Reading Reflection #2

Reading Reflection #2

What is a learning Community:

The reading made it seem as though a learning community is a collaboration of teachers and that work together as a team to develop projects  They give feedback explaining how lessons can be improved, give constructive criticism. This allows different teachers to work together and create bounds. The teachers begin to care about what their students learn, and not necessarily how they teach it. This provides opportunities to the teachers where they have options of how to solve things and discuss as a team what needs to be put in place or rules that need to be established.

The Benefits of Learning Communities:

I believe that there is an endless amount of benefits to having a learning community.  Some huge ones are allowing teachers to work with others, while giving them the opportunity to create bounds with other teachers, allowing them to help one another, being able to create a trusting relationship so you can be able to assist others. This also allows teachers to not become isolated but become encouraged to gather and share ideas that help them improve the classroom. This opens up the use of technology as a way to communicate or collaborate with other teachers. Also having a group of people around is always more beneficiary than just having one person, this leaves space for asking for help and having others suggest tips and suggestions.

How do Learning Communities Affect Students?

I think they are positively benefited because they have so many teachers that are collaborating to make things better for the children. I think that they are benefited by getting introduced to skills they would have never gotten exposed to if they were in a regular classroom doing the normal stero-typical curriculum. I also think that they are benefited by being involved in a technique that works as well as Learning Communities and also Project Base Learning. It’s a more real world type of practice and gets students prepared for working in groups and collaborating as teams.

How do Learning Communities Affect Teachers?

I think they positively affect the teachers. Its better when more brains can come together and brainstorm and be able to change or alter things that don’t work. This helps teachers by giving them other teachers to be able to trust and establish beneficiary relationships with. The teachers are less isolated and are able to talk to other teachers that they can relate to or at least offer assistance for some of the things teachers do.  Also if there are students that give teachers trouble, other teachers might have had students like them and might be able to share some pointers or things that the teacher can do to help the student.

What are the components for a shared vision in a learning community?:

Shared Visions in the learning community means that everyone is going to be communicating efficiently and clearly. It also means that they are able to get together and accomplish things by being able to work together, and having a strong sense of independence and also being responsible. Also being able to watch your students learn, but also learning with them. Everyone is learning together and also having people or students that know more could be resources for teaching the students or even other teachers.

How Do I see our group of Gardening relate to this Chapter?:

 I see teachers collaborating and working together to create a plan. Our plan is going to need to have people that are able to work as a team efficiently and effectively. We can each bring our own ideas, and we can grow from hearing other’s ideas. We are all learning from one another and we have to collaborate as a group on figuring out how we will introduce economics to the children, prepping for our class garden, contacting someone to buy the merchandise. All of these things take time and when you have more people working together it becomes less stressful and more likely to have everything go smoothly because of the team collaboration.

Reading Reflection #2

1. Discussion on the focus of Learning Communities.
   While reading the chapter on creating a professional learning community I have found that there are several main focuses of learning communities. The first focus mentioned was ensuring that students learn from collaborated lesson plans. Through working with many colleagues during the process of creating projects and lessons you are ensuring that many ideas, passionate thoughts and much feedback have come together to create meaningful lessons for students. As it is stated in the chapter, more brains are better than one. This speaks true for any type of collaborative work whether it's in education, business or everyday life tasks. Being able to communicate and trust each other through the process ensures that students will learn from multiple people and their thought out ideas.
   The second main focus that I found was creating a culture of collaboration for school improvement. Learning communities often bring teachers, students, school administrators and the community together for one main goal, learning. Providing a community feel to a school makes collaborative learning much easier to implement. Knowing that you can count on each member of the school community ensures the success of meaningful lessons that engage students in their journey to success in not only academics, but life all together.
   The third focus that I read about was the focus on results.Assessments and their results are used to reinforce our teaching. If, overall students aren't succeeding on assessments than we, as teachers, need to reevaluate our lessons and how we teach our students. Results also inform us on what the students are succeeding at and how far they have come from initially starting PBL.

2. Discussion on the benefits of Learning Communities.
   Learning communities have several benefits that come with the implementation of collaborative teaching and learning. These are aspects that not only benefit students, but teachers as well. Decreased teacher isolation mainly benefits the way teachers plan and teach their lessons. It is also beneficial because there is time for sharing of ideas and constructive feedback between community members. This is beneficial to the students because they are learning from more than one teacher and are able to succeed in different settings and teaching styles. This causes greater appreciation of the students' talents, work and creates greater expectations of all students no matter their performance levels.
   Another benefit is the increased commitment to the mission and goals of learning communities. Often, teachers that are involved with learning communities strive to be better teachers and in turn strive for greater goals for their students. This creates an environment where learning and striving for a personal best is an important part of success.
   In learning communities shared responsibility is an immense aspect to the success of collaborative teaching and learning styles implemented in project-based learning. Teachers and students are constantly learning from each other by simply working with one another. Learning communities provide teachers and students with the necessary skills such as: communication, persistence, problem solving, motivation and project management to become successful in the real world.
   More powerful and meaningful learning is taking place daily in collaborative teaching classrooms. Because teachers explore their colleagues teaching, reflect on their own teaching and provide each other with critical feedback this type of teaching style gives teachers the chance to create lesson plans that are real world based and provide students with skills that will follow them into the future. This causes students to be diverse in their learning and provides them with the framework needed for success in the classroom and in every day life.
   Implementing learning communities into the classroom along with project-based learning calls for great change to happen. There are so many benefits to this teaching style that change is inevitable, which is a good thing. Seeing as teachers are working together for a common goal the ideas are spread farther than what one single teacher could do. Many teachers that collaborate with one another are more likely to create blogs and share their ideas with more than just the teachers in their district, which creates international sharing. This causes change not only in one or two classrooms, but world-wide.

3. Discussion on how Learning Communities affect teachers.
   When a teacher initially starts project-based learning and incorporates learning communities into the curriculum they need to take on the role of the student and learn different ways of learning, especially how to learn together as a team. Teachers also need to form new thinking patterns to accommodate to all types of learners during the change to collaborative lesson plans. Learning communities allow teachers to become better at what they do, teach. By getting the opportunity to reflect and receive constructive feedback teachers become more passionate about the goals for their students and in hand create more meaningful lessons. An important point to the success of learning communities is the respect and trust between the teachers involved. This is the foundation for the success of the three goals listed in number one. Being able to relate to the students by also being learners in these communities provides teachers with the upper-hand to create meaningful real-world lessons in the classroom.

4. Discussion on how Learning Communities affect students.
   Through the implementation of learning communities in a project-based learning classroom students receive many benefits that will stick with them into the future. Students develop many skills such as: communication, motivation, problem solving, persistence and project management. They also acquire teamwork skills which will benefit them immensely, especially when they enter the work force. Students will benefit from the diverse learning styles from participating in collaborative teaching. Each teacher has their own style of teaching and this gives students the opportunity to benefit from many.
   Because of the immense teacher expectations students are required to put a lot of time and effort into their work. Some students may not appreciate or be able to handle the pressures that all aspects of learning communities bring. Students are also required to trust and have respect for one another and this could be hard for students to understand and implement. It is the teacher's job to create a classroom community where each student is able to succeed with each of these components, only then will students be able to fully gain from this experience.

5. Discussion on the components for shared vision in Learning Communities.
   In order for learning communities to become successful the teachers involved must have shared vision on several different components. If those who are involved do not share these components than working together can be strained and the main goals of the mission will not be met. Having a clear sense of the overall mission is extremely important for the success of the program. The mission is the foundation of learning communities and it drives the force of teaching to learn.
   Teachers must also set specific conditions to meet the overarching mission of the learning community for the success of their students. They do this by working together during the teaching and creating process and by determining the best practices to achieve the mission of learning communities. To maintain the overarching mission teachers must keep the focus on student learning by continuously being goal and result oriented in their teaching. The whole point of this style of teaching is collaboration and being cohesive with one another. Making sure to keep the communication lines open with other teachers and sharing the same values and beliefs helps to aid in the success of the mission and most importantly the success of the students.
   To me, the most important component is making sure that teachers see themselves as life-long learners and can relate to their students. To ensure the success of students, teachers must be able to learn with them and not just give them the means to do so. As I have stated before it is extremely beneficial for teachers to reflect on their own teaching and continuously strive to be better teachers. This is done by receiving feedback from other members of their learning community, reflecting on their teaching and analyzing their students assessment results. Teachers that continuously strive to be the best and provide their students with meaningful lessons are often the most passionate and the most successful.

6. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
   All of the information that I've obtained from reading this chapter plays a part in the project that we are working on this semester. Working together in a group is often tedious and can be frustrating. However, if each group member shares the same views on the components discussed in number five of this reflection than there is no reason why success can't be achieved. Making sure that each group member is always on the same page and has the same goal for the project is extremely important in working together. Just like being successful in collaborative teaching, trust and respect for each member of our group has to be obtained in order for this project to go smoothly and work. I feel that communication is the most important component that we, as a group, must take seriously. Keeping the communication lines open between all of us is the key point in the success of this semester. If there is no communication between the members of our group than there is a major problem in being able to work together and succeeding as a group. Another component that I value is sharing ideas amongst one another. Having four brains in our group is more beneficial than just having one because each person thinks and retains information differently and this brings a diverseness to our group. Collaborating our ideas allows us to form the best work possible that we can then share with our blog viewers and our peers.

Reading Response 2: Collaboration among teachers

What is a learning Community:
From the reading I have gathered that a learning community is where teachers collaborate with each other about their lessons plans and get feedback that will help them be a better teacher. Within the learning community of teachers you want to make sure that all your teachers are able to create the results they want with their students by having a clear vision. As a teacher we are passionate about the students learning and we want to make sure that the students learn in the best way that they can. Its important that as teachers we go in and observe other teachers to get more ideas about different ways to teach the subjects and also to get opinions and critical feedback to know what can be done better to improve our main goal which is to have the students learn the best they can. A learning community is basically a bunch of teachers putting in extra time if they can to go over things that are done in the classroom to help better enhance their students knowledge.
The Benefits of Learning Communities :
I believe there are many benefits of having learning communities in schools. The main one that I can see is how teachers collaborate with their co-workers and get constructive feed back so that way they can be the best teachers around. Its also important because when learning new ways to teach sometimes there are new technologies that are brought upon on and as teachers of the community we can work together and help other co-workers to have the knowledge to use the tools to benefit not only their students but themselves. Learning communities are student centered , they create a culture and setting of collaboration for the school to improve and teachers hope for the results that they envision. This whole practice is focused on what the students are learning and how they are going to learn the material getting help for co-workers on how to be a better teacher than you already are. Some more benefits are that there is decreased teacher isolation , more commitment to the vision being represented, you share responsibility with others, get more out of meetings to benefit not only the student but yourself, and a systemic change.
How do Learning Communities Affect Students and Teachers?
I understand in our reflection we are supposed to answer this in two separate sections but I believe that the affects of learning communities between students and teachers are very similar due to the fact that it is a new practice and takes some time to getting used to. For students they are able to learn with more than themselves and bounce ideas off of one enough to get more information. "They gain many real world skills like communication, problem solving , project management, motion , and persistence."(32) Even know the students gain those skills so do teachers because they are as well working with the co-workers to develop really inspiring lessons to help students learn. For teachers it will affect them because some schools don't give time for collaborations more than to talk about their curriculum and scheduling but in order to be as good as you can be there may need to be time you take out of our day and meet with a few coworkers to discuss things. Even in my experiences as a student I always feel that two heads are better than one. When working with others not only do you gain insight but you can express your ideas with more support. I don't really see much negativity using this process in either role expect its going to take time to getting used to and on the teachers end , they may have to take time away to talk with others like on their own personal time.
What are the components for a shared vision in a learning community?:
I believe that a shared vision is a vision that multiple people or in this case teachers have for their classroom. Its more than just the objectives and standards its about where they want their students to be and how they are going to get there. The cool thing about shared visions is the fact that so many other people or teachers feel the same way. "I believe the components of a shared vision are having a clear sense of what the vision is, share the vision conditions to achieve the vision, work together collaboratively to determine the best way to achieve the vision, focus on student learning, goal and result orientated, have and share the values and beliefs you have, commit to improving yourself as a well being and an educator everyday, and to remember we are all life-long learners."(35)
How Do I see our group of Gardening relate to this Chapter?:
I see a lot of things that we are doing that relates to learning communities. We are a group of 3 girls plus me who all want to be teachers. We are working collaboratively on a website that will incorporate lessons that we will use to teach our students about gardening using economics . Gardening is fun but we also need to tie it into a subject so that way we can get the most learning. We as a group share different ideas with one another and give each other feedback about if we think that idea will benefit our lesson on having the students learn. Everyone shares their opinions , works together , and talks about their own individual work with each other.


What ways do you think you contribute to learning communities? In the future do you think you will suggest to your co-workers that we should form learning communities why or why not

RR#1

Your reflection should include:

Discussion on what you need to keep in mind as you start the journey through Project-Based Learning (PBL).

What we need to do as teachers and the things we have to keep in mind for Project Based Learning is focusing how we will get children to interact as well as making it very beneficial to the students. PBL will be very rewarding as long as we make sure that we are looking this as a whole, there is students, the schools facility and also the schools district. We need to get parents and other collages interacting. We also need to keep in mind that this is a great opportunity for working together, this helps getting students acclimated to working with teams. We also need to understand how we can present this approach to our students without having it be overwhelming to the students. We need to keep in mind as teachers that this could be a hard transition for the students if the teachers aren't’t making their transition as easy as possible.

Discussion on the overall benefits of the PBL approach.

The overall approach of the PBL approach is that a group of people can communicate and work together to solve questions and by the end of it a project has evolved. This gives the students the opportunity to work as a group and give them the correct skills they need in order to collaborate in group projects. Another benefit to the PBL approach is that you learn more than using just a text-book. I think that there are so many benefits to using this approach and overall I think it is more beneficial to have it be part of the curriculum because it gives children more than what they would learn with the stereotypical textbook teaching. I really love the idea of working towards a project.  I really like that the students develop better communication skills and students learn how to be flexible with their time because they have certain deadlines.

Discussion on the benefits to students who participate in PBL.

The benefits that students who participate in PBL are huge. This doesn't just teach a child about a subject, but also provides a learning opportunity at the end. The benefits of the students are that they are able to collaborate as a group and also learn just apart from learning. The benefits for this is that we as teachers are utilizing technology in our classrooms, which is a newer resource. Also it ties into linking learning with futuristic models. It also allows teachers in to change the curricula based on basic hand writing to teach with a newer model.

Discussion on what issues need to be considered in PBL approach.

The issues that need to be considered is that how will you as an educator pick what you will choose about the assessments. Also will the children be working as a group evenly? What will the consequences be if the students don’t help and collaborate as a group together? We also need to think of the stet up and also how we will be introducing this to the students. How can we make them feel that this is not a huge transition and what can we do as educators to make sure students feel comfortable with this.

Discussion on New Technology High as an example of New Technology Model.

The New Technology High example is really cool because it seems as if you have more opportunity utilizing PBL projects in school versus book work. I thought this idea was very fascinating, I had never seen or heard of anything like this prior to reading. I would have loved to have the opportunity to practice this in my school.  This gives students a very good sense of partnership and also lets the students get accustomed and form valuable relationships with other students. This is a great opportunity because it lets the students utilize computers and that seems to be the rate at which things are changing closer too.  I also feel like taking the approach could be better than relying on the stereotypical textbook ciriculum.

Reading Reflection #1

1. Discussion on what you need to keep in mind as you start the journey through Project-Based Learning. 
As you begin this journey through Project-Based Learning, keeping in mind that as a teacher, you are always growing, learning, and improving is important. The support of the school district or the school you are working is extremely necessary, as no other classroom will be engaging in the same type of learning environment, so the effort you are putting into PBL for your classroom isn't being implemented throughout the students school day, and your students will be engaging in different activities in your classroom compared to other students. Another very important aspect to keep in mind is that PBL is a process that implements a memorable learning experience that can improve the students life skills, classroom skills, and learning abilities being independent as well as successful. 
2. Overall benefits of the PBL approach. 
Some of the overall benefits of the PBL approach are in every aspect of the students lives that are being affected. The incorporation of technology, but not as the focus of the learning, gives the students the ability to find the knowledge they are looking for if they need help, the growth to increase their knowledge of what they are learning to new heights. Good communication skills are learned as they find that working in a collaborative group requires important communication between all members. Working around their own and others hours implements using deadlines and shows that the world does not revolve around them. 
3. Discussion of the benefits of PBL on the students. 
Through working together in collaborative groups, the students learn good working skills among people, finding a conclusion or consensus to solve problems and create their projects together and reach deadlines. The students also learn how to use technology to solve the problems, extend their knowledge of other cultures and peoples without boundaries, as well as creating their projects at the same time. 
4. Discussion on what issues need to be considered in PBL approach. 
As a teacher prepares for Project-Based Learning, it can be time consuming, need much explanation, as well as relies on support from the school district. The teacher must be ready to engage with students on a new level as well as with parents and school officials to be sure that all involved understands the positive implements and learning experiences of PBL for students. The teacher must reconfigure the classroom for quality team building and collaborative activities, as well as re-evaluating the assessment process of the students. 
5. Discussion of New Tech High as an example of New Technology Model. 
The students at New Technology High are benefiting off of the Project Based Learning that they receive at their school. The amount of students in the school and per classroom are much different than some high schools, as they are much smaller, giving more individualization with teachers and colleagues among the school. This also gives way for less student management skilled issues, giving way for more learning time. The incorporation of Online Assessment gives the students immediate correction of their understanding as well as focusing on improvement instead of only the response's correctness.  

Reading Reflection #1

1. Discussion on what you need to keep in mind as you start the journey through Project-Based Learning. 
 As a teacher initially starting Project-Based Learning you need to keep in mind your students, yourself and the school district. Keeping open communication with each will directly benefit you as you start the journey into PBL. Other factors such as: students being up to the challenge of the new curriculum, projects being worth all of the effort, the fact that students live and learn through real world experiences and that new contexts encourage the project approach also need to be kept in mind. In today's world children are introduced to technology at an early age and are able to use tools such as computers, Ipads and the internet to aid in the learning process. This type of interactive learning will not be new to students and often times they will be able to teach you a few things as you embark on the journey together.

2. Discussion on the overall benefits of the PBL approach.
Implementing Project-Based Learning into your classroom has several benefits. These benefits aren't only for the students in your classroom, but for you, the teacher as well. Some of the benefits that I noted while reading are: learners pursuing their own questions to create their own meaning, learning to work together through authentic learning, students taking ownership of their work and knowledge, students getting the chance to engage in real-world activities, with the use of technology learners are taken to places they never thought they would go, it prepares students for the ever changing world that we live in and it gives teachers the chance to create memorable learning for themselves as well. I believe that these benefits definitely outweigh the issues that I came across while reading the first chapter in our text. The benefits of implementing Project-Based Learning into the classroom will stay with students for a lifetime and enhance both the learning and teaching in your classroom.

3. Discussion on the benefits to students who participate in PBL. 
As I was reading I came across several benefits that students will gain from participating in Project-Based Learning. These are skills that the students will be taught through this type of learning and will aid them for their success in the future. Through working together in groups students develop communication skills to break down cultural barriers and misunderstanding. They learn to become flexible with their work hours and reliable individuals because of working with others. Through their work with diverse individuals and their developed inquiry skills students that participate in PBL are better able to achieve success in changing the world through communication and the understanding of others.

4. Discussion on what issues need to be considered in PBL approach. 
Though Project-Based Learning has several benefits just like anything it also has its' downfalls. Some of the main points are getting the support from the school administration and other faculty members that may not completely understand the benefits or how to implement Project-Based Learning. It is also important to make sure that your students' parents fully understand the benefits of PBL as well. Time and effort is another component that should be considered in the PBL approach. Preparing activities and projects can be time consuming and involves a lot of effort on the part of the teacher. If you plan to implement PBL in your classroom you will need to make sure that you are up to the challenge of preparing these tasks for your students. Everyday teacher tasks such as: classroom management, formative and summative assessments, and learning goals also need to be taken into account. These tasks look different in a traditional classroom versus a classroom that implements Project-Based Learning. Many of the issues are on the teacher's side and if you feel that you can accommodate the changes than PBL is an approach that should be tried.

5. Discussion on New Technology High as an example of New Technology Model.
While reading chapter one I was surprised to read about this type of school simply because I had never heard of a learning institution such as this. I really liked that the grade sizes were rather small and had no more than 100 students, this reminded me of my small town high school. It gives the students a chance to connect on a personal level and develop successful relationships with one another. The students are expected to use technology as a tool to aid in their learning, but it is not the main focus of the real-world learning projects. Another aspect of this school system that I really enjoyed was that the students create digital portfolios to reflect on their learning throughout the years. I thought that this was very appropriate and will be useful for these students in the future endeavors. Teachers also work together to ensure the success of their students and to develop online libraries to share ideas with other teachers who also implement Project-Based Learning in their classrooms. Overall I truly believe that this type of school would benefit both teachers and students and will teach them a great deal about technology, people and skills that they will need to become successful learners in our ever changing world.      
 

Reading Reflection #1

What you need to keep in mind of starting the journey of project based learning:
There are a few things that as a teacher we need to keep in mind when starting the journey of Project-Based Learning. They are the following: today many students are up to the college of learning PBL, all the projects are worth the effort, your students live in the real world so there are always lessons they can learn from, and using other new contexts or stories will encourage this new approach. Many of our students have been around technology and know a lot about it that using computers won't be that new to them and they will be able to handle anything that we as teachers give them. The more reinventing of projects teachers do the effort will pay off and you will become more passionate about teaching. Since students live in the world today , they will want to learn lessons in the world that will help them for their future and hopefully realize that what they do in school matters! Also using a variety of contexts will help students get different information and teachers can use different approaches to get the learning across.
Benefits of the process and students who use it:
During Project- based learning students are learning to work in a collaborative manner based off real world situations. The teacher leans off teaching the students and let the students learn more for themselves in teams. the students also get a good grasp on what it means to learn. It lets students to have many different ideas based on what they are learning and is an active process. It also shows students that it is not just a text book or a test it is more in depth thinking so that students can truly master their learning. Project based learning is based off real life situations that can help the students in the future by dealing with things that may come up now so they can handle it better in the future.
What issues need to be considered in the PBL approach?:
Some issues that teachers will need to consider in the PBL approach are what do I want as a teacher my learning goals and expectations to be , how as a teacher I engage with my students , how I manage my classroom, how I arrange my classroom so that the students can benefit in the most productive way, how I give my assessments to make sure that my assessments pay attention to how my students are thinking and learning , and also how I communicate with my students parents and other colleagues with reasoning for why I am choosing this approach over others.
How is New Technology High an example of the New Technology Model:
Paul Curtis really believed in project -based learning using real world learning instead of textbook learning. New Technology high let him in their school because the other school gave him a really hard time of using his approach , use the model and he realized that project based learning is the drive at that school and the model they use. Since the entire culture of the school supported his approach and that the students can find computers anywhere it was an example of the new technology model. It had technology everywhere , it immersed students in real world learning , it gave students as well as teachers time to work together in groups , and teachers were able to give feedback to their students which were all components of the new tech model.

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