November 7th, 2005. The day I announced that I was leaving the kindergarten classroom and joining Discovery Education.
10 years, 7 months, 12 days ago.
As a member of team Discovery, I’ve traveled around the world (flying more than half a million miles), presented at more events than I can count, and worked with some of the greatest change agents in the world. I’ve hosted virtual conferences for tens of thousands of educators, managed hundreds of webinars, hangouts and livestreams, and worked the studio for dozens of virtual field trips. Throughout the last ten years with Discovery, I’ve seen the community host more than 60,000 PD events, reaching more than two million educators.
And after ten incredibly wonderful years, my path will veer off in a different direction than Discovery’s.
While my love for the company and the DEN community hasn’t changed, I’m ready to take on some new challenges. When I joined Discovery, I was fresh from the school system. I had presented once or twice locally but never done a keynote, and was best known for my podcast. Just to put it in perspective, this was still a full year before Twitter was even a blip on the radar. Jessica and I have spoken for years about the idea of me taking a leave from ‘the band’ and starting a solo career. It may seem silly, but we had always earmarked my 42nd year as symbolically a target for when to start fresh. Corny right? But somehow it just feels right.
I don’t know exactly where the next few years will take me, but I’m looking forward to getting back to basics. Blogging and podcasting like I used to (stop me if you’ve heard that one before), creating some new presentations, reconnecting with MANY old friends in new ways. I will most definitely stay active in the Discovery Education Community though. How could I not? I’ve invested a decade of my life working to cultivate the greatest community in the education space (#TrueStory). I’m not going anywhere, and without the ‘desk job’ I’m thinking you may see even more of me in the years to come.
I’m looking forward to working with school districts and conferences even more directly now, and really pushing at the boundaries. If you would like me to come out to your district or present at an event, let me know. I’ll still be at ISTE and DENSI as part of the DE team, but will be moving on shortly after that.
So this isn’t a farewell by any means, it’s like the title of this post says… It’s a new beginning, the first steps along the next leg of the journey. And I can’t wait to share it with all of you!
