Teachers need resources to help them teach, and the Internet has many to choose from. One of the most popular is Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT), and we thought it would be a good idea to compare it to Dataworks’ new online lesson service, Educeri.
Teachers Pay Teachers is a community of millions of educators who share their work with one another. It is a marketplace where teachers share, sell, and buy original educational resources. Its goal is to give teachers immediate access to each other’s expertise, thus providing more time to focus on students and teaching.
Educeri is a lesson subscription service that gives teachers fast and simple access to standards-based lessons. Educeri lessons are slideshows that work through any web-connected device. With educeri, teachers have access to all content for all grades and subjects, allowing them to accelerate or remediate as needed. Educeri’s goal is to provide affordable and fast access to well-crafted, standards-based lessons that support great instruction, so students can learn more and learn faster and teachers can save time in lesson prep.
These two resources can be compared in four ways — quantity, cost, content, and usability.
Quantity.
TpT hits a home run in this category. It offers more than 3 million free and paid resources. Educeri, though only 2 years old, offers more than 1,300 complete lessons plus student handouts and some quizzes.
Cost.
TpT charges per resource (except for some resources that are free). The prices range from $3 to $7 with $15 or so for units or bundles. Educeri charges $7 per month for access to ALL lessons. It’s sort of the Netflix model for lessons.
Content.
There is a big difference between the sites in content. Both sites feature lessons made by educators. However, TpT has a huge variety of formats for lessons. Some lessons are projects, some are discussion questions, some are clever ideas for presenting concepts, and so on. It also includes printables, apps, assessments, ebooks, and more. Teachers have to sort through all kinds of resources to find what will work for them. Lots of good ideas, but it takes time to select.
Educeri, on the other hand, provides a consistent format for all lessons. This format is based on the seven components of effective lessons identified by leading researchers. Each lesson starts with a Learning Objective, followed by Activating Prior Knowledge, Concept Development, Skill Development/Guided Practice, Relevance, Closure, and Independent Practice. This format is a like the bones of our body — a framework for each teacher to build on with their own style. It assures that every lesson has an effective content for learning.
Usability.
Both sites have search capabilities to allow teachers to drill down to the type of lesson, grade, or subject they want. Both sites list the standards for most lessons. However, TpT makes each lesson or resource downloadable, and then the teacher has to organize it for their classroom. Each resource requires a different kind of preparation.
Educeri makes the lessons projectable. It saves teachers time in organizing the details of the lesson because the sequence, objectives, concepts, passages, problems, and even checking for understanding questions are all provided. In addition, Educeri lessons have animated answers (and sometimes examples, like showing how the Pythagorean Theorem works). These lessons also allow teachers to markup the lesson with digital highlighter or underlining. The lessons are accessible from any Internet-connected device — computer, tablet, or phone.
The Internet is an all-you-can-eat buffet of ideas for teaching. There is something for everyone. TpT lets you choose from all the entrees on the hot table. Educeri is for the teacher who likes to watch what she eats and choose the best foods that will be digested well in her classes. Bon appetit!
Great post.
Love this post!