Online Resources from/for Teachers

Most of my notes are about resources coming from outside the current educational system, but this morning I noticed Teachers Make Money Selling Materials Online - ABC News

Teachers like Nannini are making extra money providing materials to their cash-strapped and time-limited colleagues on curriculum sharing sites like teacherspayteachers.com, providing an alternative to more traditional — and generally more expensive — school supply stores. Many districts, teachers and parents say these sites are saving teachers time and money, and giving educators a quick way to make extra income.

They're talking about TeachersPayTeachers.com - An Open Marketplace for Original Lesson Plans and Other Teaching Resources and about Share My Lesson - Free K-12 Resources By Teachers, For Teachers, and about the more institutional approach of Membership, policy, and professional development for educators - ASCD, with its ASCD InService Blog.

As a total outsider, I feel some hope that teacher developments can grow to meet the Khan Academy and its ilk somewhere in the middle, but wonder if our educational system (The System™) actually has the flexibility to allow that growth; I remember the hope of Papert's MindStorms, long ago, and then his later book, The Children's Machine: Rethinking School In The Age Of The Computer. I remember my eldest and his high-school friends in our kitchen, talking excitedly about the "Children's Machine" and about how School™ had absorbed the promise of Logo in spite of all the good teachers, just because of the kind of system it was. It's likely that change will have to be pushed from outside.

Or then again, maybe not. Hope springs eternal, and all that.