2025: Praise and Boundaries

This course now includes a special 1-hour recording of my 2025 workshop on using praise, setting boundaries, and unpacking how teaching style affects what we mean when we say "good student."

This workshop rearranges some of the material in the centering consent and adds some important new modules. You'll automatically see it when you start the course!

What you get access to

  • A 60-90 min fully online course you complete at your own pace

  • Discussion boards that I respond to personally

  • Three downloadable resources that summarize the course lessons to help you remember the material

What this course covers

  • Why the "consent as permission" model is insufficient for movement teachers

  • An overview of the history and philosophy of consent theory

  • How to critically examine the ways in which power structures influence your consent practice

  • A model of consent which has practical implications for teaching movement

Course curriculum

    1. Welcome and intro

    1. What is consent?

    2. What is culture?

    3. Mutually Designed Experiences

    4. What is a good student

    1. Power structures and bias

    2. Vocab chat

    3. 5 Rules of Thumb

    1. Big Questions.pdf

    2. Downloads!

    3. Final thoughts

About this course

  • $30.00
  • 11 lessons
  • 0.5 hours of video content

"World class"

Jaine Mirka, @strayful

Adam presents beautiful, thoughtful learning materials that challenge our preconceived ideas around teaching a movement-based practice and empower us to do better. I can't overstate the positive impact this work has on the circus sector as it supports teachers in their work and creates consent-focused, inclusive spaces where more students can engage in a circus practice. We include Adam's modules as a mandatory part of our circus teacher training course as we feel his resources are world-class.

Excellent, informative, engaging

Jesse Kitzen-Abelson, @jkitzenabelson

This course is excellent, informative, and engaging. Adam has put together a user friendly course that left me intrigued on the concepts of non-linear pedagogy. I now find myself thinking about linear and non-linear each day that I'm teaching. I believe this is a way to rejuvenate teaching and learning methods for us and our students.

"Cannot recommend enough"

Ashley, @railroadaerialarts

I took a few of Adam's courses and they were absolutely amazing! I learned so much and it definitely changed how I think about movement, coaching, and lesson planning. I cannot recommend Adam or his courses enough.

"A revelation"

Elisa Format

Adam again makes a course another incredible source of tools for revolutionary teaching. And with revolution, I mean more effective, culture-changing, respectful of bodies and levels, and dynamic. I enjoyed it so much. I think for me it has been a revelation. NLP is a new way of living, not only teaching, I think. The principle of inquiry, be active, start with questioning and exploring. It's a revolutionary approach. as teachers and as learners (we can also be both at the same time). I found it difficult the first part of the course, then with the lesson planning I kind of found a place for all the concepts (it's the proof that NLP work this way! less information first!!)

Best material never taught

Seebie, @glamseebie

Alternative Teaching Methodologies is a MUST SEE set of tried-and-true practices to improve your lesson plans. There isn't a single movement educator or leader who couldn't benefit from incorporating these ideas to expand students' engagement, autonomy, and creativity! I was generating new lesson plan ideas and modifying my old ones with every section, and spent far longer mulling over each suggestion than I expected because they were each rife with opportunity.

Thoughtful and challenging

Kel, @melbinmotion

Adam has so much thoughtful and challenging content, delivered with genuine care for all the coaches he's teaching and their communities. All movement coaches should be doing these courses.

"Relevant and essential"

Dr. Jess Allen, @awyrol

Adam's courses are amazing and eye-opening for any movement teacher who is serious about their practice and about providing a truly inclusive experience for their students. He is one of the only practitioners I'm aware of who’s bringing concepts from some of the most important and current research (in physical literacy, non-linear pedagogy and other educational contexts) and making it relevant and essential to circus teaching today. Whether you teach in a recreational, pre-vocational, vocational, professional or therapeutic context, these concepts not only apply universally (yes, really) but could fundamentally change the way you think about education and the concepts/practices we traditionally ‘inherit’ which can potentially be harmful if we don’t question them. You should be prepared to be challenged and fundamentally changed by this important work.

Pay what you can

Maybe you live outside the US, maybe it's your first course with me, maybe you just need a little treat...no matter what the reason, with me you always pay-what-you-can.

Want more?

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About me

Adam Woolley

Adam has been coaching acrobatic and circus arts around the US since 2009. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Circus Educators Association from 2013-2018 as the chair of the safety committee. He joined the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts in 2015 as the Head Coach/Programs Director and worked over five years to double the size of the youth program. From 2017-2020 he worked as the Aerial Department Head for Circadium School of Contemporary Circus, the first professional training program in the US to be recognized by both a state-board-of-education and the FEDEC (Federation of European professional circus schools). Adam is committed to the idea that elite-level achievement does not require harmful or exclusionary teaching practices. He received his MSC at the University of Manitoba, where he researched physical literacy, movement creativity, pedagogy, and the effects of circus arts in public school PE on students' emotions and self-esteem.