“Tom exhibited excellence in his approach from the very first day of class, where he explained that his most important value is kindness. He followed through with his promise of kindness each time we saw him, providing relevant examples of effective communication, and encouraging us to care about clear communication. He selected diverse material, for a very mixed-demographic class. Tom was extremely clear in his delivery, varying lessons to meet the needs of both ESL students and students who spoke native English, without resulting in one group or the other being “left out”. He created many opportunities for practice of during class and was entirely non-judgemental with feedback. I’ve spoken to many students who’ve taken Tom’s class, and each one has recounted similar opinions.”
Tom, a 2025 recipient of a Teacher Recognition award, has been a faculty member in the English department for seven years. He taught English at Lambton College in Ontario before moving to Victoria to complete his master’s degree in contemporary American literature, after which he came to Camosun, first as a tutor in the English Help Centre. Then he says, “an opportunity came up to fill-in for a sick colleague, after which I slowly ingrained myself into the department. I’ve now been full-time for about three years teaching mostly English 151 classes,” adding that while he teaches mostly composition classes, he also enjoys teaching technical writing.
I wondered what Tom enjoyed most about teaching. “I was raised in a family of teachers and never wanted to become one myself. But then, I started working for the Learning Disabilities Program at York University, teaching people how to use technology, and realized that I had become a teacher. What I like best about teaching are the interactions and getting to know the students. Connection with students is central to my teaching philosophy. Obviously, we’re here to deliver knowledge and help people build skills, but I also try to build kindness into the classroom. I want these people who are with me for 14 weeks to look back fondly on the experience, and I want them to be able to take a deep breath and relax when they come into the classroom.” Tom says those interactions are what keeps him coming back even when he is tired. But he also recognizes that the communication skills he teaches go beyond the classroom or a student’s program and are “skills that will make their lives better overall.”
Knowing that English 151 brings in a wide diversity of students I asked Tom who those students are. “It depends on the course, but for the most part, I have a mix of students. Some are just about to turn 18 or experiencing their first time away from home. Some are mature students coming back for a specific program. I teach engineering students, business students, criminology students – it’s all over the map, which is one of the invigorating challenges we have at Camosun.” But, while diversity in the classroom can be challenging, it also brings opportunity, especially in courses that teach communication skills. “Students learn that while other people don’t think the same way, we need to find ways to communicate with each other. One thing we talk about in my classes is how we need to rethink ‘argument.’ Argument is not just combative but can be a sharing of different ideas with the purpose of coming together to change how we think. And even if we experience complex emotions when someone thinks differently from us, we can learn to stop, think, and then engage productively with that argument, which is a skill that’s particularly important as we try to navigate everything happening in the world today.”
While Tom does not integrate formal debates in the classroom, he does have students engage with other perspectives, usually in a light way. “For example, early on, I have them debate whether a hot dog is a sandwich, because people have very specific views on this silly little thing. Other times, a topic will arise and I think it would be fruitful to discuss, or we have a reading that lends itself to class conversation. And part of my job is to be there in the room to make sure everyone’s feeling safe.”
I asked Tom if he teaches in-person or online. “I prefer being in person because I like being in the classroom with the students. In my opinion, there’s no substitute for that in-person interactive, iterative learning process.” At the same time, Tom is curious about blended (a blend of in-person and online) teaching. “I have no experience with it, but it seems like an intriguing way to maximize the benefit of both modes. Especially for English, where there are times when you have to sit with a new idea for awhile before you really understand it.”
Tom recently was also a recipient of a 2025 Open Education/ZTC Recognition award, so I turned our conversation to the open textbook Tom created for his English 151 course. “During my Scheduled Development (SD) time, I developed a supplementary grammar text for use in all of my courses, although so far, I’ve only used it in English 151. I can only discuss a certain amount of grammar in class, and I wanted a resource students could use to fill in gaps without it costing $130.” Tom set up an account on the BCcampus Pressbooks site, so he had a place to build his textbook. “I found the process of creating a Pressbook easier than I thought it would be – there are a couple of guides I found useful, but the interface is pretty intuitive. What I’ve done is create an online grammar textbook divided into 13 chapters containing a combination of my own write-ups, and I’ve used H5P to create different types of grammar questions – multiple choice, matching, clickable graphics, etc. This way, I can keep the explanations short and encourage students to engage in the material. And it’s free for them.” Tom is hoping to carve out more SD time to expand on his textbook. “I’d like to add a module on rhetoric and to find a way to integrate the social annotation tool, Hypothes.is, because rhetoric is a concept that I find some people understand quickly, where others need a more support.”
In addition to creating an open textbook, Tom also runs Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses. “All of my course readings are either available publicly online (set up as a link in D2L) or are fair use documents I distribute in class. I don’t have a course pack anymore. I do, however, have to be careful to ensure that none of the online documents are behind paywalls. And I’m constantly finding new sources to work with.”
I wondered what students think about not having to purchase course materials in Tom’s classes. “When I let them know that there are no textbook costs, they like it. Students were never happy having to buy a giant textbook. I still use excerpts from traditional textbooks, but now there’s no pressure on me to make sure I use every single part of the textbook, even in places where it doesn’t make sense. In addition, if I am on the fence about a reading, I can change it and students haven’t sunk a whole bunch of cost into something that doesn’t work, so it’s a win-win.”
In addition to the cost benefits for students, Tom feels that creating his own textbook holds huge advantages for him. “Using Pressbooks allows me to tinker, and I’m an absolute tinkerer. I feel like I have a bit more professional agency because I am fully in control of the material. I can link chapters into D2L, I can hide chapters students don’t need to read, I can move things around. It gives me a lot of flexibility and I don’t see any downside, aside from the labour set it up initially. And now I don’t have to worry about creating course packs and meeting those deadlines. And finally, I can write in the level of language that you think will work best for students or for how I will be exploring the topics.”
Moving back to teaching, I asked if Tom could share any memories from all the classroom experiences he has had over the years. “The things that stand out to me are the trajectories of students. I was in an airport looking at a stranger who gave me this guarded look, and I thought, that’s the look I get on the first day of class from new students. But over time you discover all these things about them and by the end of the term, I find myself genuinely feeling sad that I’m saying goodbye to these people I’ve known for 14 weeks. In the end, I think I think they learn better, and I teach better, when we have a connection.” And getting to know new students every term keeps Tom’s teaching interesting. “Every term I meet new people with different stories to share. We’re working on the same skills every term, but we’re doing it in different ways which is invigorating.”
As our time together was nearing an end, I asked Tom what advice he had for new faculty members coming to teach at Camosun. “Reach out to the people on your team – being bashful doesn’t help anyone. I actually didn’t have to do a lot of reaching out because people reached out to me. I’ve got great colleagues. Also, go slow in the classroom and take your time. It can all seem very fast paced and high stress the first time you teach something, and you probably won’t do as good a job on your first time through a course as your tenth. Give yourself a break and remember that you’re there for a reason.” And as for more practical advice, similar to the advice Tom gives students preparing for oral presentations, is to rehearse. “A week or a few days before the start of the term, I go into all of my classrooms to get a sense of the space. I’ll stand up at the front and imagine what it would be like to speak to the people here so that the first day of class I already know that the computer’s at an awkward desk, that I have to pull the mouse cord out, so I’m not having to fiddle in front of the class. For a first day’s piece of advice, that’s definitely it.”