Teacher Training

Teacher training is “1:1:1” — there are three people involved:

  • Teacher Trainee
  • Student/Client
  • Mark

The way it works is as follows:

  • Mark does his normal thing with a Student/Client.
  • Mark supplies asides and contextualizations to the Trainee.
  • The Trainee observes, asks questions, and increasingly supplies input, suggesting things to Mark and interacting with the Student/Client, over multiple meetings.

It’s difficult to regularly get 1:1:1 three-way setups like the above. It’s not just that scheduling three people can be sometimes challenging. It’s also that the Student/Client’s experience is often private and vulnerable, and also they want efficiency. Bringing a Teacher Trainee into the mix would sometimes slow things down or make it harder to share or discuss some things, between the Student/Client and Mark, all things being equal.

Yet, it’s so valuable for the Teacher Trainee to see and interact with the actual, real thing happening, with an actual, real Student/Client in the midst of their process and trajectory.

To mitigate any cost to the Student/Client, and to get more Student/Clients on board, I had the idea of Students/Clients getting compensated, per meeting, in the amount of their “cheerful price” (or whatever price they choose to set).

Ok, so here’s how this all works:

  1. Teacher Trainees and Student/Clients post that they’re looking for a match in the “marketplace” (link below):
    1. Student/Client: “You can meet with me and @meditationstuff for $X. [Optional:] this is the kind of stuff I might be talking about or working on…”
    2. Teacher Trainee: “I’m looking for someone to observe, while they work with @meditationstuff. [Optional:] Here’s some things that might be relevant…”
    3. (Post these types of messages on the open forum, and/or privately DM people when they post.)
    4. The Student/Client says what dates/times they’re meeting with Mark or books future times taking into account the Teacher Trainee’s schedule if possible.
    5. The Student/Client provides a way for the Teacher Trainee to pay them (e.g. paypal/venmo/etc.). The Student/Client collects payment before or after the 1:1:1 meeting, as agreed between them.
    6. The Student/Client sliding-scale pays or donates to Mark for that/each meeting, as per usual.
    7. The Teacher Trainee also has the option of donating to Mark for that/each meeting.
    8. (The Student/Client also has the option of donating to the Teacher Trainee if they feel their attendance has been helpful and they are so moved. [They certainly don’t have to; it’s just one way to express gratitude.])
    9. If all goes well, all three of us can repeat all this, ad hoc, or we can set up a weekly or biweekly repeating time. (The Student/Client may already have a repeating time with Mark that works for the Teacher Trainee). The Teacher Trainee can attend regularly, intermittently, anything that works for the Student/Client.

The money stuff is maybe a little bit confusing, so to summarize:

  • [1] The Student/Client receives money per meeting at their chosen rate from the Teacher Trainee. ([2] The Student/Client also has the option of donating back something to the Teacher Trainee if they feel the Trainee’s attendance has been helpful and they are so moved.)
  • [1] The Teacher Trainee pays the Student/Client and [2] might sometimes/someday(s) might receive a donation from the Student/Client.
  • [1] Mark receives sliding-scale payment or possibly a donation, as per usual from the Student/Client. [2] Similarly, Mark possibly (gratefully) receives a donation from the Teacher Trainee.

Ok! Please touch base with Mark first (email, dm, etc.), for an invite to the “matching forum” and then make a post! Please note that posts there are currently public to all of twitter. Using an alt is ok; I just need to know the handle (and who you are). (“Backroom matchmaking” on/in other forums are ok, too.)