CopyRIGHT?

I was thinking a lot about our class discussion on Tuesday, specifically the concerns that arise with copyrighted materials and how confusion about them is affecting the quality of lessons. Not being a teacher myself, however, I must admit: it's sometimes hard to understand the constraints school districts put upon our teachers. I can't imagine someone asking me to do something... and not having what I needed in order to do it. These concerns were so apparent in our discussion, as a number of you noted that you are required to teach something, like a certain book, but are not given the proper supplies. One person noted there were only enough books for one class of students, one complete set---yet the book/teaching was a requirement for three different teachers. This seems like a common, sticky situation that's flat out unfair. You are torn between obeying copyright rules and pleading with the administration for more materials ... and breaking the rules, surreptitiously, and pleasing the administration. So what's the remedy?

I do agree with Dr. Shea that this would be the perfect time to get creative with lesson planning, perhaps using parts of a book, rotating usage, or using other materials (like films!) to teach the story. We now know that we have the tools to do lessons like these and they are possible.

But, on the flip side, this too can be difficult. To me this almost seems like another case of in theory vs. reality... Just like our video games that we'd love to somehow include into curriculum, in reality there are so many constraints upon teachers that make their doing job much harder than it needs to be.