They have one of the toughest jobs in America and there’s no argument that they’re underpaid. Now, a Web site is offering teachers an opportunity to cash in — literally.
The average salary for a teacher these days is $47,000 a year. But, one thing that money doesn’t account for is the time a teacher spends putting their lesson plans together. Now one man is offering teachers the opportunity to earn some extra cash for their original ideas.
“Teacherspayteachers.com is an open market place — it's a first of its kind service for teachers and it's a place they can open their own little corner stores, like eBay, but without the auctions. They can sell their original course materials for instant downloads,” said Paul Edelman, founder of teacherspayteachers.com.
Individual lesson plans can cost anywhere from $1 to $5 while lessons covering 6-8 weeks can cost anywhere from $5 to $25, and it’s the teachers who get to pocket the money.
“The teacher authors pay an annual fee of $29.95 and for that fee they can upload an unlimited number of products and then they set their own prices and keep track of their sales. The teachers keep 85% of their sales, and then get paid out by us on a quarterly basis,” said Edelman.
So far the site has over a thousand registered users and it is still in its infancy, launching just two months ago. While some say this could make educators lazy, teachers argue they’re just looking for the best way to reach their kids.
“I think it will lead to greater innovation and teachers will spend more time fine-tuning and honing their materials… this will lead to greater innovation in the education field and that benefits everybody,” said Edelman.
Now the next school project your kids bring home might be earning them a few well-deserved extra bucks.