For the First Time New eBay-like Website Allows Teachers to Buy and Sell Original Course Materials

New York, NY – TeachersPayTeachers.com, the first open marketplace for original teacher-created materials, launched this month and is expected to help thousands of teachers buy and sell original curricular resources. According to Paul Edelman, founder of this program and a former New York City public school teacher, “When I was teaching, I felt a great need for better sharing among teachers, not merely in my school but across the country and world. I believe this site will transform the way teachers share – and teachers will have the extra bonus of raising additional cash.”

The sharing of ideas and teaching methods is the lifeblood of an evolving educational system, but it is Edelman’s contention that most of what’s been created by teachers and professors is not shared except with maybe a few local colleagues. “Most teachers don’t take the time to post their materials on the web and many hold them close to their vests because they put so much work into them,” Edelman says. The solution to this problem was obvious; Edelman developed a monetary incentive to share original course material, a simple idea that became TeachersPayTeachers.com. “In the long run,” he says, “with the incentive in place, teachers the world over will finally be able to truly tap into the wealth of teacher-created materials. Everyone will benefit, especially students from the better spread of best practices.”

Following on the heels of groundbreaking sites like eBay and the Amazon.com marketplace, TeachersPayTeachers will allow current, former or retired teachers who author their own high quality educational resources to open up their own ‘virtual stores’ to sell their curricular creations. On the site, the Teacher-Authors, as they are called, maintain the intellectual property rights to their work and earn a generous 85% on each sale they make. Teacher-Authors also have total control of their catalogs: they upload their own document-products, designate categories, write descriptions, set their own prices and track their sales. And just as quality on eBay and the Amazon marketplace is regulated by user ratings and comments, the same is true on TeachersPayTeachers. Potential teacher-consumers can also preview products, download free offerings by Teacher-Authors and even ask Teacher-Authors questions about their products to determine whether they want to go ahead and make a tax-deductible purchase.

Member Teacher-Author Jerry Caveglia has this to say: “The saddest thing about retiring after 32 years of creating and refining lessons and activities that are of proven quality and effectiveness is that it is all going to waste. I am very excited about TeachersPayTeachers because I have visions of hundreds of new young teachers finding and using my experience and research.”

The site includes educational resources developed by 7 former State Teachers of the Year and a National Teacher of the Year. According to Edelman, “It’s great that a new teacher can now access and use materials created by the nation’s best teachers. In time we expect to be the best place for teaching materials anywhere.”

For additional information contact:
Paul Edelman
Founder, Teacher Synergy Inc.
www.TeachersPayTeachers.com
419 Lafayette St. 4th Fl.
New York, NY 10009
Phone: 917-664-7288
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com
mailto:pedelman@teacherspayteachers.com?subject=AC%20Inquiry