This class is not just about how to learn how to teach the Force and my little tricks, but it’s also an introduction class for those who would like to become student teachers. As a student teacher your job will be to take one or up to three students at a time and teach a skill. Basically you will be helping the people who can’t make it to class for whatever reason and catching them up. You will also be helping people get private practice. AND I would like student teachers to lead practices like empathy, telepathy, precognition and so on. This might seem like a lot, but it’s great practice.
For student teachers you will have me overseeing your teaching of one student at least once or until I’m confident you can correctly teach the skill enough so not to do harm. We will review mistakes and things to do and do better after the class. When you have passed that little test you will be able to lead practices and teach small, 3 student classes. You will need to go through one full course before I’ll give you a teaching certificate (which can help you for a Jedi title)
Teaching
The first thing I would like to note about teaching the Force is there is no one way to teach the Force. And there is no one correct way either. While there are “wrong” ways to teach that will lead to harm, bad thinking, or bad information, 95% of the time it’s correctable. It’s mostly about results. If your student gets the result looked for, largely you are doing it right. It is possible to teach say telekinesis in a way that gets the psiwheel to move, but the logic and reasoning will lead the student to think telekinesis works in a way that it doesn’t. I would call this “fluff” which is a polite term for bs. But more on that later.
The truth about teaching is you are going to make a lot of mistakes in the beginning. You will have failed students and students fail you. You will screw up and sometimes it might be a big one. But ya know what? It’s ok. I screwed up a lot when I first taught at age 17. I didn’t fully understand everything I was teaching so I couldn’t explain everything or explain things correctly. There were a lot of answers I bsed. But I learned and grew and eventually I had a 1000+ members on a forum called PsiWorld. The Jedi Force Class had 530 before I kicked a bunch of non active students out and we are now just under 250. I kicked them out because 1. I don’t like inflated numbers. 2. You all voted on it. 3. I can now fit everyone on one chatroom (however I don’t have room to re-add people) When it’s time for me to restart the course I am looking to actively add at least a 100 more people and kick out some others who don’t respond to the private messages I have sent.
I know you all say I am really great at teaching. It’s partly from experience and partly from a lot of research. One of the big things in teaching is to have patience. I am not a very patient person, but I have learned the value of waiting, breathing out stress, ranting at my cat about annoying questions, actions, and general behavior, and when to just walk away from the computer. Being patient isn’t just about waiting, but being tolerate of whining, excuses, complaints. It’s about being tolerate of different views about what you are teaching, different methods student might try. It’s about understand every student is different on maturity regardless of age and having to remind yourself it’s ok to have a class clown. It’s about letting a troll go trolling until it’s so clear they have broken the rules and kicking them out. It’s about being patient with yourself. And it’s about finding a way to sit still and not talk while people attempt empathy or precognition for the first time.
As a teacher before you teach a class or a student or even make a post, you need to do a mental check on yourself. You need to be in a calm, patient mood with generally good health, and no drama. If you just got done with a fight, maybe teaching isn’t a good idea. But then again teaching has calmed me down because it serves as a reminder for me. I have a wonderful quote from a Disney movie song (that I believe is a quote from somewhere else) “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn”.
For health, it’s really a good idea not to teach when you are sick. Do not teach when you are injured. Beileive or not, teaching is tiring. A 5 minute teaching might not seem like a lot, but one hour is. Two hours really is a lot. And on those rare times that I do a “power teaching” or 4-6 hours of non stop teaching, I’m wiped out at the end. I have tried to teach when I’m sick and that really doesn’t go well. It’s very important that you are comfortable, relaxed, and have a quiet environment so you can focus. If you can’t get these things, including good health, it’s ok to cancel class. Yes people are mad and disappointed, but a failed class is worse than a class that has been researched another time.
You may notice I like to try to get people to talk before we get into lecture. I purposely do this to do a few things: get people excited and active, get people focused, and to gage people’s moods and emotions. I’m looking for trouble makers, sick people who shouldn’t be in the class, and the general feel of people. Are people tired, unable to focus, is there drama going on that needs to be quickly attended to? I try to warn my admins of possible trouble so they can deal with it and let me continue teaching.
Let’s switch gears here a little to a complicated topic: advertising. If you do it the wrong way no one will come and it’s kinda easy to do this wrong, even for me it’s hit and miss. The first thing is to note where you are going to advertise your class and to whom. Now I teach the Force so that means I should advertise to the Jedi. But the problem is a lot of the groups will not just let you advertise without permission and there is a chance they will say no. My advice: ask anyway. Do NOT go posting your class ad everywhere without permission. This kind of group advertising is getting rude and out of control to the point a lot of admins are starting to say yes out of relief and gratitude that you asked in the first place.
Now I also advertise to what I call the “new age” groups. That’s a bit risky because a lot of problem people come from these groups. These groups are disciplined like the Jedi and don’t really like being told to obey rules. However some of my better students, like you all, came from those groups. So it’s a risk I’m willing to take. But when I advertise to those groups I don’t use Jedi terms in my ad. I will wait for people to say they are interested and then pm them and explain the Force is energy and don’t be freaked out by the Jedi thing. Part of being a teach is to be aware of who you are teaching and be sensitive to the fact they may not be ready to accept another view like Jediism right away and you need to equate to a term they understand. I use general new age terms like energy that everyone can understand and accept.
The Student
Everyone wants to have only awesome, powerful, dedicated students. I certainly do. But if there is one thing I have learned is you won’t get only awesome students. In fact of these people are complete and utter assholes or total losers. So let’s go into what kind of students are out there and problems you might have.
The first thing I do is I test people who want to be students. It’s really just a get to know them and look for clues as to what they are. Are they really interested in my subject matter or do they only want to talk about magic and not telepathy. Do they have any kind hard evidence that shows me they can learn like they completed school, got an award, finished a competition, taught themselves something important like how to code.
Difficult students aren’t exactly fun, like the ones who are drama queens or have a bad past, or live in a bad environment. Now some of you have sob stories of your woes and I still took you. I will mostly take anyone, but I have experience in who not to take. Seriously mentally ill I can’t take, even on meds or seeing a doctor. Integration alone can seriously screw up a person who is crazy, especially if you aren’t very practiced in integration yourself. A person who can’t tell fiction from reality shouldn’t be playing around with the Force because you and they can’t trust their results to be real. A person with a habit of lying is hard to teach because again you can’t trust them and it’s too much work to try to figure out the truth. And people who don’t want to change their ways at all can’t practice with the Force for long because the Force WILL change you. Not incredibly, but you will change the more you work with it, and generally for the better. If you find a student who you aren’t sure about, bring them to me. If I’m not sure I’ll bring them to Vishwa who gets the finally say. If I say no, that doesn’t mean you can’t teach them, but I have a good reason to say no and I will explain this. Usually it’s because they will take more up more time and energy than they are worth or they will harm you.
One thing to look for is do they really have the time for this class. Most people swear up and down they will have or make the time for the class and practice and then never show up. It’s annoying as hell, but there isn’t anything you can do. You can try to point out their problem with commitment and sometimes they will straighten up, but mostly they just shrug and go on with their lives. Understand the Force/psi/energy isn’t for everyone and you shouldn’t force people to learn. You shouldn’t shame them too hard. You shouldn’t get angry. Let them go and focus on the students who are doing the practice and are obviously serious.
Age is a sticky matter. The younger they are the more accepting they are, but they can’t understand as much and they aren’t very mature. You will have commitment and practice problems with them. But too old and they start getting stuck in their way of thinking and doing. They argue more and don’t like being told what to do. So if you are looking for a middle age group try 14-35 with 18-28 being likely best age. Remember everyone is different. Some 50 year olds are just the easiest to teach and 15 year olds are Christian right wing nuts who will claim you are teaching the devil’s stuff. Speaking of bad students, let's go into the various types of bad students.
Trolls: you will get a troll or two in a class. Trolls are negative attention seekers who are looking to gain control of a group but disrupting it. There is not great way to deal with a troll other than kick them out. They will carefully edge the rules without breaking them and very clearly point out they weren’t breaking the rules. Frankly they are being a major distraction and not adding to the class. Thus get rid of them and don’t feel bad. Trolls happen.
Skeptics: They aren’t always bad, but it depends on what kind of skeptic they are. If they are just honestly looking for truth, they should stick around to try the method out and make of their mind. They are going to ask tough questions. Don’t panic and don’t try to bs the answer. Admit you don’t know. If they are still being jerks or pressuring you, suggest they leave. Don’t waste time by trying to defend yourself or insist your information is real or correct. Let them be skeptic. It’s actually healthy to question your methods and get flaws pointed out in your logic. You can’t grow if no one ever shows you your flaws. Btw a skeptic who only thinks this is just a bs and won’t try the method or do it correctly isn’t a skeptic. They are just being jerks.
Fluffs: These are the people who claim they are a god, they can levitate anything, they can heal cancer and so on. They make wild, crazy, and too good sounding claims. If you question them about the logic of their result, how they do their method, or why it just works, you will get vague answers or answers you can’t find anywhere else. You might be giving a link to a really fluffy site or fake science with bad logic. These people are toxic, but don’t get ban happy yet. If they are a little fluffy, they can be corrected and worked with. But if they refuse to accept your view as valid and continue to argue with you at every step of the way, they might need to go.
Clingy: I have one person who is being very clingy to me. I won’t say who but you might be able to guess. Clingy students want to bug you with questions all day long. They want every single experience they have to be a profound, powerful, life changing experience that YOU need to talk to them about. They want to ask questions that are in the logs or online. They don’t want to think and what you to tell them everything. They will suck you dry and then fake cry and beg you not to leave them when you threaten. Sometimes a simple talk will get them to stop, but largely they are just trouble. You may have to get “mean” and ignore their messages or simply get rid of them. It’s hard to do because they seem serious, but they aren’t.
Drama queens: They are like the clingy people, only every problem they have is a major meltdown, class 5 emergency. They are the type who supposedly get attacked by demons 24/7. They claim psi vampires are always getting them. Someone is trying to get into their head. And only YOU can save them. Honestly they would be dead if their claims were real. What’s really going on is they are drama queens. They are the energy version of the people who always go to the ER with a life threatening problem which turns out not to exist medically. It is really all emotion. Teach them integration and do not try to save them. They are NOT being attacked by anything other than their emotions. Again just teach them integration and keep telling them integration will stop the attacks. And it honestly will even if it’s not the way they think it will. If they refuse to integrate, they will eventually go away.
Know It All: These are the most annoying to me. They are interruptive, argumentive stuck in their head jerks. They claim to know more about the subject than me. Sometimes they have a good point or something I missed and I knew, but they are rude. They think they can ignore the rules because they already know this stuff. They generally won’t try my method and will brag greater results than I have ever creditable heard. Because they aren’t breaking a rule exactly, it’s hard to get rid of them without looking like a jerk, but sometimes you have to if they won’t take a very strong hint.
Class clown: I went to a Force Class taught by another Jedi who had one person who was being a class clown. This person would not stop laughing. It was rude, distortive, and impacted both the other students and the teacher. But they were experienced and valued and couldn’t just be kicked out. I would have told them to please stop and respect the other students who are trying to concentrate, but it wasn’t my class. Sometimes a reminder of the rules helps, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes making a joke back that stings will get them to shut up.
Non serious: This is the last of the types. These people are the ones who come to class every so often. They may do homework like once if at all. They don’t talk much in class. They come late. The truth is they aren’t being honest with themselves about being serious. Sometimes talking to them about this problem helps them. Maybe they need to make an alarm on their phone or you pm them before class. Sometimes you need to punish them with a refusal to give them a log until they show up on time and practice a skill. Sometimes they need a nudge to realize they can’t or won’t do this class and leave. It’s hard and painful to do because you keep hoping they will get serious, but they never do.
The Class
There are different methods of teaching. You can teach online on a chatroom like this. You can skype. You can teach on the phone. You can post lectures. You can teach in person. Each one of those methods are different and need to be approached differently. You can lecture. You can have open ended questions like “what is the Force?” for people to answer and then guide them to the answer you are looking for. You can ask people what is their experience with telekinesis and how they do it or don’t. You can start with a practice or an experience. Any of these teaching methods will work if you get them right. I just like lecture because psionics did that, school did that, and to a degree that’s the most done way. That doesn’t mean my method of teaching is the only correct way. It just works for me.
Getting yourself prepared for the class is important and we kind went over this. Eat, drink, get comfortable and focused. Get the student talking. But something that might help you is to practice the skill right before you teach it so you refresh yourself with an experience. If you don’t do that, at least feel the Force for a bit, which will help you get into the right mindset you need to be in.
Now that you are warmed up, it’s time to teach. I would strongly recommend notes. You can do any kind of notes you want: short hand, pictures, bullet points, a completely written out article like I do, or whatever, but notes help you remember and keep focused when things get a little hairy. One thing I try to do is not just have notes ready, but also links and research on hand. Some people want links to read more information about or do their own research. Some will question where a fact came from. Be prepared. Go out on the internet and start reading everything you can. Have book titles and authors ready. It will make you look prepared, serious, and wise even if you are having an ego brat day.
I like to copy and paste from my notes to the chatroom. This has a pro and a con. I sound professional and smooth, but I personally suffer from this method. Because I can copy and paste I’m not as involved in the teaching as I would like. It’s easy for my mind to wonder and me to lose my teaching mindset. It’s easy to get on facebook to deal with the bored of giving you all time to read the long paragraphs I drown you in. However when I type everything out in real time, it takes longer and I worry YOU all are losing the moment of learning. Perhaps that’s just a fear of mine. I was thinking of testing that out this next fall. I would suggest as beginner teachers try typing everything in real time until you are very comfortable with the subject matter and the students.
For me, it’s hard to remember to give you all time to do teach step. Teaching the 7 steps of integration feels like it’s going on forever. However that’s drama on my part and yes drama in the middle of teaching about not to be dramatic. Lol. So I’m not perfect. But seriously it’s important to give that time. People need time to read the step, process what the step asks them to do, and then do it. I usually give 2-3 minutes for each step depending on how simple the step is AND if it’s important to do this step over and over like breathing. When I teach how to feel the Force I give extra time because this is the first thing I teach and people need time to learn how I teach. They may need more time to think up a song, then decide if they are going to sing, hum, play it on their computer or in their head, and then to actually do it. That’s 3 minutes right there. However if I give 5 minutes they will think I have forgotten about them, which happens once in a while. Darn you facebook!!!
Pacing yourself is something that just takes practice. Giving people time to read paragraphs, giving time for people to process what you are teaching, giving time for people to ask questions, and finally giving people time to talk, take breaks, and then get them back on topic. It just takes time and practice to learn when and where to do all of this. But try to think of the student(s) before posting or talking. Remember what it was like when YOU were first learning about this.
Questions can be scary your first time teaching. It’s perfectly, but scary to get questions you just don’t know. And what’s harder: admitting you don’t know. I still sometimes try to bs an aswer because I want the student approval and love. It’s a bad and dangerous habit. You’ve got to remember it’s ok to screw up while teaching, but you have to take action and fix it. If you don’t know an answer, don’t dismiss it. Admit you don’t know and you will go find out. Then go find out and tell that student the answer. If you answer something you thought was right and learn later it wasn’t, go correct yourself and let the student(s) know what the right answer is. If it helps any, I have to correct myself with you all from time to time (thanks Vishwa for showing me the right answer)
Another part of questions that is hard to deal with is the fact you get difficult to answer questions or questions that will be answered in another class or even just later in the class. I usually get at least one question that involves a long, complex answer. I usually simplify it and let that student know I will go into that subject later.
I have said every student is different. Everyone lives a different life with different experiences, different patterns of logic and thinking. So when you are giving an example be aware of that difference. You will and yes will, find a student who can’t understand or relate to the example you are giving. A student in a desert will not really understand flooding or likely snow. A poor student will not understand the activities of the rich. A fat student will not really understand the details of exercise. So make sure you have many different kinds of examples and different ways to explain a method for your students. You may need to ask them where they are from and what they do understand so you can think of something. Remember don’t rush your teaching. It’s ok to pause and think. The student might be impatient, but that doesn’t mean you should. Be calm and breathe.
Details matter. Substeps matter. Those 3 steps to feeling the Force, matter. You can not skip on details when teaching. You can’t presume the student knows how to do something. It’s the biggest mistake a new teach can make. It might seem obvious how to feel the Force, but to a complete newbie, saying “Well just relax, open up, and just feel the Force” won’t work. They may not know how to relax because they have PTSD like I did. They probably won’t know what you mean by “open up” and they likely won’t know what the Force feels like. Even people who claim they know how to feel the Force, I will test with my 1,2,3 method before I take their word. It’s just so easy to confuse.
Now that you have lectured, answered questions, and gone through a method, it’s time to remember to remind the student the basics: ground. Integrate negative reactions they go during class. And remind them homework. I would suggest not to give them a lot at first. Your students have lives and do not generally have hours to devote to a class. But they do have 10 minutes to squeeze in feeling the Force. Be reasonable and patient. They will grow. It just takes time like it did with you. And when reminding them, be patient and remind them several times. People have lives, drama, problems, and events. It’s easy to forget to practice. It’s easy to forget about class. It’s easy to forget that Karen wants you to make and have a psiwheel ready for telekinesis. So don’t be mean when you remind them.