Tom has taught English methods and writing at Miami University since 1995. Before earning his Ph.D. at the University of New Hampshire, he taught high school students for 17 years, most of them at Edgewood High School in Trenton, Ohio.
In addition to teaching at Miami, Tom speaks at National Writing Project sites, schools, and literacy conferences across the country. He also teaches in the summer Reading and Writing Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
Tom got the writing bug in 7th grade when he and a friend wrote and shared stories in back-to-back study halls at the end of the school day. He discovered then that he could express his voice through words on paper. He's been doing it ever since, writing mostly articles, essays, and poems about teaching. His books are Clearing the Way: Working with Teenage Writers (1987), Writing With Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres (1995), Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers (2000), and Crafting Authentic Voice (2004).
Two non-negotiables of his teaching are these:
He reads a poem at the beginning of every class meeting.
Students in his classes will write in different genres, not only expository essays.