A maquette: preliminary model: a small model of a planned sculpture or architectural work
I relate my AHA externship moments to the experience of an artist creating a maquette. When you begin teaching you start with nothing, like a fresh slab of clay. Everything is new and the potential is limitless. You start taking advantage of experiences; learn from your colleagues, and even from your students. As you take in these experiences, you mold and shape your career, to bring to life your classroom vision.
Then you take part in a fellowship that throws you a curve ball. It challenges you to think about student learning and why you do the things you do. It challenges you to be intentional in your instructional planning. Next thing you know you are tweaking, removing, adding, and expanding on the classroom culture you spent time creating.
Since getting permission to video at my externship is almost a week-long process, I tried to find video footage that relates to my AHA moment, hence the maquette analogy. I have experienced a plethora of AHA moments, each tweaking, removing, adding, and expanding the way I will approach teaching. Some of my AHAs include:
- Being intentional in my curriculum planning
- Bringing in a real world perspective, minding the gap
- New outlook on data and testing
- Taking on the philosophy: I can’t expect my colleagues to get better; I can just give them the tools to do it! (Statement from a presenter that caught my attention during our PD-2 sessions).