Ryeasha's 2nd Reading Reflection

In this chapter we were introduced to communities in the schools, but the focus wasn't on students instead this chapter centered on the importance of a learning community amongst teachers. This concept includes the sharing of ideas, lessons, and teacher strategies for teachers by teachers. Conceptually, this ideal seems rather simple but in reality, the notion of teamwork in the education field is scarce in comparison to other fields. This fairly new concept entails fruitful discussions and the exchange of ideas between teachers. In this digital age, where communication is made easier by technology, it strengthens 'learning communities' by supplying teachers with even more resources and opportunities to network with other teachers. Benefits of Learning communities include lower teacher isolation, and higher level of commitment to the mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learing and a higher likelihood of fundamental, systemic change. The benefits to students are that it shift the focus from looking at what you teach to focusing on what children are learning. This practice ensures that students learn, it creates a culture of collaboration for school improvement, and focuses on results. For both the teacher and student skills and dispositions are developed that will prepare them for the real world. Both will learn to learn and even more importantly, will learn to work together as they strengthen communication, problem-solving, and project management skills. In this chapter, we learned that one must consider many components when enlisting like minded people to collaborate with in your learning community. This includes collaboration between individuals who share a vision of the conditions they must create to achieve the mission. In using this concept will strengthen our Project-based learning classrooms by providing both the teachers and the students a community to learn from and with.