One of the most influential books I have read over the last few months is Open: how we'll work, live and learn in the future by musician, educator and fellow Leeds resident, David Price. If you haven’t come across it before, I can thoroughly recommend it.
In his book, David Price explores new trends in working and learning made possible by the internet and the rise of social media. There are several ideas from Open that have powerful implications for education and I will explore several of these on this blog in the next few months. One of the most important parts of being ‘open’ is about reciprocal sharing.
Over the last few years, I have been turning my ideas into buyable teaching resources available from my shop on the TES platform. I put together short and long planning prompts and Medium Term Planning documents for creative writing, literacy, and cross-curricular units of work.
Selling resources is a vital source of income to support my independent work (most of the work I do is for free). The platform, understandably, takes a cut from each sale. This means I have to raise the price to make any kind of profit and teachers don’t get value for money.
With this in mind, I have made almost all of my teaching resources free for teachers to use but, to keep my work going, I ask for a sponsorship for each resource people download. Each resource comes with a suggested donation – usually £1 or £2 – but it works more on a pay-as-you-can approach. Payments can be made securely via Paypal.
Sharing resources in this way not only makes my ideas more open, it also makes them cheaper. The more people who donate for what they download, the more resources I can produce. Everyone wins!
To find out how to support me, please visit the ‘sponsor me’ page or drop me an email: articulateeducation@gmail.com
You can access my TES shop through the Resources tab.
If you are interested in reading David Price’s book, follow the link to visit his author page on Amazon.
Thanks for your support!Keywords: David Price, open, creative commons, education, creative literacy resources, Stefan Kucharczyk, professional learning network