Commercialization of Lesson Planning
Have you thought that your lessons were good enough that other teachers would pay for them?
Maybe you are right
But, don't expect to make enough to quit teaching and retire on this income stream by tomorrow.
A new site...A new Possibility?
The Associated Press just reported a business idea for a site that allows teachers to post their lessons for cash.
Associated Press Article
"The site, TeachersPayTeachers.com, aims to be an eBay for educators. For a $29.95 yearly fee, sellers can post their work and set their prices. Buyers rate the products."
Associated Press Article
The site's developer, a former teacher, cashed in his retirement and maxed out his credit cards to launch the site.
"He keeps 15 percent of every sale, but he knows the only way he will really make money is by getting "teacher-authors" to pay the membership fee."
Associated Press Article
Being a Teacher of the Year Helps
Ten percent of the 80 teachers that had signed up for the service were teachers of the year. They were given a complimentary membership.
Maybe the materials will be worth membership fee. But, as the Associated Press article points out, there are a lot of free lessons on the Internet.
Even Classroom Toolkit offers free materials. Link to the Classroom Toolkit site
Want to Sell your Materials? Go for it!
It is probably difficult to convince other teachers to buy your lesson plans and materials when so many are available for free.
But, if you have a lot of materials, this might be a spare cash vehicle for you.
There are some cautions. For example:
- If your materials were created while you were at work, the copyright might be owned by your employer
- If you and some teacher friends jointly created the materials, you might need a legal contract or a formal partnership arrangement
- If your materials contain any resources that were "borrowed" from textbooks, the textbook (or other) publishers might not like to find out that you were selling some of their intellectual property
Explore Your Options
There are other options that you can explore. For example:
- You can sell your materials in electronic (or other form) on eBay, where the cost for conducting an auction is about 25 cents. Link to eBay™
- You can collect your materials and sell them to a commercial publisher such as Teacher Created Materials. Here is link to their contact page: Link to the Teacher Created Materials site
- You can hire an agent and sell your materials to a big-name publisher (You're on your own here.)
- You can publish your materials with an online "Quick Print" publisher such as LULU. Link to the free, Quick Print site, LULU.com
- You can share your materials
The Rest of the Story
The scramble for high-grade materials and the quest for high test scores can distract teachers from the fact that the most important asset for students is their teacher.
Often, in their push to hype and highlight their materials, marketers downplay the importance of the teacher in the classroom.
A real person that children like, real interaction that engages children, and the interpersonal dynamics of a sharing and caring teacher outdistance materials and plan books on the classroom productivity scale.
Our classrooms need student and teacher empowerment, not more powerful materials.
A materials-driven classroom strategy does not help teachers on a long-term basis.
As our friends in Great Britain would say, much of the stuff that teachers buy is "One Off." That is, one use and you're done. The "activity-driven" model of lesson planning is inefficient and it dissipates classroom focus.
What is more efficient is the modular lesson design that Classroom Toolkit advocates.
But, knowing what to do with all those world-class materials is also part of the story.
The time and cost benefits develop when you train your students in how to think, work together, solve problems and contribute to the learning in the classroom.
The Classroom Toolkit Business Model
Developing the Classroom Toolkit Web site did not take cashing in a retirement or maxing out credit cards.
The basic cost of hosting the site is $300 US per year.
And, the ads at the bottom left of the page just about cover that cost. I'm sure that the ads would cover the cost of the site if I moved them near the top of the page (so more folks would click on them), but that would spoil the look of the page.
The Classroom Toolkit site is a proof of concept project for a larger project, something like the goals of TeachersPayTeachers.com, except that participation and materials would be completely free to teachers, worldwide; and there would not be a cost, ever.
In support of this New Nugget topic, I have posted a number of electronic books/ courses, so that teachers can learn what it takes to develop these business strategies.
Hint: this is a lot of work, and you won't get rich quickly. The rule is "Buyer Beware" for any information that promises immediate riches if you buy today.
Here are the links to Second Income/ Alternate Business courses that teachers may find helpful:
- How to start and run an Affiliate Business
- Affiliate Business Course
- How to develop an Automated Product Delivery strategy
- Automated Product Delivery eBook
- How to develop a long-term Internet Auction business course
- Net Auction Course
- How to write for the Internet Course
- Net Writing Course
- How to price your products for the most profit
- Pricing Products
- How to sell your services and increase your business using the Internet
- Service Sellers Course
- What you need to do to set up a Webmaster Business
- Webmaster Business Course
- Resources for setting up a at home business
- Work at Home Course
Also, be sure to check the Top Tips section of this newsletter for a low/ minimal cost strategy that teachers can use to share materials within your district.
