When David Rockwood, a teacher at Payson High School in Utah, decided to combine two of his areas of expertise–athletics and psychology–into a new course, he ran into one major roadblock: There were no sports psychology textbooks targeted to a high school audience, U.S. News reports. So, he decided to write one himself. Rockwood is reportedly one of a handful of high school teachers nationwide who have written textbooks for their classrooms. There are many reasons a teacher might write a textbook: for niche courses, such as sports psychology, for which a suitable book doesn’t exist; to self-publish supplementary material for a class; or because sudden curriculum changes can put widely used textbooks out of date. In Marietta, Ga., for instance, Laura Speer wrote a textbook that aligned with new math standards the state implemented that combined algebra, geometry, and statistics topics into one course. Textbook manufacturers decided it was too expensive to produce books specifically for schools in the state, so she took matters into her own hands…
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