- Discussion on the focus of Learning Communities.
Learning communities really focus on
three big ideas; ensuring that students are learning, creating a culture of
collaboration for school improvement, and finally, the results that come from
the community. The teachers try to “learn to learn together” on what is
important for the students.
- Discussion on the benefits of Learning Communities.
The benefits from learning
communities are: decreased teacher isolation, increased commitment to the
mission, shared responsibility, more powerful learning, and a higher likelihood
of fundamental, systemic change. The community is really meant to making school
more productive and satisfying.
- Discussion on how Learning Communities affect teachers.
Learning Communities really try to focus on getting rid of
the isolation that comes with teaching. Collaborating with other teachers to
help with problem solving, learning together, and coming up with new thinking patterns
come into play when teachers start Learning Communities. Teachers also see
types of work that students produce with other teachers.
- Discussion on how Learning Communities affect students.
In learning communities all the projects and all the
homework is really focused on the students. The students learn “real-world”
problems like communication, problem solving
skills, project management, motivation, and persistence.
- Discussion on the components for shared vision in Learning Communities.
All the members of the learning community need; to have a
clear sense of mission, a shared vision of the conditions they must create to
achieve that mission, they need to work together in collaborative teams to
determine the best practice to achieve the mission, they need to organize into
groups headed by teacher-leaders, focus on student learning, they must be goal
and results-oriented, collaboration, hold shared values and beliefs, commit
themselves to continuous improvement , and see themselves as life-long
learners. This list is rather extensive but to put it into a much shorter list,
the teachers need to keep their students, themselves, and what needs to be
learned in mind at all times.
- Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
In all reality, our groups
are considered learning communities. We are “teachers” working together for a
final goal/project. We are bouncing ideas off each other, discussing what will
work and what may not work all that well. We are focused on what the students
will learn and what we want the students to focus on.
I really like that he pointed out the quote in question one about teachers “learn to learn together”. With this being one of the main purposes learning communities, it's exciting for others to realize along with myself that teachers play such a big role in this idea. I don't think I would have realized that teachers play this big of a role in implementing learning communities without reading this chapter. It was exciting to see that in the future and as this becomes a more common practice, that I myself will be working with many other teachers to make sure my teaching is at its highest level of performance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of what you have said here. I like how you listed the multiple components for Learning Communities but then summed it up in a shorter list. I definitely agree that for learning communities to work, teachers have to keep their students, themselves, and what needs to be learned in mind in order to be effective. I also like how you used the phrase "learn to learn together" because I think that that is one of the most important aspects of Learning Communities.
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