In my decades as a working adult I’ve experienced many different communities of workers and learners. I’ve worked on biotech research teams, and with science education leaders from around the state, with groups of teachers, and with cohorts of 4th graders, and 5th graders, and now college students. And I’m always amazed when I’m in a group that experiences “alignment”…that something that just clicks and feels right.

My third year of teaching 5th grade was that way- where we kind of “got” each other. They appreciated my jokes and sense of humor and we learned a lot together. A recent cohort of my college education students also felt that way. I’m assuming most folks know what I’m talking about. It can be hard to describe. We can use strategies as teachers and leaders to build community and do things to improve relationships but every once in a while there is some magical type of chemistry that happens with a group of humans where the group almost enters a state of flow. Where things just work and any disagreements and challenges seem to quickly be resolved and melt away. That’s what it was like with this recent cohort of education students.

Now to make a disclaimer- I’m pretty sure there were a couple of students in this group who didn’t quite “get me” and could find my teaching mildly frustrating at times. But overall- during our three different classes together- we got to know each other, we learned together, we connected, we commiserated, we laughed before and after and during class. And as we enjoyed a meal at the end of our final class session together this cohort presented me a variety of small gifts featuring a beautiful science and engineering-related picture book (they know me well)…a book I somehow hadn’t heard about- Mazie’s Amazing Machines by Sheryl Haft.

There are a lot of great things about Mazie’s Amazing Machines: it features the color orange (my favorite color), it features a female main character, the illustrations by Jeremy Holmes are spectacular, there are so many rich engineering connections, and my daughter’s long-time childhood friend is named Mazie and looks eerily similar to the character in the book! So all around a pretty incredible gift.

I’m not someone who gets awards or recognition for the work I do with preservice teachers so this gift felt like a bit of evidence that I’m on the right track- that I’m having some positive impact on a few of our future educators. So I’ll accept it with gusto. I gladly accept the Mazie’s Amazing Machines award. I look forward to learning with more cohorts of beginning teachers. And I’ll continue to seek those moments where for a variety of known and unknown reasons things might just click and the students end up inspiring an aging teacher educator to a greater extent than they may have been inspired themselves.