Creating a Professional Community of Practice Teachers will become involved in a community of practice. A community of practice is a social construct in which participants collaborate together and pursue inquiry and criticism of practice through common language and authentic tasks. The community helps break down the isolation many teachers feel, and provides an environment for the exchange of ideas, mutual problem-solving, and validation of the teachers' voices and experiences. The community is based on distributed expertise, in which the strength of the community lies in the sharing of knowledge, perspective, and resources, rather than on any one individual. This community of practice can provide educators with a means for learning through reflective practice, critique, and discourse.
Themes There are many possible ways to explore the overall subject of the American Jewish community.
As their sphere of experience broadens, adolescents become more engaged in social and cognitive influences on their identities. The project will help them to critically understand these factors by investigating different lenses of American Jewish culture. The project will provide Jewish educators with important insight into the issues of teaching of American Jewish history, and integrating technology into Jewish educational settings. The resulting research will be disseminated in appropriate publications and through a series of commissioned papers. Materials The curricular units and resource materials will be developed in conjunction with the pilot sites.