I am interested in learning communities in two capacities: 1) teacher learning within ongoing professional learning communities with other teachers, and 2) how teachers learn to support student talk in their classrooms to foster collaborative learning environments. The former interest stems from my experience facilitating small group discussions with teacher groups over time. In my graduate research work I have conducted analyses of teacher talk in these contexts, such as the relation between the task orientation of teacher meetings and the content and nature of teachers’ discourse as it relates to knowledge building. The latter interest stems from my experience helping teachers develop and implement curriculum to support students’ disciplinary learning through classroom discussion. I am currently in the process of analyzing data and writing my dissertation – a case study of one middle school history teacher who I worked closely with in this process.