Saturday, June 9, 2012

Here's Why I'm Excited About #TeachersPayTeachers

And "no" - I haven't made a dime!
 
TeachersPayTeachers is an open marketplace for teacher-created materials:  lesson plans, units, activities, projects, exams, powerpoints, smartboard activities, and more.
 
It’s a place where teachers can openly share (or sell) their instructional materials to other interested teachers.  It's encouraging that its founder had such respect for teachers and the teaching profession to give it a go!  It's inspiring on many levels!  
 
I agree that "the ensuing exchange lifts all boats and leads to the better sharing of best practices. In the end everyone wins, especially our students."

One big, under-the-radar success story is TeacherPayTeachers, an open marketplace in which teachers can buy, sell, and share their original lesson plans. A former teacher, Edelman launched TeachersPayTeachers in 2006 and sold it to Scholastic later that year. But the recession saw the site’s growth dwindle, so Edelman offered to buy the site back from its acquirer. Scholastic agreed, and it’s been profitable ever since.
 
 
Why is TeachersPayTeachers so successful? Because it addresses one of the big problems with education in the United States. Often, teachers will need to stay up hours into the night working on the activities for the next day, improving lesson plans and grading papers. This happens night after night, which turns teaching into a grueling process of nightly routine. At the same time, after years of teaching, teachers start to accumulate stacks of activities and daily lesson plans...
 
EdTech Digest, December 15, 2011  From interview with the founder, Paul Edelman...
 
"Some say that’s not possible to do 'at scale' so they are looking for culprits (the unions) and solutions (through technology) that I think are part of the solution, but also often just a distraction from what I think is the real solution. That is, to find, train, retain and sustain 3.2 million great teachers.  We can only do that if we made it a national priority.  Something has to be our national priority, why not this?  I’m happy to be proved wrong. If anyone has an argument that proves that finding 3.2 million great teachers is impossible, please email me."
 
"If it’s not impossible, then let’s do it.
 
As my dad always said, where there’s a will there’s a way."
 
 
 
Now THAT's an attitude I can appreciate!!
 
Lisa Jones
(Yes, I will always be "concernedabouteducation")

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