SEAUS Year 2 Segment 7 Learning Activities
As you know many of you will be able to be accredited as ATM teachers after the next segment.
To become an ATM teacher requires a certain level of competency – a level that we as the educational team will assess as a ‘starting/beginning’ level for you to begin to teach, knowing that the skills required will continue to develop as you practice your skills. We as the educational team will assess your ‘readiness’ on:
(a) Your coursework completed
(b) Our observations to date of the ATMs you have taught and the progress you have made
(b) Our observation of you in Segment 8 giving the same ATM lesson to both:
• your class members, and
• the general public
The learning activities this segment will therefore be mainly directed towards your ATM Teaching practice skills – more opportunities for you to refine, deepen and consolidate your previous learning experiences. Overall the activities are to help you in preparing an ATM to teach to a group from the general public. Activities will include:
• reading material relevant to the teaching of ATM
• preparation for teaching the ATM
• teaching the ATM
• reflecting on your process
• then teaching the ATM again, incorporating what you have learned from your previous approximations of teaching it.
These learning activities will give you the opportunity to practice your ATM teaching skills before the next segment, so that you can feel prepared in Segment 8 to present/teach one ATM of your choice in 2 teaching processes. After each ATM teaching process, you will be given time to reflect on your teaching and also to receive relevant individual and general feedback from your teaching staff and fellow students to further you on your way to developing your skills as an ATM teacher.
The two processes within the segment will be –
1. ATM TEACHING PROCESS 1 (to be done Sunday, 1st day of Segment 8)
You will teach your ATM to 2 other members of the training.
2. ATM TEACHING PROCESS 2 (to be done either Friday or Saturday, Day 5 or 6 of Segment 8)
Individually, teach the same ATM to a small group of people, including people from the general public and fellow students.
You may have notes with you while giving your ATM lesson as prompts.
This will be your second time teaching the same lesson, so we expect you not to be reading directly from your notes, but rather have a clear enough understanding of the lesson’s contents to be able to give much of your attention to HOW the members of your class are participating and HOW you can facilitate both your and their learning.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
These learning activities have been designed around assisting you in the presentation of your ATM classes – both in the coming segment and in the future.
Please also refer to ideas presented in previous learning activities, and ideas/strategies you have come up with by yourself or in your study groups between segments.
Keep attending different classes, and listening to ATMs to further both your personal learning, and your development as an ATM teacher.
*************AGAIN these activities are only a guideline. Use them as you will.
FIRST ACTIVITY – **Compulsory**
1. Choose two of the following ATM lessons from the ATM Book to teach.
• Lesson 4 – Differentiation of Parts and Functions in Breathing
• Lesson 5 – Coordination of the Flexor Muscles and of the Extensors
• Lesson 6 – Differentiation of Pelvic Movements by Means of an Imaginary Clock
• Lesson 7 – The Carriage of the Head Affects the State of the Musculature
*****Let Jenni know ASAP what your choices are and which segment you will be attending in October – Melbourne or Sydney – no later than 5th August.
Jenni will then let you know what ATM you will be teaching and who else will also be teaching that ATM so that you will have a group to share your learning experiences with as you prepare the lesson to teach.
2. Read through the ATM lesson you will be teaching from the ATM Book – what is your general impression from reading it – how well do you embody the understanding as you read it?
3. Several times, on your own, go through the ATM.
• What is your experience of doing the ATM? Both during the lesson and its influence on your actions in the environment at the end?
• What did you learn?
• What were you interested in/drew your attention?
• What do you think the lesson was about? Share your experiences with others in your group – how were they similar/different?
SECOND ACTIVITY Developing a Series of Lessons **COMPULSORY**
With the group that you organised during the segment to present to a particular group could you develop the following –
1. a presentation to present to your target group on HOW Feldenkrais could be beneficial to them – say 15minutes in length
2. a workshop of 3 hours length
3. a series of 5 ATMs of 1 hour lesson
You will present this in class time at the next segment. (15 mins for talk/discussion)
Include in your presentation –
What you found this group –
• wanted – from interviewing them
• needed – what Feldenkrais could offer them generally, and specifically in terms of their needs.
• could accept – what ATMs and short ATMs could you use to address their needs
• could use – how do you make the learning concrete ie that they can utilise it in the activities they are interested in (in terms of their group) and generally in their daily lives.
a. Include for the presentation –
• What the main points were you wanted to get across – about the FM
• How it could be helpful to them – give examples
• A short ATM demo you could use
• A sample of a poster/social media to encourage participants to come
b. Include for the workshop –
• The main points to get across about the FM for this groups needs, and the specific ideas you would be addressing through the ATMs to elaborate on these
• The learning principles you feel would be most appropriate for this group
• A short synopsis of the ATMs you would use, and why you chose them.
• How the ATMs could be used to specifically address their needs, and also give them ideas of the ‘bigger picture’ of how FM could be useful in their lives
• Some stories that may be appropriate.
• A sample of advertising/social media you could use to get people to come.
c. Include for the weekly classes –
• your thinking as to what would be most relevant for the participants to understand/explore during the series, and how you might gain more information on that from either the participants or other sources
• a short synopsis of the ATMs you will use
• your reason for including those ATMs, and how the movement explorations in those lessons could be relevant/meaningful to the participants needs
• what you would like the participants to ‘take home’ to further consolidate their learning in everyday tasks/actions between sessions.
Each group will do a short presentation – approx 15-20 mins. Please also bring printouts of your plans to stick on a poster so others can browse the details at leasure. Have fun….be inventive!!
THIRD ACTIVITY
1. Reread the chapter on ‘Awareness Through Movement’ from “The Elusive Obvious”, and also the Chapter on ‘General Observations’ from the ATM book.
a) Which learning principles does he address in your ATM?
b) Would you address any others to facilitate the learning of the participants?
2. From your experience of doing the lesson – what learning principles would you keep FOREGROUND in the lesson. Remember that the lessons in the ATM book are very clear in their structure, however they do NOT include a lot of comments to ‘create a learning environment’ or to help you to make more sensory distinctions. What do you think you could ADD to the language of the lesson to enhance the teaching?
3. What learning strategies are used in this ATM and how do they contribute to the lesson eg constraints, proximal/distal, differentiation etc. Again the Q you could ask here is – ” what does each movement variation evoke in including another part of the person in their image of the movement, and HOW does it do this?”
4. What is the functional theme of the lesson – what could a person learn from this lesson? You are given ideas about this at the beginning of the lesson, however would you include any others.
5. Share your ideas with others in your group. What was similar/different?
FOURTH ACTIVITY
Create teaching notes for the lesson……….the simpler they are the better. As you teach the lesson more can you further refine your notes, so that they can become simply a reminder.
FIFTH ACTIVITY
If possible, teach your chosen lesson to a group of people – get feedback from them.
If possible, also record/video your lesson so that you can listen/watch back and reflect on your teaching.
You will find some reflection Qs in the last learning activities.
You may also want to go through the ATM teaching list with the 6 components of teaching to give you another reference to assess your teaching on – did you do better on some than others?
What could you do differently next time?
SIXTH ACTIVITY
Get together – either by skype, or if possible meet up, with other members of your group –
1. Share your experiences of both doing and teaching the lesson.
• What went well, what difficulties have you found?
• What strategies have you come up with to make it easier – both the teaching and the doing?
2. Go through the different variations in the lesson. Observe each other doing them –
• What is different/the same?
• What do you need to understand to do the variation easily?
• Where could you place your hands to facilitate another’s learning experience? Are some places more/less informative for this movement.
• Do you draw their attention to the HOW of the movement (learning principles) or to the WHAT of the movement (what needs to be involved more in their image of the movement)?
• Would you like to include some other movement variations in the lesson that you feel would help clarify the experience of the participants? Discuss what you come up with.
3. Could you clarify a part of the movement in another orientation for them?
• This could be done as an ATM sequence or as FI or a combination of both.
• Return to the ATM and see if this has informed their learning? AND also your learning of what people need to understand in this ATM to make it easier
4. What other ATMS might you do before this lesson to enhance the learning?
How do you think the lessons in the ATM book previous to the lesson you are teaching might be helpful?
SEVENTH ACTIVITY
If you have time – Teach your ATM to another group of people incorporating any changes you wanted to make. If that is not possible, teach it to the same group.
Could you ask them to give you feedback on 3 specific aspects of your teaching that you feel will help your learning?
What did you learn by teaching the ATM again?
Again share your learning experiences with your group.
EIGHTH ACTIVITY
Go through the ‘ATM Teaching Components’ checklist at the end of the learning activities and reflect on where you are in your process, in including some of these factors in your ATM teaching.
It is an extensive list, and it is more to give you an idea of the many different components that can be included when reflecting on your teaching……some we have covered much more extensively than others in the training, and we will be doing much more over the next 2 segments.
They could be a helpful reflection tool for your group to consider in the teaching of your ATM.
****************Could you please include in your learning journal a rating of the components that you feel more/less comfortable/competent with, and which you would like to go into more detail about in the upcoming segments. Also bring this list to the next segment……thanks!
*******ALSO Remember your learning group leaders are here to have a chat, answer questions, or simply to hear how you are going – simply contact us.
LEARNING JOURNAL
Your journal for this segment should include a brief report on your process of preparing the ATM to teach in the upcoming segment.
It would be great if you could include a brief description of where you feel you are with each of the 6 components of ATM Teaching – especially what you would like more help with.
Journals are due to your learning group leader – Monday 26th October for Sydney attendees, Monday 9th October for Melbourne attendees.
ATM TEACHING COMPONENTS
1. SELF USE/PRESENTATION SKILLS
a. Introducing yourself
b. Presence – inviting involvement/engagement in the process
c. Using your voice, movement, posture to enhance the learning –
i. Voice – tone, volume, speed, pitch, variation
ii. Movement – orientation to group, finding your comfort, moving/stillness
iii. Posture – length, width, involving more of yourself in your image, stability/instability, able to orient/move in various directions
d. Confidence
e. Clarity
f. TOM for yourself
g. Acceptance of where you are as an ATM teacher
h. Responsive/adaptable
i. Use of language
j. Modelling being an ‘active’ learner
2. EXPLAINING THE METHOD/RULES OF THE GAME
a. Making the abstract concrete – giving them an enacted experience
b. Having multiple ways to explain the method and the learning strategies we use
c. Giving a brief description of the lesson and what they could explore in the lesson
d. Using your language
e. Explanations appropriate to audience/context dependent
3. UNDERSTANDING THE LESSON
a. Using the components of TOM – which are more appropriate for the lesson
b. Essential components of the lesson
c. An embodied experience of the lesson
d. Understanding what the different ‘steps’ in the lesson can evoke in their image of the movement
e. Understanding of Feldenkrais tactics/strategies used in the lesson eg accessory movement, differentiation, constraint, proximal/distal, oscillation, change in orientation
f. Understanding principles of well organised movement that are guidelines for assessing movement eg moving in 6 cardinal directions, involving more of self in image of movement
4. CREATING A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
a. Exploring mobilising their intention into action
b. Fostering a process of inquiry – not goal directed, which includes –
i. Exploring options/choices
ii. Developing curiosity
iii. Making distinctions
iv. Looking for relationships
v. Openness to experiment & make mistakes
vi. Going at own pace & timing
c. Providing opportunities for feedback – self referential
d. Providing a challenge/sense of achievement appropriate to their level of participation
e. Developing an open respectful communication
f. Providing a safe and secure environment
g. Acceptance of where your clients are in their learning process – non-judgemental
h. Awareness of different learning styles
i. Giving a brief description of the lesson and what they could explore in the lesson -foreground/background
j. An understanding of individual/group dynamics
5. GUIDING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
a. Developing an awareness of their learning strategies/styles
b. Developing and directing their attention and awareness
c. Developing sensory parameters of movement –
i. Ease/reduced effort
ii. Comfort/pleasure
iii. Decreased resistance
iv. Reversibility
v. Adaptable breathing
d. Having different ways of describing a movement variation
e. Using the ideas of TOM to enhance their exploration
f. Exploring relationship between thinking, sensing, feeling and moving
g. Developing self ownership of the learning
h. Developing/moving towards a more complete self image
i. Awareness of different learning styles
j. Being able to adapt to the class learning needs eg other variations, change of position, supports
k. Use of stories/metaphors to ‘make a bridge’ to other levels of understanding/exploring their learning
l. Transferring the learning to other domains of their life
6. MAKING THE LESSON MEANINGFUL/RELEVANT
a. Appropriate reference movement/scans
b. An understanding of what the lesson may evoke in their experience, and directing their attention to this. Giving them a ‘guide’ to what they may experience from the lesson.
c. Transferring the learning to other domains of their life – in thinking, sensing, feeling, moving.
d. Understanding their process as a learner and how they enhance/get in the way of their learning
e. Eliciting what is meaningful for them and using their language to help them make sense/meaning of their experience of the lesson.
