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Event Details

This How-to has already taken place.

Jeremy Chance
Tokyo, Japan

How to Train Teachers

The Digital Era Changes Everything

Benefit: The joy of passing on the gift of teaching Alexander’s Discovery to others

“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
NELSON MANDELA

Most teachers I’ve talked with did not train because they wanted a new Professional career; they trained because of a deep, personal need that Alexander’s Discovery satisfied. Training as a teacher simply gave them better access to a process that fascinated them.

Is that true of you?

Then it may also be true for some of your students who have been coming to lessons for years. They may never imagine that they could become teachers, but they may harbour a secret wish to do so.

Today, perhaps they can.

Today, perhaps you can guide them?

Your chief obstacle is your own mind – which won’t allow the possibility of the impossible. Training your regular students to become teachers brings two significant benefits:

• it challenges and accelerates your development as a teacher;
• it motivates your students to deepen their own practice.

There is nothing inherently immoral or illegal in training teachers – however, you may consider it unethical. However, before you decide that, please consider this:

• training by individual lessons/apprenticeship was how FM initially did it;
• an ethical framework – supported by many of today’s “Master Teachers” – exists.

If you can resolve your “ethical” dilemma, then you face the “I-don’t-know-how” dilemma. Before the digital age, this was a valid concern. But today, unbelievably rich resources are available the world over to support your ability to give the gift of teaching to others.

You do not have to be the originator of all your student’s learning – that is too heavy a burden to bear alone. However, you can function as the “home teacher” for your student’s international adventure: you can guide their process and advise them along the way.

And if the issue of quality concerns you – well, you are the one who manages that!

In this session, I will encourage thinking that goes “from the known to the unknown” – one of FM’s favourite definitions of the work.

The impossible is always becoming possible.

BACKGROUND

Bookmark this page and return to see links to articles, videos and material that can support you taking personal responsibility for passing on the work to a future generation of teachers.

Appendix A

After founding and running a training school with up to 140 individuals at the same time, I put together a list of ideas that guided my training practice and philosophy. Here they are, followed by more documents (eventually) that support and supplement the business of training teachers.

18 Essential Teacher Training Concepts

18 Essential Concepts of BodyChance Method
1. People live perfectly with the information they have.
2. Pain is friendly and supportive to the person who has it.
3. Pain results from confused thinking – the truth sets you free.
4. Accurate information is the engine of conscious evolution.
5. Cognitive recognition of experiences is paramount in changing behaviour.
6. Head movements govern vertebral co-ordination, limb movements and coordinated activities.
7. Sensory-motor contagion through physical touch is an essential communication tool.
8. Behaviour is most effectively understood by analysing a real situation in a person’s life.
9. Constructive thinking is living a turnaround “yes” plan that dissolves painful behaviour.
10. Behavioural change is a universal process that is illuminated by Alexander’s story .
11. The most important person in any interactive teaching situation is you.
12. The student’s recognition of their need drives the learning process.
13. The student retains responsibility for their learning process
14. Diversity of teaching flourishes amidst respect and patience.
15. Effective teachers gather students in a financially healthy way.
16. Alexander’s discoveries are best seeded in focused activity-based communities.
17. Niching accelerates the efficacy and impact of Alexander’s discoveries.
18. Market penetration relies on online and group teaching skills.
Marjorie Barstow: “You always move better with a smile.” (19?)
Jeremy Chance, July 13th, 2022

 

About Jeremy Chance

Jeremy Chance, STAT cert.

Jeremy Chance has been studying Alexander’s discoveries since 1969. His book Principles of the Alexander Technique has been published and translated into 7 languages. Jeremy originally trained in London during the 1970s and continued his studies with Marjorie Barstow in the 1980s. From 1985 to 2002 he was the Publisher & Editor of DIRECTION, a Journal on the Alexander Technique. He was a founding member of AUSTAT in Australia and is currently a member of no Alexander organisations or societies. In 1999 Jeremy married and moved to Japan where he founded an Alexander Training School. Today he continues as Managing Director of BodyChance – still the world’s largest College of Alexander Technique Teacher Education, and now one of the oldest too.

*** LONGER VERSION ***

Jeremy began his three-year Alexander training in England in 1976 with Paul and Betty at the School of Alexander Studies in Highgate. After qualifying, he taught at the E15 and Rose Bruford Performing Arts schools in London before returning to Australia in 1982.

In Sydney, he taught regularly at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), The Actors Centre and The Actors College, while also regularly visiting the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), The Conservatorium of Music and many other leading art institutions around Australia.

During this time he founded two Alexander Technique teacher training schools in Sydney and Melbourne – Directed by other teachers. The Department of Immigration told Jeremy it had a 6-inch file full of applications for Alexander teachers to immigrate to Australia.

Next, at a residential conference where Erika Whittaker debuted her return to teaching – Jeremy established the Australian Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (AUSTAT). What a mistake that was. From 1988 to 1993 he travelled throughout Europe and America, leading seminars and giving presentations to performing artists, business leaders, peer groups and the general public.

From 1986 to 2003, Jeremy was the Editor and Publisher of DIRECTION, an international Journal on the Alexander Technique (http://www.directionjournal.com) which is now being managed by Jean Fischer at Mouritz Press.

In 1998 Jeremy met Jaldhara, the mother of their children Grace and Angelica, and decided to settle in Kyoto and start an Alexander Teacher Training school. He initially named it ATA in honour of Don Burton’s trendsetting school of the 1980s in London. ATA eventually evolved into BodyChance and before COVID-19 hit, had 120+ trainees in the school – making it by far the largest school in the world.

BodyChance grew to this size as a result of Jeremy making a conscious decision to save his family by building his business. At 43 he embarked on a long-term project to become a master of business technology and over the next 20 years spent a lot of money and time studying his personally designed MBA. At first, Jeremy taught his own trainees how to gather students. Alexander\\\’s Discovery flourishes in Tokyo today as a result of his trainees using business skills learnt while training at BodyChance.

Out of this experience, Jeremy formed ATSuccess and began coaching Alexander teachers and trainees the world over. During this time Jeremy conceived and developed his 12-Point Plan for becoming a successful teacher. Today, the world’s largest online Alexander Training Organisation – Peter Jacobson’s Total Vocal Freedom – grew out of Peter’s association with ATSuccess. Many of today’s most commercially successful teachers have had some kind of contact with ATSuccess.

In 2018 Jeremy embarked on an expensive and ambitious program to introduce Alexander’s Discovery to corporations in Japan. He was about to sign an annual contract with a large corporation when COVID happened and the project fell into ruin. BodyChance also diminished from a peak of 140+ trainees to 68 trainees today. However, BodyChance survived COVID.

Jeremy still lives in Japan but spends as much time as he can in Australia to be with his daughters and family. He runs the world’s largest Alexander training school – BodyChance – and is about to embark on a major new project. If successful, this will constitute an unprecedented development for Alexander’s discovery, and a gamechanger for Alexscovery Teachers (AT) in Japan. Stay tuned…

You can keep in touch with my ideas by reading my (almost never) Daily email. Read what teachers say about it and sign up by clicking on the website link below…

bodychance@me.com
https://atsuccess.com/what-teachers-are-saying-about-jeremys-daily-email.html

See also: Jeremy Chance – Presenter Detail Page

How-to
Saturday, 27 August 2022
09:00 h - 11:00 h (9.00am-11.00am)
Math Building
Floor: OG
Room: MA144

CATEGORIES
AT Principles and Procedures||Practical Teaching Skills||Communication/Verbal Skills||Business / Marketing

2

WORKSHOP STYLE

Fully Practical

Lecture

OPEN FOR
Teachers||Trainees||Everyone