Drape's Takes - Latest Comments

Re: That Time When Larry Cuban Ignored Copyright Law. Again.

Darren Draper — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 19:27:26 -0000

Yeah, I don't think so. My guess is that he doesn't think it's a big deal.

Re: That Time When Larry Cuban Ignored Copyright Law. Again.

scottmcleod — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 16:52:22 -0000

Apparently he doesn't care?

Re: Why Clicking "Publish" Means Different Things to Different People - My Response to @shaireskee

Darren Draper — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 22:35:33 -0000

Awesome video, Dean. As always, thanks for sharing!

Re: Why Clicking "Publish" Means Different Things to Different People - My Response to @shaireskee

Dean Shareski — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:32:22 -0000

Great response. I agree.

I think I was trying to make the point that for many people, they've not explored or thought about the changes to the notion of publishing. My goal was to open up that possibility to people that I know are hesitant to post anything.

I love the fact that you can use this space for various purposes. I think many people don't get that. I really try hard not to prescribe any method in particular but at the same time try to dispel mindsets that may be getting in the way of sharing.

Also if you've not seen this video about language and writing, take a look.

http://youtu.be/J7E-aoXLZGY

Re: Ah, the Power of Mail Merge!

Sam Greaves — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:49:02 -0000

That is a great touch from the teacher. I believe the "thank you" email mechanism works in teacher-parent relationship as much it works in a retailer-customer relationship.

Re: The Last Daze

Jen Buttars — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:42:31 -0000

I am facing the same dilemma with my own kids. I keep telling my students that we are working hard until June 5th. They have been working SO well!

Re: What "Best High Schools" in the US Reveal About Class Size #utpol

Matthew Sproul — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:03:11 -0000

I completely agree that class size is a huge part of the achievement equation. My largest class while student teaching was 39. Now, my largest class is 19. The contrast for me is unreal. When teaching 30+ students at a time I found myself having to teach to the middle because of time restraints. Now that I have under 20 student's, I have the time to focus on students' individual needs. When people ask me what is so great about my school, I always tell them "the class sizes."

If Utah schools want to compete with the rest of the nation, I think that reducing class sizes would be an excellent place to start.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Tabitha Carro — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:00:53 -0000

If teachers shouldn't benefit from public resources funded by taxpayers, then schools shouldn't benefit from teachers' personal money and time. If TpT is bad, then taking working home, buying classroom resources, using our own personal technology, staying after hours, is also unjust. Take away all that a teacher does that is NOT funded by the government, and you will have a very mediocre education system indeed.

Very surprised that a fellow educator would post this. It's very illogical and ignorant. Makes me wonder right now how you know how teachers are creating their materials. Maybe you're peeking through my windows right now as I complete a QR code resource in the confines of my own house on my own PC. Weird.

Regardless of how a teachers creates her materials for TpT, SHE WILL NEVER RECEIVE MORE THAN SHE IS GIVING at the hands of the taxpayers. Very ridiculous post...or perhaps extremely clever. Great ploy to get more traffic. Kuddos to you.

Re: What "Best High Schools" in the US Reveal About Class Size #utpol

Darren Draper — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:45:18 -0000

Wahoo, Carolyn. Congratulations!

I agree completely with your apples/oranges assessment of charters. I also agree that these lists leave doubt in many minds, but worry about how much stock the general public places in them. My primary point in writing this post was to emphasize that IF making these lists is important to leaders and legislators in Utah, then it's time we take decreasing class size more seriously - because the deck's stacked against us if we don't.

How was Fort Worth for you this week? I love the Stock Yards and the kind people there, in general!

Re: What "Best High Schools" in the US Reveal About Class Size #utpol

Carolyn Foote — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:33:37 -0000

I also noticed the class size seemingly correlated with teh ranking; as well as the school size in general. Does the personal impact of being able to know all 400 students in your school(rather than 2,000 or 3,000) make a difference? Also, the preponderance of charter schools is an apples /oranges issue for me: while public take all students, many charters have a much more selective student body.

In the top 15 schools, only 3 or so were not small schools and weren't charters of some kind.

I think these sorts of lists are suspect, anyway, but it seems possible to gather some trends from taking time to analyze it, so thanks for your post.

And for whatever it is worth, my school was on the list!

Re: It's All in How You Sell It

Jen — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:35:04 -0000

Yes! It's only a cool tool if it fits (relatively) seamlessly into already great instruction...

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Darren Draper — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:00:29 -0000

Off duty police officers working on other security-type assignments are perfect. Their expertise is perfectly aligned! But it's also a shame some have to work a second job because of the low wages they earn as law enforcement! (Which is exactly what I argued for teachers in this post.)

Would you be comfortable with a police officer doing their second job WHILE on duty as a police officer?

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Darren Draper — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:38:02 -0000

Hmmm, Deb.

I'm not sure that student gain is what TpT is all about. Would TpT exist if they couldn't turn a profit?

Part of the complexity of this issue lies in the understanding that there are times when TpT may be turning a profit at tax-payer expense.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Deb — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:11:39 -0000

The "bottom line" is that our students gain and isn't that what TpT/education is truly about?

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Darren Draper — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:11:59 -0000

Greetings, all (again). I've added my final update to the post.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Kourtney Elliott Payton — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:02:25 -0000

This may surprise you, but most of us are teaching during school hours and don't have time to make our resources at school. Also, I spend hundreds of dollars on quality clip art...these products are mine and while I give many items away for free, I don't feel the least bit bad about selling the rest considering I spend many nights and weekends working on them!

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Deb — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:52:43 -0000

http://www.businessinsider....

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Bill Fitzgerald — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:21:20 -0000

"Just imagine if we could stimulate that kind of economic prosperity among our friends!"

We can. Why not take some PD budget, and rather than spend it on the usual drivel, spend it in a facilitator who can work with faculty to revise and refine their existing lessons and plans into a reusable format?

Teachers could get paid for their time; the facilitator could help iron out process and editing issues; and, at the end of a year, you have a group of professionals who have established a learning network and an authoring process right in your district. This is the foundation for both meaningful PD, for knowledge sharing between buildings, and texts that make sense for your students.

It also treats teachers like adults, and keeps your money local. Any teaching resources created could be released under a CC license, ensuring that work created with public money can be used in perpetuity to support the public good.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Brational2 — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:44:47 -0000

If I had the choice between using a district computer on my own time to create lessons to use in my own classroom that I could never offer for sale, or to create lessons on my own computer, on my own time, that I could sell to thousands of other teachers in order to better support my family, it would take me about a nanosecond to make the choice.

If districts want teachers to spend their unpaid time outside of school making quality lessons for the students in their own district, they should probably not get all worked up about the teacher then offering those lessons for sale to support their families. Because if districts want to push it, teachers won't have any problem choosing who gets the benefit of their time outside of school. It will always be their own families. And you will be told to keep that district laptop because it won't be needed outside of contract time.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Molly — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 21:08:54 -0000

not only that, but off duty police officers make money doing security type jobs. They also even work off duty at government schools. Oh goodness... I guess that would be shameful. You have one government job with a police officer and then he goes to keep things calm at another government job. Gosh, I don't even know what to make of that. As you can see, it seems quite ridiculous that you would expect the cop to work for FREE in his off time. By the way, if teachers tutor kids during their off time, do they need to give the money to the school? Or maybe it should just be for free since I guess the teacher's work day just doesn't seem to have an ending point.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Mat8w — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:46:25 -0000

Pretty unfortunate post. The teachers on tpt are entrepreneurs, and your aim to try to taint their success because there may be some who inappropriately use their work resources is pretty illogical. Substitute tpt with eBay or amazon or any online market, and replace educators with any other publically funded job and you have the same exact issue. Why not go after ebay? Probably some publically funded rule breakers there!

Besides the lack of logic, the biggest issue is when you go after (mostly honest, ethical) teachers doing something to make a few extra bucks - and c'mon, that is what this is, really - it gives me the impression that you want to make sure teachers just take their low paying jobs, non paying overtime, and goofy Chrismas sweaters and not try to access the free market that everyone is entitled to.

Because some teacher might break a rule...

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Darren Draper — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:45:58 -0000

Point well taken! Thanks for your comment.

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Sarah Wiggins — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:36:24 -0000

Mr. Draper, by your logic, you could struggle with pretty much any website, store, free market in the world because guess what? There will always be people who break the rules. Your point is valid that resources made with public funds shouldn’t be sold for profit. However, to imply that there is a problem with TPT as a whole because some teachers choose to break their district policy is flawed logic. Take the MLB for example. Some players chose to go against league policy and use steroids. It doesn’t mean the MLB as a whole is flawed.

For me personally, I am blessed to be able to stay home with my little son, and TPT provides a little bonus so that we can afford to maybe take a vacation or do the extras that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise afford on one salary. Others have used their income to pay off houses, pay for their children’s college, pay off student loans. and I guarantee, a good portion of the money has been put back into public school classrooms buying supplies, technology, books, and other essentials that the districts can’t seem to afford. Do you have a dilemma with that?

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Tracy — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:27:42 -0000

ALL of the teachers I know on TPT, including myself, make the teaching resources on their own time and with their own money.
No, it is not EASY. I do not crank out products in an hour. It takes hours and hours of time.
None of it was done with public funds or on public time. Do your homework next time.
Please.
~ A Public Educator that LOVES Her Job

Re: Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

Darren Draper — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:22:19 -0000

Thank you for working so hard to help other teachers succeed! I'm glad TpT has provided a way for you to make a little extra money.

Best of luck in your future endeavors!