Rising to the occasion

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