The Last Bulletin Board

Dear Friends,

We race through June and I find myself looking at my last few days of school. I will retire at the end of the school year. It is a time when it is important to remember and to say thank you. I have been  doing that a lot these days.

I wanted to find a way to thank my online community of educators, my PLC, who have been such an important part of my teaching and learning, especially over the last 10 years. I am struggling to figure out an adequate way to do it.  I thought that I would just make a very long FB post with the names of all the folks that I have connected with through the dawn of Web 2.0, and the infancy of educational blogging. I tried to go back to old conference resources to refresh my memory as to not overlook someone. It was jaw dropping.  My list of people it was important to thank quickly grew to over one hundred, and was still climbing before I stopped.  I thought about people whose blogs I read, who I  listened to on podcasts, tweeted with on Twitter, became friends with on Facebook or through Nings and Wikispaces or connected with at Educon, K-12 Online, ISTE, November Learning, EdCamps, Discovery DEN, Second Life, GAFE Summits, PD in PJ’s, or met through a host of regional meetups. And look, the list of just the places, never mind the individual people,  is too long!

What a journey we have been on!

So, I cannot thank you all individually. All I can say is that I treasure your friendship. You have nourished me, inspired me, challenged me, put up with me, and changed my teaching and learning forever. The kids and teachers in my schools have benefitted from your passion and wisdom.  I was grateful for your acceptance and welcome in the beginning, and still need you today.

However  after 33 years I am going to step aside for a little bit.  Not too far and I think not for too long. There are some things I promised myself (and my wife) that I want to get to while life is still young. I like to tell my local friends that I will still be a teacher, I just won’t have to go to school anymore. For the next few months at least, you can follow me at the following blog: After School Adventures: http://sokosafterschool.blogspot.com