S2: Teacher Voice Special #1: Matthew Tom

Hey everyone, this is the What School Could Be in Hawaii podcast. I am your host, Josh Reppun. From time to time it is my intention to highlight educator voices as they pop up across media platforms in Hawaiʻi. Whether these voices come to my attention in a blog, guest posts on Civil Beat online, op-ed columns in the local paper or on specialized Facebook pages, we want to highlight them using our podcast platform. These amazing public, private and charter school educators will read their written words out loud, that you might hear and feel them in the way they were intended. On August 16th, here in 2020, the Honolulu Star Advertiser published an op-ed column by Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School’s Matthew Tom, a long time friend of this podcast and epic education networking agent. Matthew is the Faculty Advisor for Stevenson’s media service organization, which specializes in event photography and producing digital media content for the school. Matthew’s program seeks to build and maintain a positive campus culture, excite students about photography and videography, and build student skills in digital media production. Matthew is also the faculty advisor for Tusitala, which is the Literary and Arts Magazine at Stevenson recently recognized by the National Council of Teachers of English as “excellent.” Tusitala means “the teller of tales” in Samoan and is the name Samoans gave to Robert Louis Stevenson when he traveled there. He has taught or been an edtech specialist in Hawaii, Japan and Washington. Matthew’s undergraduate in English is from Willamette University, he has a masters in curriculum and teaching from the University of Oregon and is currently in a professional practice doctoral program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Matthew’s teacher website is an absolute wonderland of student exhibitions of learning and imaginative curriculums. You can learn more about him at his LinkedIn page, which I am featuring in these show notes. And now, here is Matthew Tom reading his Honolulu Star Advertiser op-ed titled: “Much chaos and change bring us right here: the perfect place to start the school year.”