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