Let me preface this whole post by saying that I have nothing against the teachers who sell their work on Teachers Pay Teachers. I've just come to realize it's not for me.
In what might be the quickest 180 of my recent life, I "opened" a TPT shop last night and within 10 hours decided to close it. Here's why:
1. I want to be a better teacher. I don't know any teachers who wouldn't agree with this statement. One of the best ways to get better is to receive honest, unbiased feedback from knowledgeable people and use it to make changes. I have a better opportunity to get feedback and engage in dialogue through this blog and Twitter than I do an online store.
2. I want ALL students to have a great math experience. If I make something awesome, I should share it so that other students (and teachers) can benefit. There's no joy in keeping the "secrets of success" sequestered in my four classroom walls. I share freely with my colleagues in my building and district, so why not my colleagues in other buildings? We're
all in this together, friends. I wouldn't let the math teacher next
door buy a worksheet I made, so why should I let any other math teacher buy it?
3. Generosity begets generosity. You know, "pay it forward" and all that jazz! If I give something useful, it might encourage another teacher to share their good stuff. I'm also indebted to the scores of teachers whose blogs I've read over the past several years and I need to share now that I feel I might have something worthy.
4. It's not (and never was) about the money. I really just want feedback (see #1) so I can improve my teaching. Save your dollar, buy yourself a drink from the vending machine, and leave me a comment when you download something. Cheers! :)
Special thanks to @druinok for sending me a tweet that got me started on my 180.
And, without further ado, here's the Families of Functions file that I mentioned yesterday. The first one is a Word doc but the font changed (from Noteworthy to ?), so it's formatted strangely. Still, if you want to edit it, that would be the best one to use. The pdf is second and it seems perfect, so use that one if you don't want to make any changes. Download, share, and don't forget to comment!
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
I admire your decision (and making it public)! It's so nice to have people share things without making people pay; we all put in our time and so many of us make our materials freely available.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It's very generous of you to make your hard work available to us at no charge. I have found TPT is not a good fit for me either. Other than my blog, there is one place where I do make my stuff freely available and that's
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sharemylesson.com/ which was created by the AFT.
Thanks again.
Thank you!! I have loved your blog since I first found it and I agree with you about all of the points you made above! For me, one of the things that makes the MTBoS so special is how willing everyone is to share freely in order to better ourselves and our profession. Thanks again for all you contribute to the community!
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