Our core educational programme providing unique training for teachers

The Teacher Training Course is a ten day intensive programme that reviews the platform from which we teach. Unique in terms of its academic content, in terms of depth of training, and in terms of how it is taught, provides a stimulating mix of group activities, focused practical work, critical dialogue and engaging presentations.

What does it mean to be a teacher? What does it mean to be a student? How is human experience shared? What knowledge is of most worth? And, odd as it may sound, what don't we know we already know?

A teacher does not only need to know the subject matter but the best way to teach it and to be able to sustain students in the development of their own personal work. This requires a mix of skills, technical, intellectual, emotional, ethical, to be employed simultaneously at every moment in the classroom.

The Postcon Teacher training course was meticulously designed and is constantly updated based on Manuel Vilhena's ongoing teaching experience, on findings from fields such as Neurology, Pedagogy, Ethics, Linguistics, Adult Education, Systems Thinking, and on an enduring tradition of implicit knowledge transferal from "Master" to "Apprentice".

It presents an opportunity to review our position as teachers, to ask fundamental questions about what kind of knowledge is worth knowing and to promote refreshed at-ease in the classroom.

CONCEPTS

Teaching - A theoretical investigation on teaching methods, procedures and interpretations. The theory of Logical Levels as a tool for organizing thought. Epistemology.

Language - Language skills for precise communication and to help students identify unconscious behaviours and mechanisms. Teaching as storytelling. The use of metaphor.

Presentation - Enhancing performance in front of a group. Thespian talent development. Addressing people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Structure - Structuring a lesson or a course for maximum impact and learning. Preparing successful presentations. Creativity and the arts applied to teaching.

Dynamics - How groups form, develop and behave. Utilizing the group's and the individual's qualities for better teaching leverage. Becoming more aware of what happens inside the classroom to, successfully, deal with unexpected situations.

Endorsement - Effectively supporting the students' ongoing work. Engaging students in autonomous, critical thinking and action. Freeing students' self-expression. Ethics and personal limits.

Preparation - How to be in the right "teaching state" for optimal performance, keeping focus and alertness at a constant level. Teacher well being and personal privacy.

Humour in education- the missing link. The uses of meaningful reframing.

PRACTICE

Day 1: Introduction to conscious and unconscious awareness. Connecting to people and groups through both methods. Channels of internal information processing.

Day 2: Getting proficient in communicating through all channels of information processing. Knowing the qualities of each one and how to use them.

Day 3: oaching presentation procedures. Body posture, voice tone, spatial positioning, amount of information, and other variables.

Day 4: How to prepare for class setting up a good stage state. The use of unconscious processing to set up communication with the group.

Day 5: A learning experience. This is done outside the classroom and is tailored towards revising the material learned on the previous days AS A student (not as a teacher).

Day 6: Rest day with surprise outdoors activities.

Day 7: Language patterning. The theory on how it works and the practical tools to do it. How to deconstruct language to find meaning and hidden meaning.

Day 8: Improvisation essentials. Deepening of the "stage state" and preparation for "difficulties" in the classroom. How to solve common uncomfortable occurences.

Day 9: Body awareness. Self inquiry into the boby-as-a-tool and how to use it for maximising teaching. The body as metaphor. personal teachin«g styles.

Day 10: Presentation day. Participants will be coached and evaluated on their final performance.