TAA members urged to submit to Teaching Point - The royalties offered by Teaching Point to members of Text and Academic Authors for course materials is a good deal, said Ron Pynn, TAA past president. Pynn encouraged members to contact Teaching Point. Background: Class materials publisher seeks TAA author works (next article).

Teaching Point seeks TAA member course materials - Teaching Point, an academic publisher of a comprehensive series of K-12 and college level instructional support materials, called Expert Systems for Teachers, is offering an opportunity to for teachers to author and publish their work. Ron Pynn, TAA past president, urged members to contact Teaching Point about this opportunity.

Teaching Point chief executive, Doug Matthews, got the idea after seeing TAA's web site, which he called informative and helpful. "I had been looking for the TAA contract report to see what percentage of royalties were being offered by other publishers," said Matthews. "Since my wife is a teacher and an author, I told her she should be a member. We have been members for years now and find the web site and print newsletter informative and helpful, giving us a good overview of what's going on in the text and academic authoring world."

All materials submitted to the Teaching Point by TAA members would be reviewed by an academic publishing review board, said Matthews, to ensure that the materials align to major state and national standards for the subject. All board members would be experts in the subject they review, he said.

Teaching Point is looking for veteran teachers, with at least five years of experience in their subject and have written materials in almost publishable form. "The materials are the 'cookbook' for the class, and we're looking for a 'master teacher' in all subjects at all grade levels that have their materials into almost publishable form," said Matthews. Their goal is to have the materials ready for delivery in English and translations to major languages.

Written materials should have these qualities, said Matthews: Elements that other teachers could replicate. Proven success in the classroom. Strategies that actually work and detailed instructions on how to make them work. The teacher materials would consist of a syllabus, pacing guide, daily lesson plans including teaching strategies, lecture notes (PowerPoint's), quizzes and tests, student activity book or lab manual with worksheets, homework, labs if applicable. All materials would be carefully timed out, said Matthews, and include a suggested list of videos, textbooks and other ancillary materials.

Teachers interested in the project should visit the Teaching Point web site and fill out a 20-question pre-publication form in the teacher-author section, said Matthews."

TEACHINGpoint course materials support teachers and students in public schools, charter schools and home schools globally, in many countries of North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Plans are under way to translate materials into other languages with Spanish versions already in development.