Lesson Plans That Pay

When Paul Edelman realized he couldn’t support his family on a teacher’s salary, the former New York City instructor opened a business that he hopes will help other educators stay afloat. Nearly a year old, TeachersPayTeachers.com allows educators to buy and sell lessons and assessments—a particularly useful service for new teachers.

“The idea excited me because I was helping teachers make supplemental income,” Edelman says. “It seemed like the perfect thing to do.”

Prices vary from 50 cents to $30 for materials ranging from worksheets to semester-long plans, and Edelman gets 15 percent of a teacher’s sales. The rest? Extra income. So far, 5,000 teachers have registered to sell more than 3,000 products.

Matt Thayer, of Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, California, has sold 39 lessons on the site. He sees it as one of few reputable online resources. “[Most] stuff on the Internet, it’s just crap,” Thayer says.

Arizona special education instructor Jeffrey Richards has bought more than 25 lessons and even made referrals—one being his wife, a fifth-grade teacher. “My wife clicks on there and goes, ‘You spent over $100 on there?’ and I go, ‘Really?’” Richards chuckles.

—Natalie McGill