Randi Really Does Want to Steal Your Lessons at "Share My Lesson"

With respect to all Content you post on the Service, you grant SML a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content --- Terms and Conditions, AFT Share My Lesson

In short, I sell my soul to RW and the AFT for what?!?!? a brief mention about how hard I work. Think of this when there is a ”Share My Lesson“ based book or curricula being published and sold as ”AFT developed.“ --- teacher on ICE-mail.

A few days ago I wrote a semi-serious piece about this Share My Lesson crap from the AFT (Does Randi Want to Steal Your Work?). I can't find it now but Susan Ohanian also did a riff on this. Think of it for a second. The AFT/UFT has sat by as the schools are corporatized and teachers are set against each other and in that climate is promoting a sharing approach. Context, context, context. Let's share with fellow test resisters and batters for public ed.

(And on a sidebar -- ICE and MORE mail have been loaded recently with the absolute contract violations on lesson plan formatting and forcing people to plan units -- I can see the "5-year plan ahead" coming with the UFT claiming it got it cut from 10.)

One of our ICE-mail pals did some digging and Randi DOES want to make money on your back.

Hello, 

Although I am already predisposed to not trusting RW, I decided to take up the Share My Lesson offer.

However, like a good teacher and student, I read the Terms and Conditions on the website before signing up. (I wish more of us did that in the last election and contract).

They read:

Rights In Posted Content

With respect to all Content you post on the Service, you grant SML a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. With respect to all Content you post to the Service, you hereby waive any moral rights you have in the Content. You agree to perform all further acts necessary to perfect any of the above rights granted by you to SML, including the execution of deeds and documents, at our request. SML does not acquire any title or ownership rights in the Content that you submit and/or make available. After you submit, post, email, display, transmit or otherwise make available any such Content, you continue to retain any such rights that you may have in such Content, subject to the rights, licenses and privileges granted herein.

In short, I sell my soul to RW and the AFT for what?!?!? a brief mention about how hard I work. Think of this when there is a ”Share My Lesson“ based book or curricula being published and sold as ”AFT developed.“

This is not a good thing. I am not joining Share My Lesson and am advising all UFT/AFT members not to either. Our union falls woefully short in it's understanding of rights and responsibilities in the “digital era.“

 

 

Does Randi Want to Steal Your Lessons?

The site’s basic content is free, and always will be, and you can be 100 percent certain that your e-mail address and personal information is safe and will never be sold.--- Weingarten on Share My Lesson

Randi does not guarantee that your donated lessons will not be sold or used in some commercial venture. And with teachers being put in a dog eat dog world, even the UFT/AFT used to predict that teachers might be less likely to help others - why would a vet assist a new teacher making half the salary succeed knowing full well she was training the person who would push her out?

My initial instinct always has been to share everything with everyone. But we are in a market-driven world which the AFT/UFT has also signed on to. So here Randi is inviting you to share your intellectual property for free. And mote the usual push for the Common Core.

“My only wish is that I had Share My Lesson sooner.” 

Everywhere I go, teachers, classroom paraprofessionals and other educators are telling me how helpful Share My Lesson is and how it’s helping them and their students find the resources they need. And it’s no wonder:

• Already, close to 200,000 U.S. educators have subscribed to the site, making it the fastest-growing online learning community for those working with students.
• More than 260,000 K-12 classroom resources have been uploaded to the site, tagged by content area and grade level for easy searching.
• A growing Common Core State Standards Information Center points teachers to useful resources that model approaches for teaching to the new standards.
• More than 1.5 million resources have been downloaded, the average user taking 10 on each visit.

I want to personally invite you to sign up for Share My Lesson and take advantage of this incredible resource. 

The site’s basic content is free, and always will be, and you can be 100 percent certain that your e-mail address and personal information is safe and will never be sold. Once you sign up, within minutes you’ll receive an activation e-mail. Follow the instructions in that e-mail, and you’re all set. Hundreds of thousands of resources developed by colleagues will now be at your fingertips.
You asked your union to actively support you in your daily efforts to make a difference for students. Here it is—Share My Lesson, a concrete example of solution-driven unionism. Hundreds of teachers have had a hand in developing Share My Lesson, and we look forward to your participation as well. Please sign up and share this message with a friend.

In solidarity,
Randi Weingarten

AFT President