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Should Teachers Be Able to Sell Lesson Plans for Cash?
Mrs. Mimi | Teaching.monster.com
Oh friends! My heart is literally pounding for I am angry! Irritated! Astounded!
Today I am angry because I finally read the story from Sunday’s New York Times (MASSIVE kitchen re-organizing took over my life this weekend….grueling and intense, but well worth it. I do heart an organized kitchen!!). Did you see this article? If you didn’t, you can check it out here. It’s the one questioning whether or not teachers should be allowed to sell their own lesson plans for profit or whether said lesson plans are actually property of the school. I’ll give you a moment to read and for my heart to slow down. I think I’ll have a seat (prior to now, you should have imagined me pacing and ranting) and put my head between my knees.
Ready? I’m feeling a little better now (thank you for asking). Where to begin? I think you can guess where Mrs. Mimi stands on this one! And while I encourage free debate in my comments, may I ask you to choose your words very carefully (VERY. CAREFULLY.) if you choose to comment (read: disagree with me) today.
Basically there are many, such as the fine people over at Teachers Pay Teachers (shout out to former NYC teachers….holla!), who believe that yes, this work and these ideas do indeed belong to the teacher. This is probably because these people recognize that most teachers (if not all teachers) create their lesson plans OUTSIDE of school and/or AFTER 3:00. They do this because there isn’t even one single second of time during the day where they might be able to sit down and work out anything coherent…you know, ’cuz their days are filled with things like um, teaching, meeting after meeting after meeting, working with children who need extra help, frantically running to the photo copier, desperately trying to catch up on data collecting, or, you know, eating or peeing. JUST TO NAME A FEW.
One d-bag quoted in the article (I am debating about whether or not to name him here because he IS named in the article….um, hi, target on your back much? But, have decided he doesn’t even DESERVE naming here in my space – a TEACHER’S space. So we will call him Mr. D-Bag In A Suit since I feel there is no way he is not dry clean only…meaning, there is no way he has ever got down on a floor and worked with an actual child so why doesn’t he keep his mouth SHUT!) said that he believes if the materials are created with school district resources that the school district should share in a portion of the profits.
