Friday, June 08, 2012

TeachPaperless: Final Post

Dear Readers,

I hate long goodbyes; so I'll spare you.

The news: this is it for TeachPaperless. I've decided to close up the blog. As this has been a big part of my life for the last three years, this moment comes with mixed emotions. But it is time; we've accomplished whatever this thing was meant to do and now it's time to make new things.

Before heading out, however, I wanted to acknowledge some people who have really made this whole project work. I'd like to thank Reader Knaus -- who I believe was the very first reader to really get into a comment discussion on this blog; thanks to Will Richardson, Ira Socol, Chris Lehmann, and Clay Burrell for inspiration; thanks to Scott McLeod; thanks to Richard Byrne; thanks to Dean Groom and all the crazies in Australia; thanks to all the folks who took part in the original Friday Chat sessions; thanks to the editors and folks at Edutopia, ISTE Connects, NY Times, Ed Week -- especially K. Manzo; thanks ASCD, MindShift, Audrey Watters; thanks to Robert Pondiscio for being such a great person to argue with in the early days of this project; thanks to Anonymous -- who is a very prolific commenter; thanks to Malcolm Gladwell for not beating me up (not that I think he would have); thanks to everyone at Johns Hopkins School of Education -- especially my former students; thanks to Bob Schick and to all of my former high school students / lab-rats; thanks to all of the readers and commenters who pushed our thinking here; thanks to all of the contributing writers; and especially thanks to John T. Spencer -- hands-down the finest pure-writer anywhere near the education discussion today.

I think we did some good stuff here; and I think we (or I should say "I") screwed up a fair amount. I take full credit for all screw-ups and I humbly accept whatever the fates allow here on out.

This also marks the end of my formal classroom teaching career (although for the last year I've taught exclusively online). Over the years, I've come to realize that I can't be a classroom teacher. My interests in learning are in the things that exist beyond the structure of a school curriculum and an academic environment. Luckily, we are living at a time when teachers have more ladders available to them to pursue their work in education than perhaps at anytime in the last hundred+ years -- from collaborative community based art projects to social entrepreneurship to the design of new technologies to the dreaming up of new programs that challenge the traditional barriers of time and geography and that will effect a real future.

And so, in the capacity of co executive director, I've joined with fellow teacher Andrew Coy in helping the Digital Harbor Foundation to found a series of community education and technology centers in Baltimore. We'll be serving Baltimore City Public School teachers and students K-12 -- delivering extracurricular after school maker-experiences where teachers gain free, open, and relevant PD and students gain digital literacy skills through the experience of actually building new things and new designs and new technologies.

I'm pretty crazy excited about the work we've done so far; and will be sure to detail where things lead on Twitter -- which, btw, I'm now going to use exclusively as @blakeplock.

Last thing I wanted to say -- and this is to the teachers and students out there: go make stuff. Stop jumping through hoops. There is a world out there and there are a million different ways of becoming educated. You don't have to follow their rules. Go out there and make stuff. Stuff that matters. Stuff that makes people smile. Stuff that changes the way other people do things. Stuff that's beautiful. Stuff that's ugly. Stuff. Stuff you make. Stuff that reflects who you are rather than what they want you to be.

Thank you all for some great conversation. Now it's time to really put my nose to the grind in Baltimore; I expect you'll be hearing about what our kids and teachers are doing soon.

Shelly

28 comments:

  1. Farewell. I have enjoyed your provocative and challenging posts. Good luck down the road.

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  2. Best of luck in your new pursuits. I'll look forward to hearing about them.

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  3. Thank you for pushing my thinking and challenging my thoughts. I appreciate all you have done and wish you all the success you can find serving the Baltimore community. Enjoy!

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  4. Thanks for this final post and explaining your dreams.

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  5. Bummer! I went to publish a new post this afternoon but instead find out that we're closing shop! Thank you, Shelly, for all of the learning and sharing that you have inspired here and for allowing me to be a part of it. Thanks also to all of our readers who followed our thoughts and shared your comments. I will miss TeachPaperless.com but am also excited to continue learning from you through the Digital Harbor Foundation. If anybody needs a guest blogger, hit me up on Twitter!
    -Noah Geisel @SenorG.

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  6. Thank you Shelly - this blog has been a constant source of inspiration and relevant ideas to try - i know you will continue to do great work! Best of luck in the next leg of your journey.
    Sam.

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  7. I've enjoyed reading. Thanks for all the great ideas and good luck!

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  8. Thank you so much for all you have shared here! I look forward to hearing about your new adventure and I am sure lots of people will be writing about it! Best of luck to you.

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  9. Good luck in your new endeavors! Always enjoyed your posts here even if I wasn't commenting on them.

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  10. Truly a sad day. I've very much enjoyed this blog over the past years. You have been an inspiration to me in Minneapolis with my own paperless shortcomings.

    Thank you for the mention in this post. The posts are great but incredible discussion happens in the comments.

    I wish you nothing but success with your new venture. Please keep the world updated with your successes and failures.

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  11. Thanks for the kind words and thanks for the chance to write on this blog. You'll be missed in this space.

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  12. I've enjoyed being a subscriber to your blog, and reading your inflightful posts. All the best to you!

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  13. I hope 'closing up' doesn't = delete. There is so much good stuff here that I am constantly sharing with my colleagues (like your post last year about collaborative, open computer final exams). Please do consider keeping the archived content alive.

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  14. I have learned so much here. I'm excited to watch your new project grow and develop.Thank you for sharing.

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  15. Thanks for running this blog for so long! You made me interested in exploring how to integrate technology in the classrooms in the first place. Thanks!

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  16. Have enjoyed following this blog and look forward to reading 'somewhere' about the project that you are involved in next! Good luck and thanks for sharing your thoughts and knowledge thus far!

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  17. I have enjoyed reading your blog,and have to say that you have inspired me with my high school class and the paperless format I have adopted. Thank you so much, and best wishes on your next project

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  18. I JUST found you and the first thing I read is that you are going away. What a bummer. I guess I will re-read all the past blogs to discover what I missed during these three years.

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  19. Well, nothing like going out with a bang. We just selected Teach Paperless as one of our must-read blogs for EdTech Magazine!

    http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2012/06/honor-roll-50-must-read-k-12-education-it-blogs

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  20. It's can be sad to see things go. But sometimes they have to go in order for better things!

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  21. Here's to STUFF! Wishing you great good fortune in all you touch.

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  22. Thanks for the terrific work Shelly, all the best from edudemic!

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  23. Congrats on a job well done. And another one to come. Please keep in touch and all best.

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  24. Darn. I just found you and sent you an email earlier today. Okay, if you ever have an interest in a paperless, professional learning community tool, let me know.

    Best of luck to you.

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  25. Well, I'm sad your blog is closing down, because I just recently discovered it and enjoyed reading your articles. Thank you for sharing with us. 3 years are a long time, sadly many bloggers end sooner than that. I really liked your encouragment to students to make stuff. This is very much close to my own dream.

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