Teachers selling lesson plans online to colleagues who can’t prepare their own

‘We pay cash.’ Teachers are pocketing money to sell their classroom lesson plans to colleagues confused by Australia’s curriculum requirements.

Busy teachers are buying lesson plans and assignments from colleagues online.

Teachers are cashing in on the curriculum by selling ­lesson plans to colleagues too busy to prepare their own classroom materials.

A company called Australian Curriculum Lessons is offering to “pay a donation’’ to teachers willing to share their lesson plans and assignments online.

“Earn cash for lessons and enjoy some extra money to pay for the things that matter most to you,’’ its website states. “We pay cash via direct deposit to hundreds of teachers in Australia.

“We will review the lesson and offer you a bid, generally between $30 to $80 per lesson, depending on the depth, demand and quality of the lesson. It may be even more.’’

The website states that lessons must be aligned to the Australian curriculum and include all ­worksheets and handouts, but teachers retain copyright.

“Australian Curriculum Lessons acknowledges that you are still the owner of the work and that we would simply like to pay a ­donation to you to have the work displayed indefinitely on our site,’’ it states.

A Facebook group called Australian Curriculum Aligned ­Resources for Sale has 4700 members, including individual teachers as well as companies including Matheroo, Mr Bucks Phys Ed, Aussie Waves and Milford Lodge, which helps teachers to design, write and deliver an “authentic, place-based Acknowledgement of Country’’.

Teachers Pay Teachers – an online marketplace to buy and sell educational materials – offers 16,804 assignments, assessments and lesson plans aligned to the curriculum, starting at $4 each.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has spoken to teachers too busy to prepare their own lesson plans. He lauded NSW ­Education Minister Sarah Mitchell’s decision for her education department to build a quality-controlled library of free lesson plans, education texts and assignment templates for teachers.

“A big part of teacher workload is often lesson preparation, preparing every afternoon or night for the lessons you’ll deliver the next day,’’ Mr Clare said.

“Teachers have told us they often buy lesson plans off other teachers, over the internet.

“They often pay for it from their own pockets, so they have time to cook dinner for their families.

“Sometimes (the plans are bought from) commercial companies, sometimes it’s individual teachers.’’

The minister’s comments come as education research group Learning First condemned Australia’s “fundamentally flawed’’ curriculum, which varies in state and territory syllabus documents, and must be interpreted and ­delivered by individual schools and teachers.

“At a system level we don’t even know what is taught in most classrooms,’’ Learning First chief executive Dr Ben Jensen and manager Nicole Murnane write in today’s Inquirer section.

“We don’t know what students learn, what books they read, what projects they do, what assignments and essays they write.’’

Learning First called on ­governments to provide more ­direction to teachers about what to teach in each part of the ­curriculum.

“(Teachers) can access thousands of resources and supports from the government or on the web, but they don’t know which are high quality, which resources fit together and in what sequence,’’ Dr Jenson and Ms Murnane write.

“High-performing and high-equity (education) systems … have more explicit and detailed curriculum and provide comprehensive guidance, resources and supports to teachers.’’