Thomas Buckner

Hello IWACC Students and Parents!

My name is Thomas (Tom) Buckner, and I am going to make learning Physics fun for students here at IWACC! I have 23 years of experience teaching in CCISD (retired 2012) including a decade at both W.B. Ray and King High School. I have built many lifelong friendships from my time spent in public school, and struck some milestones along the way including:

•  CCISD Secondary Teacher of the Year 2004-2005
• National Board Certified in Physics
• Cohort Secondary Leader for teachers striving for National Board Certification
• Successful mentoring of several teachers that achieved National Board Certification
• Hundreds of hours of workshops and inservices to advance teaching skills and lab inquiry at the district, state, and regional level

Days in my classroom are dedicated to inquiry (labs), projects, problem solving, and an occasionally necessary lecture to facilitate learning. I encourage students to focus on mastery level learning rather than concentrating on grades. Chasing grades never yields learning outcomes like content mastery does. When students stop looking at a classroom as a ‘score’ and use it to facilitate learning, there is much less time wasted. Students learn that working bell to bell in class reduces work outside of class, so I like to have an environment to promote this work ethic. We enjoy doing all sorts of projects, some of which take up class time, and include building cars, catapults, pendulums, rockets, electrical circuitry, and other interest builders that teach skills often seen in the industries that I have been associated with.

• Prior to becoming a school teacher, I was a charter boat captain
• Owned a 31’ Bertram Sportfisher called “Buckshot”
• Have held a captain’s license for over 40 years
• I enjoy playing golf with friends and strive to play bogey golf or better