course doesn’t fit your schedule or if, for whatever reason, something comes up and you miss something, you can rest at ease knowing that you’ll be able to listen to or watch the presentations and discussions and listen to the ATMs whenever and wherever works for you. Even if you can’t participate in one of the Q&A sessions, you can still send your questions to me ahead of time so that I can answer them during the discussion. And, regardless of which session you attend, we’ll send you the links to both Q&A sessions.

RTTS 7 Version 2.0

Live mini-workshops
Saturday, 09 March
4:00 to 8:30 PM Pacific
(First Three ATMs for the first three weeks of classes)

Saturday, 30 March
4:00 to 8:30 PM Pacific
(First Three ATMs for the second three weeks of classes)

ATM Presentations
Monday
4:00 to 5:00 PM Pacific
11, 18, 25 March
8, 15, 22 April

Monday Question and Answer
5:15 PM to 6:30 PM Pacific
11, 18, 25 March
8, 15, 22 April

Wednesday Question and Answer
10:30 AM to 11:45 AM Pacific
13, 20, 27 March
10, 17, 24 April

You can attend either discussion or both. The RTTS curriculum is designed so you can benefit from reviewing these discussions without having to participate in them, making it possible for you to take this course entirely as an online, self-guided program.

When you sign up for the class, you get:

    • Two (2) live, online ATM mini-workshops
    • Access to the unedited audio recordings of the six (6) ATMs from these mini-workshops
    • Twelve (12) additional audio recordings of ATMs — two of each of the lessons from previous editions of RTTS — to stream or download.
    • Six (6) live, online presentations during which I reveal the learning logic, anatomical underpinnings, and functional foundations of each lesson.
    • Access to the unedited audio and video recordings of these six (6) presentations.
    • Twelve (12) live online Q&A sessions
    • Access to the unedited audio and video recordings of the discussion sessions
    • Weekly homework assignments to help you understand and apply the ideas, observational skills, and teaching abilities you learn in each presentation and then integrate what you’re learning into your personal ATM practice & teaching your classes.

That’s twenty-four (24) hours of live classes and discussions, eighteen (18) ATMs, and at least twenty (20) hours of recorded presentations and Q&As. That makes for a total of over sixty hours of instruction, which works out to less than $5.75 per hour of instruction if you sign up early.

$397 Full tuition

To make sure that I have time to available respond to homework and questions, enrollment is limited to 32 participants. Please note that RTTS has, more than once, sold out entirely before the early registration deadline!
 

Tuition and Participation Policy

  • There are no credits or refunds for any missed classes.
  • By registering for this class, you also acknowledge that 20% of your tuition is a non-refundable down payment.
  • Cancellation between the day of enrollment and up to 31 (thirty-one) days before the first class, your tuition minus the down payment will be refunded.
  • Cancellations between 30 – 7 calendar days prior to the first day of class 50% of the total tuition will be refunded.
  • No refunds will be given for any cancellations received after 7 calendar days before the course begins.
  • No Risk Guarantee: If, after participating in (at least 70% of) the first ATM lesson of the first mini-workshop, you let us know that you are not satisfied, we will refund 100% of your tuition within 7 business days.