Here’s your business news of the day: TeachersPayTeachers, the website that lets teachers sell their lesson plans and materials, reportedly paid out $1 million dollars to teachers last year. To cite another measure, the company is generating $2 million in gross sales. According to Business Wire, one unnamed teacher makes as much money selling her stuff on the site as she does—well—teaching. (But then, maybe that’s not saying all that much, right?)
In any case, the company’s apparent growth would seem to tell us two things: 1) that what teachers do and create has value; and 2) that—at the same time—a lot of teachers are in search of good, useable resources. You have to admit: The company’s founders were pretty smart to see—and act on—these somewhat contradictory trends.