When it comes to Learning Communities, three main ideas that they focus on are ensuring that students learn, that a culture of collaboration is created for school improvement, and that teachers as well as students remained focused on results. Within the communities, teachers base their lessons on what students should learn, rather than what he/she should teach. When teachers and students come together to form a learning community, classroom learning can be expanded through the collaboration of colleagues. Brainstorming, critiquing, and sharing help a team of teachers to better plan a lesson for maximum learning.
There are many benefits that come along with Learning Communities such as decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood of fundamental change. For both teachers and students, closer relationships are formed as they work through challenges and disappointments. Further more, the knowledge they gain is relevant as they "learn to learn".
The affects that Learning Communities have on teachers are pretty much all positive ones. New ideas can be gained though working with colleagues, instead of just trying to improve old strategies independently. Feedback will increase as more teachers put forth effort to communicate and interact with each other. Respect is something that will be established through honesty and trust. Teachers will begin to feel more comfortable around one another. Ultimately, the teachers will learn just as much, if not more, than the students. By working together, they can see other types of students work and analyze it to help improve results. Students are of course just as affected by Learning Communities as teachers are. Skills such as communication, problem solving, project management, and motivation are developed, which are all skills necessary to succeed in our demanding world.
When working with others on projects within the Learning Community, it is important for all members to have a similar outlook. Components of a successful community include having a clear sense of mission and knowing the conditions they must create to achieve it, working together to determine the best practice, establishing organized groups, committing themselves to continuous improvements, and seeing themselves as life-long learners. These shared visions are all ones that members of the community should have.
There were various concepts in this chapter that made me think more about my own project. One part that really stuck out to me was about the blog that two teachers created with each other from across the globe. I think the use of the Internet is a great way to connect with other people to get real insight on a certain topic. By exchanging ideas with people from a different culture, a better understanding can be achieved by the students and the teacher.
I agree that the teachers many benefit the most out of learning communities. By collaborating teachers will gain new insights and may see a new way of describing something that they would not have thought of before. I also really liked the idea of the two teachers sharing a blog across different countries. I think it is a great way to immerse yourself and your students in a different culture. This is just another interesting way to use learning communities.
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