Bye Moodle HQ ...
I didn’t think I would be writing this roughly a year and a half after joining HQ but here it is.
On Friday, 22nd July, a few days after returning from the Australian MoodleMoot in Sydney with the team (and Mary Cooch, hooray) I will resign from a paid position at Moodle HQ and become again ‘just’ a volunteering member of Moodle community. Like thousands of others without whom Moodle would probably not exist and thrive as it does.
Some people may say ‘What an ungrateful bastard, leaving a great job many would love so dearly to have…”. They’d be right, in their own way. But I am compelled to follow an even greater, deeper interest and passion than Moodle.
I am joining a small team of educators at a small school just south of Perth. The school, a pretty unconventional one, has about 80 students who have disengaged with education, for all sorts of reasons. These are teenagers to whom life has not been kind (and many of them haven’t been exactly kind to others, let’s not pretend…) and whom the mainstream schools would not touch (anymore). The school is less than year old and is soon becoming a Big Picture school. I will no doubt write more about Big Picture approach but this and its motto ‘ One student at a time in a community of learners’ should give you an idea.
Thank you Martin and the team at HQ. I am not really ‘leaving’ Moodle (how could I 
) since I will certainly be involved and contribute further, I just won’t be there every day to shout at the couriers (an in-joke…).
And besides, the school uses Moodle and they are looking for someone to take it beyond uploading a few files…
20 comments
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Lee Allan Sanders
July 9, 2011 at 6:20 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Sounds like an energy transfer to a location with greater needs, better aligned with your heart. Haven’t been following you for very long, but already am greatful to know you. Cheers mate, and may the road rise to meet you as you go *:-)
Stephan Rinke
July 9, 2011 at 7:27 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Dear Tomaz,
Želim vam vse najboljše!
I’m sure it’s the right decision if you are following your heart and that’s what it sounds like in your post.
It’s great knowing you and I’m sure we’ll keep in touch since you won’t stop blogging here, will you?
Have a good start to your job! Hope to meet you sometime in person,
Stephan
Michael
July 9, 2011 at 7:58 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
We’ll miss you, mate. I’ll miss you. But you will always be an example to us.
Mark Smithers
July 9, 2011 at 10:11 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Good luck Tomaz. It sounds like a fabulous thing you are going to do.
Alex
July 9, 2011 at 12:02 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Good luck with your new challenge. We still have to run a marathon together
Tony Searl
July 9, 2011 at 1:33 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Looking forward to your observations of Big Picture. Exciting times. All the best my friend.
Mark Drechsler
July 9, 2011 at 1:34 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Tomaz,
Thank you for your contributions in a formal sense to Moodle HQ, I have no doubt that the contributions you’ll make in the field and as a member of the community will be even better
See you at the Moot and beyond!
Mark.
Jenny Luca
July 9, 2011 at 2:20 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
I’ve been reading a lot about Big Picture schools Tomaz. Can’t think of anyone better to be contributing to the model of learning embodied in these schools. Good luck with the change.
Jenny : )
monika hardy
July 9, 2011 at 2:27 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
ah. sounds perfect for you. i love it.
and we love the Met.
can’t wait to hear more. perhaps a google + video chat is in order.
Mary
July 9, 2011 at 4:49 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Oh Tomaz – how I totally understand!! Looking forward to seeing you and Perth soon – I hope the fact that you will have already resigned doesn’t mean they’ll lock the doors on Moodle HQ on you as I was hoping for a quick look in
Diana Dell
July 10, 2011 at 11:13 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Wishing you much success in your new position. How fortunate for the school and the students! I look forward to reading about your successes in the coming weeks. Wishing you happy teaching and continued learning!
Dan McGuire
July 10, 2011 at 2:01 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Delight in the Threshold and notice the motion of the deepest stone – borrowing from Roethke.
human
July 10, 2011 at 3:13 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
My goodness, what a string of replies here and on Twitter! Very kind of you all and humbling.
Confirmation of one’s choices can be empty flattery if uttered by strangers, mark of respect if uttered by colleagues. So – thank you!
It is wonderful to hear from some of you (Tony Searl, Jenny Luca, John Larkin, Monika Hardy, Dan McGuire and many others) with whom I haven’t spoken to in a while (just ‘lurked’, as we all do…) but we remain connected in the sense of a (cheesy yet remarkably poignant
) quote I found on the back of a chocolate once: ‘A friend is like the sun – always there even if unseen’. Something tells me that this new position will make our connections even stronger.
I may call up on you and your own networks too. As always, feel free to reciprocate with queries and suggestions of your own.
Regards and best wishes to you all !
Tomaz
Joseph Thibault
July 11, 2011 at 8:15 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Thanks for all the great contributions over the past 18 months at Moodle HQ (there are some that will make tremendously lasting impacts). Good to know we can all still learn from your adventures by tuning in here.
Best of luck!
Michael Blake
July 12, 2011 at 12:20 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Tomaz, this sounds like a fantastic opportunity for you, but you know you’re going to be missed dearly by Moodle HQ. Glad you’re not going far
Will be in touch!
Best wishes to you and your family!
KerryJ
July 12, 2011 at 10:08 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Hi Tomaz!
I just found this out. Wow, so very happy that you have the courage to follow your passion. What a lucky group of kids.
I feel very lucky to have you as part of my network and look forward to reading and hearing about your work.
Warm regards and much respect!
KerryJ
Eloy Lafuente (stronk7)
July 12, 2011 at 6:35 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
See you Tomaz! Was great to have you @ HQ, it seems was yesterday when you arrived (one year and a half, wow!).
Surely you’ll do an incredible job in the SMYL and you will enjoy like a “bastard” there!
See your here / moodle.org, best wishes!!!
Ciao
Apu
July 14, 2011 at 1:23 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Its been a great running alongside with you Tomaz!
Joseph Rézeau
July 16, 2011 at 9:17 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Hi Tomaz! All the best on your new venture. “Once a moodler always a moodler”.
Geoff Allemand
July 18, 2011 at 12:33 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Great news Tomaz. You may not remember but I am heavily involved in Big Picture also (Shepparton, Victoria). Viv White, Big Picture CEO has been encouraging me to look at the SMYL model, which I have been. Very exciting. I will send you an invite to our BP Ning.