Why we Need Teachers Pay Teachers

I was a member of my district’s curriculum adoption team as we searched for a new curriculum to align ourselves with the requirements of the Virginia Literacy Act.

We had several curriculum companies, and one company (a highly-rated one in the Science of Reading world, by the way) I was REALLY excited to hear from.  I tried to participate so they weren’t talking to themselves (you know how that goes).  At one point, she said “We know that there are 44 phonemes in the English language.  Does anyone know how many graphemes there are?”

It was at that point that I very, very confidently said “250!!!”  (You know I can’t help myself).  She looked at me, said “close” and told us that it was 150.  I told her I was willing to admit if I was wrong, but could we look it up, because I really think there’s 250 graphemes in English.

Long story short, we looked it up and found out that there were, in fact, 250 graphemes in the English language.

Why do I share this story?  I share it as a reminder that no one is infallible.  Yet it seems that only teachers are held to the highest scrutiny, more so than almost any company. We believed in Lucy Calkins for years because she was able to hide her ineffectiveness by being supported by a massive curriculum company.

Nowhere is this teacher scrutiny more obvious than in the debate about Teachers Pay Teacher.  Districts across the country are banning it.  And I’m here to tell you-we NEED these resources.

Full disclosure:  I sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. This is not an advertisement to get you to go to my store.  This is a desperate plea for those in charge to allow teachers the same benefit of the doubt, the same amount of respect they offer faceless companies whose CEOs know everything about making money and nothing about how children learn to read.

What is Teachers Pay Teachers?

Teacher’s Pay Teachers is an online digital marketplace.  For over a decade, it has been a place where teachers can go to find lessons, curriculum, projects, or ANYTHING they need for their classroom.  Even though I am a TPT seller, if there is something I don’t have and need quickly, I still head there to grab something I can use immediately. Think of Etsy, but for digital teaching resources.

Why is Teachers Pay Teachers often dismissed?

At the end of the day, the argument against Teachers Pay Teachers boils down to this-people do not trust teachers to make resources.  And if they do, those arguing against it think teachers don’t deserve to make money off the resources they have made.

It’s a shame we live in a world where we trust companies more than educators.

One of the most prevalent arguments against TPT is that you “can’t vet the resources” because anyone can post things on there.  Are there absolute crap resources on TPT?  Without a doubt.  But anybody can start selling on Amazon too and I’ve yet to hear of a district saying teachers cannot purchase resources from Amazon.  And don’t even get me started on the wildly misguided materials you can find from any major educational company.

It is only a company that is fueled by teachers that receives this high level of scrutiny and almost daily denigration.

Worse yet?  There are many districts that have it cleverly written into their  policies that anything a teacher makes while working for them belongs to the district, even if it is made in their own time.  Yep, there are some teachers who cannot make teaching resources on their own time without it being property of the district.  So, not only do teachers have to work outside their contract hours just to be ready for their children daily, they must also either hide their outside work or face it becoming property of the county.

Why do we need it?

We need Teachers Pay Teachers because we live in a country where even though districts spend millions of dollars on curriculum that must be administered with fidelity, teachers know there are holes.  Because we are the experts, we see where curriculum gets it right, and where it is woefully lacking.

Worse yet, some teachers aren’t given ANY curriculum. Teachers Pay Teachers can be a lifeline for those individuals. Furthermore, for tutors and homeschooling parents, TPT is an affordable place to find what their individual children need to be successful.

I started selling on TPT in 2016, but it wasn’t until I was Orton-Gillingham trained that I really found my passion for low and no-prep phonics resources.  I kept wanting to do specific things with my students, but I couldn’t find the materials I needed. I would search for something like “interactive phonics notebook” on TPT, and nothing quite fit what I wanted. So I started making it.

When we say teachers shouldn’t create their resources and be expected compensation for it, we are devaluing teachers. We need TPT because it is the TEACHERS who are working day in and day out for the sake of their kids. Moreover, so many teachers are also reading the research and ensuring our resources are aligned with what we know best about how children learn. After sitting in several curriculum presentations from large publishing companies, I can tell you with certainty that the people that are presenting on the curriculum are simply salespeople, not well-versed practitioners.

When time is short and you need something for your teaching, Teachers Pay Teachers is a lifesaver. You can quickly purchase something and use it immediately. Without TPT, teachers would be forced to go back to making their own materials for everything, and we are tired enough.

Final Thoughts

I know this blog post doesn’t align with literally anything else I write about, but I needed to use my platform and my voice to talk about this. During the pandemic, teachers were hailed as heroes, and TPT was a go-to place for teachers and parents alike to find resources.

But now it is back to business as usual. And back to business means less respect for teachers. The fact that teachers are demeaned for trying to supplement their income by selling resources astounds me.

We need Teachers Pay Teachers because at the end of the day, it is one of the very few places where teachers are able to share their knowledge and be fairly compensated for it.

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