It has come to my attention that there are products being sold on Teachers Pay Teachers and other similar sites that are being marketed to those participating in the GRA. While I have no problem with Teachers Pay Teachers, I do have a problem with the Global Read Aloud being used as a way to profit off of others.
I started this project in 2010 and have spent hundreds of hours without pay since then to keep it free. The only money I make from the project is if you buy a t-shirt and even that is just a few dollars. The profits from that go to offset the cost of buying the books I have to buy to keep reading for the project every year, running the website, as well as any legal things such as trademarking the name. Because yes, the name is trademarked and may not be present on any products not sanctioned by me, and I have not sanctioned any projects besides the items in the official store.
Thank you to those of you who have created beautiful resources and shared them for free; this is the spirit of the project; connecting with others and helping each other out. I will never make this project one that you have to pay for. I do not ever plan on making any kind of worthwhile money from this project. The authors that participate do so for free.
This project is meant to be free, to make the world smaller, to create an incredible reading experience. Not to make money, so if you are one of the people who has marketed products, please stop, please take them down or at the very least remove the name. And if you see someone trying to sell something, please let me know or send them to this post. Thank you.
The Global Read Aloud 
Ugh! I don’t have a problem with TPT either, except in instances like this! I agree with you, I like it so much better when teachers share things for free!
Thank you Pernille. So well put and yes we want to honor what was the purpose of this project…beautifully stated: “it is meant to be free, to make the world smaller, to create an incredible reading experience” We thank you for the incredible work and initiative to begin this and to connect all of us.
Pernille, I am one of the people who created a product for Pax. It was never my intention to imply that my novel study should be used for GRA, but in rereading my description, I can see how that could be assumed. I will remove mention of the GRA from the description. Honestly, I read the book last spring, and was so moved by it that I wanted to create a novel study. I had no idea that it would be chosen for GRA, since the choices are not announced until late August. I was so excited that it was chosen that I mentioned that in the description. Please accept my apology! I meant no harm to you or to your very generous commitment to bringing together a community of global readers.
I wanted to reply to you right away because I hope you do not feel this is out of line. This is in no way meant to feel like a Hetz, just a request. I have several friends who produce and sell their curriculum on TpT, I knowfirsthand how much careful thought and work is put into the products as I imagine yours had as well. Thank you for honoring my request and for creating great work for people.
I have a huge problem with TPT because I agree with you, we should all share with each other. This is how it’s been since I began teaching 20 years ago. I think it’s sad that teachers have succumb to TPT. I appreciate you speaking up. I have at least 7 teachers at my MS participating for the forest time this year and we’re so excited!!
First not forest 🙂
Heather, I feel your comment is a little too sweeping. In my opinion it is not sad, it is great to find relevant resource that can be printed easily for the classroom for a rather low-cost when compared to alternatives.
Sharing has been going on with teachers since the year dot but at the same time it does impact on the copyright and trademark of some publishing companies who also state for one classroom only. How many school libraries have publishing company resources that 5-70 staff all use? That’s not right in my opinion.
It’s great you like something but I also think it is fair that if someone is spending money purchasing the resources, such as fonts and images to use, and spending many hours creating the resources that yes, they should be paid if they ask to be – whether they be a teacher on TPT or the like, or a publishing company..
I think it is lovely when someone chooses to share a great program like GRA. But each person must make a choice if they choose to share or sell teaching resources that they create and all people need to respect that decision.
Thank you for what you are doing!
Well said Pernille,
I hope people respect your intentions!
Bravo!
Thank you for all your hard work it is appreciated. My kids are enjoying the project and are enthusiastic about reading Pax, discussing it and writing about the book.