ABOUT

For over thirty years, Thomas has served in education as a teacher, coach, principal, district-level administrator, college professor, keynote speaker and educational consultant for school districts, textbook publishers and the South Carolina Department of Education. Throughout his career, he has conducted highly engaging professional development trainings in educational design, curriculum development, and instructional methodology at the local, state and national levels and has been a featured contributor for Edutopia.org, with articles focusing on authentic learning experiences and the intentional use of experience and space design in educational settings, a concept that he explored in his popular TEDx talk, Imagineering Education.  

 

Thomas currently serves as Assistant Director at Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville, South Carolina, where he develops, implements and oversees educational programming and experiential learning for both public events and school field trips. Drawing upon his wealth of experiences as a teacher and administrator, for ten years Thomas eagerly served his alma mater, Furman University, as an adjunct Professor of Education where, for ten years, he specialized in teaching the undergraduate course, Foundations of American Education.

 

Inspired by his love of pop culture and recognizing its potential impact in the classroom, with approval from Lucasfilm, Thomas co-founded the globally popular learning initiatives, "Adventures in Learning with Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars in the Classroom" that provide interdisciplinary curriculum resources and lesson ideas based on the iconic sagas. 

Specialties Include: Keynote Speaking; Experiential Learning; Curriculum Design and Development; 21st Century School Design; Professional Development Training in Educational Leadership, Content and Pedagogy; School-Community Relations; Storytelling; Design Thinking