Science Teacher Capitalizes On His Lesson Planner Software
High School science teacher Jeff Hellman is beginning to wonder if he’s bitten off more than he can chew.
What started in the summer of 2006 as a personal quest to toss aside his old-style teacher planning book for a digital version has exploded into something more like a second career.
Google “lesson plan software” and it’s the fourth link to pop up: Planbook by Hellmansoft. It’s selling in the thousands, all over the globe.
“To be honest, I didn’t think it would get this far,” said Hellman, a tall, unassuming 28-year-old in his fifth year of teaching. “I had never written a software program before. But about a month into it, it was like, ‘Maybe this is going to work.’?”
The program has been downloaded at least 50,000 times, Hellman said — though many of those are existing customers checking out upgraded versions. Downloading a trial version is free; the full program costs $30.
Developing the program and subsequent upgrades has been a labor of love, he said, “but I also saw potential.” He won’t say precisely how much he’s netted thus far, but it’s something in the mid- to high five figures.
Photo by Jeff Hellman.
Jaclyn on February 19th, 2009 9:21 am
I can see where he would feel overwhelmed and surprised and not knowing where to go from where he has already made it, but i’ve got to say…it’s a great opportunity for him. especially considering he didn’t think the program would ever be that big, and now it is, just think of how huge it will probably be once he work’s with a team that put’s all the fine tune’s and touches on the program and work’s out any bugs or glitches that it may have! he could really have something great here to build on. good luck to him!!!
jaeda on February 20th, 2009 12:29 am
…great thinking!…
planning a better idea for school work as a teacher is such a wonderful and amazing idea to create as a teacher…Making your work more easier and it helps also for your time spent about doing a report…
Home Based Business on February 22nd, 2009 9:17 pm
This guy probably saves or will save thousands of teachers a ton of time they don’t get paid for anyway, good for him.
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