A professional learning community is essentially when teachers (or other fields) collaborate with each other during meetings to share ideas or tips with each other in an effort to improve teacher skills. Which is very similar to mentoring programs for new teachers, where veteran teachers specifically mentor new teachers on their tips, tricks, advice, and any other thing that they could need motivated or encouraged with. An advantage of a professional learning community is that since it is collaborative that means that teachers are working together to solve problems. Another advantage is that with a professional learning community, if it stays collaborative then it makes the teachers in the community a unified team. A team that works together on many different aspects in the school system. A disadvantage would be that it could potentially create a competitive environment rather than a collaborative one. An advantage to mentoring is that it can help new teachers feel more confident, encouraged, and motivated. A disadvantage would be that a veteran teacher and a mentee may not click, which would be discouraging for both teachers. Another disadvantage would be that a veteran teacher may have outdated solutions to specific problems.

I feel that I would benefit more from a professional learning community, as I am naturally insecure when it comes to performing tasks or knowing how to navigate certain issues that come up. If I have a community rather than one specific person I will be less scared of judgement for not knowing how to tackle a specific problem. Also, certain solutions need more than one approach, and with a community then there is more room for different options or opinions to help with specific problems. Not every problem has a baseline solution, so I cannot expect one person, a mentor, to have all the answers to help me navigate any issues that may come up.

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