The article tells us about a 43 year old kindergarten teacher, Deanna Jump, who made $1 million dollars this year selling her lesson plans. She belongs to an online marketplace where teachers are able to sell and share their lesson plans with other teachers. This website is called TPT (TeachersPayTeachers.com), founded by Paul Edelman, a retired New York City middle school English teacher. Deanna took advantage of this website, offering her brilliant lesson plans packed with all the necessities to teach 5 year old children. She also incorporated very successful ways of promoting her ideas through TPT. For example, Mrs. Jump created her own blog where she advertises and markets her lesson plans. Her products are affordable to everyone with prices ranging from free up to $100 for a packet that gives a school year worth of lesson plans. Her user rating with TPT is at the top of the list. Her best advertisement is that with every new resource unit she creates, she sends an e-mail to each of her 17,000 subscribers. "I can post something and within an hour it's selling," Jump says. Mrs. Jump is the number one seller on TPT, but there are others who have also made a formidable profit with their own ideas and plans. There are other companies similar to TPT where teachers can share their lesson plans for free, but Edelman's idea of giving teachers the opportunity to make money by sharing their lesson plans is different. He believes that offering teachers a way to make extra money will invite a higher level of lesson plans and participants. Edelman was correct. He states that TPT will bring in about $30 million dollars in lesson plan sales this year.
This is a great business that offers great opportunities for teachers to supplement their income by using their own original, creative ideas. Many teachers already buy supplies for their classrooms with their own money, just to make their teaching environment more interesting for their students. TPT offers a marketplace for these dedicated, talented teachers to help themselves and others.
TPT is another example of a successful internet business started by a person with a good idea. The success of this business teaches us that opportunities are available to share our ideas with the world. This story inspires me to be creative with my ideas, and to work hard, because great success is within reach.
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