Tom K's bio

Howdy folks – Tom here, in the act! program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh/Fox. I'm married, with two kids - a girl in 3rd and a boy in 5th. We like to camp, ski, sail, and canoe - all silent sports. My background is in anthropology (I’m an out of work archaeologist) with a B.S from the University of Alaska Anchorage (Anthropology, Spanish minor) and all my coursework completed towards a M.S. from FSU in Tallahassee (ABT, archaeology focus). I’m into prehistory (peopling of the Americas), but have worked on both historical and prehistoric projects in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Wisconsin with sites ranging in dates from 50 years ago to 12,800 BP. Teaching-wise, I subbed for a year in Anchorage, student taught at FSU, ran an archaeological field school for SCA volunteers with the BLM, worked as a sea kayak instructor/guide, and have volunteered as a soccer coach for the last three years. Besides archeology, I’ve lived and worked in a few places, and traveled to a few more.

As far as my future in teaching is concerned, I’m hoping to teach earth sciences or biology at the high school or middle school level. My license will be in broadfield science. More and more I’m interested in middle-schoolers, partly as a result of my subbing experiences. I found that by high school, most kids were already “tracked” – they were either into learning, or just cruising. Middle-schoolers seem a bit more fluid as far as where they see their own identity, which to me feels like an opportunity. I’m also interested in multi-disciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, the culture of science, science and religion, and current issues in these areas.

Michelle Pike might have been chosen as our namesake due to her dynamic speaking abilities (I though i was watching an infomercial at first) and invlovemnt in international, multidisciplinary, cutting edge, and RELAVANT (current headlines) research.

Tom