When I was teaching high school English, I discovered how much I enjoyed teaching writing and how much I actually enjoyed writing. But as a teacher, I didn’t really have an outlet for that creativity. So I started this blog (I had a personal blog that I wrote on occasionally) to share my thoughts about teaching and scratch my creative itch all in one place.
And it was a lot of fun (and hard work). I learned about building a website, creating graphics, and reaching an audience (and how much I enjoyed some of those things). Writing this blog helped me gain confidence as a writer, introduced me to some really great people in education, and opened up opportunities to write for sites like We Are Teachers, TeachBoost, and Cult of Pedagogy. It’s truly amazing how taking one small step—starting this blog—could lead to things like guest hosting a podcast and being quoted in a book by George Couros and listed as a resource in a new book by my friend Dave Stuart Jr.!
But about two years ago I transitioned from teaching into the field of Edtech and then corporate Learning & Development. For a year I was an instructional designer at an education-facing company and now I’m a learning program manager for an L&D firm working in the tech and tech-adjacent field (and I’m loving it btw).
As I have shifted away from the education sphere and into learning experience design, I’ve let the blog slip and I’ve only recently realized why:
I get to scratch my creative itch every. single. day.
Which means that after work or on weekends, I no longer “need” (or really, want) to write or create graphics or update a website. I get to do those things daily.
Being a learning experience designer and now a learning program manager means that I get to help out in many capacities and stretch myself into so many growth opportunities. I get to problem solve, plan strategically, design graphics, write and edit copy, plan learning experiences, manage relationships, and so (SO) much more.
And because of this, I have decided to basically cut the final strings tying me to education (besides all my teacher friends, lol): As of August 19th, Louden Clear Blog will be officially “closed”–I don’t really know what that means yet. I may shift the whole site over to free hosting so it will exist, but it’ll be pretty bare bones.
I didn’t want to just shut the blog down without a little farewell post. I have so many people to thank for supporting me on this journey– from readers who checked in regularly, commenters who asked questions and shared their stories, fellow bloggers who supported me when I had questions, and the many new friends I made as part of this wild ride–from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!
