I missed this last month, but a friend sent over a NY Times article looking at the growing practice of teachers making additional money by selling lesson plans. Marketplaces are emerging, and teachers who have crafted smart and useful lesson plans are able to earn extra cash, while other teachers who are looking for help in crafting smart lesson plans, or understanding what kinds of lesson plans work gain the ability to learn from others, rather than starting from scratch. However, there’s a problem (isn’t there always?). Some school districts are upset that the teachers are selling lesson plans, believing they deserve some of the “cut.” Thanks to our “ownership society,” we’ve built up this belief that every idea must be “owned” and if anyone makes money, others come grabbing as well.
Of course, while the article doesn’t go there, I would bet that a growing number of teachers are seeing value not just in “selling” lesson plans, but posting them publicly for free. In doing that, you can get better feedback and open a nice discussion among other teachers to share what they all have learned, and create a better overall lesson plan that helps everyone out (especially the students). In fact, the more you think about it, the more you realize that expecting teachers to keep coming up with their own lesson plans entirely separate from what thousands of other teachers are doing, seems positively backwards.
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