Comments on: Teachers sell lesson plans

By: Mr Teacher

Mr Teacher — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:44:32 +0000

PS: $31,ooo?! You can’t argue with that. Well done to that person.

By: Mr Teacher

Mr Teacher — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:41:54 +0000

This is intriguing. I would argue that my work, including lesson plans, belongs to me because I created it. It seems to be a moot point, however, because I find it crazy that someone would hand over money for a lesson plan, something they could easily create on their own. Also, it tends to be specific to the teacher and to the class it is aimed at and would rarely be of use to somebody else. Rather than a single lesson plan, it would need to a comprehensive scheme of work with appropriate, differentiated resources.

Having said that, an item is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it. If another teacher values something that I have created and wants to hand over cash for it, then surely this is mutually beneficial and isn’t doing any harm?

By: Rachel Lynette

Rachel Lynette — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:57:48 +0000

Thanks for the tip on the radio broadcast, Jill. As a teacher who also sells on TpT, I am very interested in the discussion.

Teacherspayteachers.com has a discussion board for sellers, and one of the sellers who was featured in the article said that she had no idea that the article would take that slant. She feels that it was done mainly to sell papers and that teachers do not need to be worried about this.

She was responding to teachers who are worried that parents and collegues will discover their products on TpT. It seems a sad thing when teachers feel they need to hide their identity to sell work they are proud of.

By: Jill F.

Jill F. — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:55:52 +0000

These are great posts about selling lesson plans, from a great variety of points of view.

I thought I would let you know that the CBC radio (Canadian Broadcasting Company) program The Current, will be discussing this issue on Monday, Nov. 23rd (8:30-9am Eastern time). I have been approached to participate in the discussion – as a teacher who does use TPT to sell her materials.

By: Sarah Ebner

Sarah Ebner — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:49:01 +0000

Fascinating post – I wonder if contracts will now be changed to make it clear who owns what!

By: pm

pm — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:47:06 +0000

Not sure which states this discussion applies to, but here is some information from the School Library Journal:

“The school holds the copyright on lesson plans because its employees created them as part of their job. If a teacher created lesson plans during nonwork time, she would retain ownership.”

The rest can be found here:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6302204.html

By: pm

pm — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:18:13 +0000

Different states have different laws about what employers can require of employees as far as intellectual property rights. For example here is a link to California Labor Code 2870:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2870-2872

By: Lightly Seasoned

Lightly Seasoned — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:16:28 +0000

Hmm…. moral turpitude, yep. Intellectual property… nope. Not mentioned. Several of my colleagues have published books with Heineman and have kept all the profits, even though they were about educational research and stuff, so there’s actually precedent in my district if I wanted to sell my LPs.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:41 +0000

I find nothing in my contract about intellectual property, so I’m free to sell what I’d like.

Absent a specific statement, though–some people here seem to have a visceral dislike for the mere idea of teachers’ selling their lesson plans. What is the drive there? What motivates the feeling that they should *not* be able to? I do not understand it, but want to.

By: Kaysi

Kaysi — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:13:52 +0000

If I could quit my second job to sell my lesson plans I would in a heartbeat! All of the hard work and long hours we put into developing lesson plans would help me financially but also help another teacher. Sometimes I feel like I live at my school developing lessons and most of the time that is after hours and on the weekends. If I could help another teacher save hours of work by looking at mine and using it in their classroom I don’t see the big deal. Teachers are not paid a lot in my state so I would hope that the lesson plans are not very much money that would be my only concern.