Chapter 2 reflection

Teaching can be very difficult if you don’t have the people around to help you grow. Creating a professional learning community can be very beneficial to the teacher and the students. A learning community is when multiple teachers work with a designated population of students. The teachers come up with cross-curricular lesson plans so that what they are teaching will correlate with what the other teacher’s plan. This system keeps the teachers on task and more team based. Since it is more team based the results are better. Teachers work together to find the best approaches to teach lessons.

The benefits of learning communities are endless. The benefit that really stands out to me is that the teachers are no longer isolated. Not having anyone to talk to about what your trying to teach can be terrifying. When a teacher is struggling a learning community can really help find solutions. A learner community also results in higher commitment from teachers. When teachers are working together they have to make sure they stay on top of things and are continuing to move forward. A slacking teacher will stand out in this type of community. Teachers need to be responsible and motivated.

Learning communities will help teachers improve their teaching. They will learn from other teachers and find what works best for them. Multiple minds working together is far better than one. When this many teachers collaborate together to benefit the kids good things are bound to happen. Teachers will have to change their traditional ways of teaching however. Since learning communities are more team oriented, teachers will need to teach on what they decide as a team. If the majority of teachers believe that something needs to be emphasized more than they need to learn how to teach it to the class.

Learning communities will have a positive impact on the students. More than likely, lesson plans will be very thoughtful. There are too many teachers that don’t spend the time on preparing how they will deliver their content. If the teachers don’t make their lesson appealing to the students then they are not going to learn. Teaching strictly content is not a good approach to teaching. Learning communities also creates a goal-oriented environment. The teachers decide on the goals of each lesson and identify them. This creates a clear vision for the students as well. Learning communities benefits students tremendously and will help them become life-long learners.

In order for teachers to reach their goals they have to establish their vision together. Sometimes schools incorporate so much collaboration between the teachers that they critically critique one another. The critique can be detrimental, however it is what it takes to be the best. If teachers are going to work together as a team then they are going to give their best.

Learning communities relates to what we are doing in our educational technology course. We are working on projects together in groups. These groups signify teachers in a learning community. We are collaborating together with an end goal in mind. And we are each putting in our input to make our final project as good as possible.