Meet Tom Tullio, Assistant Director of IT and Technology Teacher

Tom Tullio is one of many Dublin Faculty who hold multiple roles here on campus. He is both the Assistant Director of Information Technology (IT) and a Technology Teacher in our Arts, Tech & Design department. Now in his 10th year working at the School, I sat down with Tom to talk about his experience and lessons he’s learned here at Dublin. As we did with Lindsay, we started with a softball question: 

Q: How are you doing today? What does today have in store for you?
A: Today was pretty hectic, because Jeff [Director of IT] is out for the day. I was the only one in the IT office, which meant a fair bit of email contact, G-chat contact, and in-person contact to juggle. On top of that I had my class, Foundations of Computer Science, which I’ve taught quite regularly in some form or another. I also cleaned up from Morning Meeting, so I’ve been on the move a lot today. But it’s nice, and it’s Friday.

Q: So is that how you’re doing today, you’re in a Friday mood?
A: I am.

Then, we dug a little deeper into Tom’s Dublin experience and what teaching high school has been like for him.

Q: Can you tell me about your Dublin history? What brought you to the School? How long have you been here? What different roles have you held in your time here?
A: This is my 10th year at Dublin. I started in the summer of 2017 in pretty much the exact same position that I’m in now — half of my time in the IT office, and half as a teacher. That dividing line shifts as time goes by; some years I’ve taught more, and some years I’ve taught less.

My son was a ninth grader at Dublin the year before I started. When my predecessor left the School, some of the folks here knew about our family through my son and said, “Hey, maybe Oliver’s dad would be interested in coming to teach here.”

I was not a teacher previously, I was an Instructional Technologist. I had a lot of experience with one-on-one user interaction and training, but it was a pretty big leap for me to consider a classroom full of students on a regular schedule for a whole semester. I was very comfortable with the concept of providing IT support — my entire career has been in IT in one fashion or another, and most of it in education in one fashion or another. It seemed like a viable option, even though it wasn’t something that I had been looking for or expected.
 

Q: As you mentioned, a lot of your career has been in education. Did you always see yourself working in this industry?
A: Largely, yes. I started out at my alma mater in the University Relations office, mostly because I saw no reason to leave college after such an excellent experience. They employed me for a decade, and I followed that up with five years of corporate IT consulting. That was pretty high pressure, and I couldn’t see continuing that past that one small stretch. The things that I loved about contributing to my community were completely missing from that position, so that’s when I went back to higher education as an Instructional Technologist in Rindge, New Hampshire, at Franklin Pierce University. That was much more agreeable.

Q: What has surprised you the most about teaching high school?
A: Initially, everything surprised me. I had taught classes at Franklin Pierce on an ad hoc basis to fill in for folks in the Computer Science department, but it was very distant. I didn't really know the students — they were young adults who had their own agendas, and I was just there to offer my services. Being in the classroom here brings so much more engagement — so much more both to manage and to draw from, which obviously took me time [to adapt to]. For my first few semesters, or couple of years even, I was probably pretty stoic and in a delivery mode more than an engagement mode.

Particularly in my area of expertise, it’s been so interesting to see how the adolescents of today have all grown up immersed in technology from an extremely young age. It’s almost invisible to them until you start asking them to study it or create with it, and then there’s a good number of them who are reluctant or resistant. They think, ‘Well, I can’t do that.'

Technology is both ever-present and held at arm’s length by a lot of people. Finding ways to bridge those gaps, and then getting the satisfaction when a student says, “I had no idea I would love coding so much. What other classes can I take? Can I do an independent study with you?” That’s the icing on the cake.

Another thing that I eventually realized that I had to my credit was my interest in gaming, science fiction, and comic books. These are things that all of my students know about me, that are not necessarily common for every teacher on the campus. Those connections have, at times, been the primary connections that I’ve made with students — often when they weren’t even students in my classes. I can think of examples of people that I only know because of our shared interests. Feeling comfortable with sharing your personal interests and engaging with students gives you more of a common vocabulary, so that was a part of the melting of the facade. Initially I was like, ‘I have to appear stoic and an adult and distant and confident,’ which I was not. And after the facade started to melt I decided, ‘I'm going to do this. I’m really doing this, and I’ve heard good things from a number of people about what I’m doing here.’

After learning of this passion for gaming, sci-fi, and comic books, I wanted to know more about Tom’s interests outside of the School.
 

Q: What does life outside of Dublin look like for you?
A: My life outside of Dublin is pretty routine. I’ve lived in Jaffrey for the past 21 years, which is where my wife and I have raised our two children — both of whom are Dublin graduates. We’ve got cats and chickens — not in the same location, we keep them separately — and we’re tucked away in the woods. 

Q: And what do you like to do for fun?
A: Well, I’m a big movie buff. That’s actually what I got my degree in. In fact, tonight we are going to see “Coyote vs ACME” at The Park Theatre in Downtown Jaffrey.

Q: What’s your favorite movie of all time?
A: I answer differently depending on who’s asking the question and why, but the easy answer is “Star Wars.” The original, the 1977 film that was later renamed “Episode IV: A New Hope.” To me, it will always just be “Star Wars.” I’ve seen it well over 100 times, so that’s got to count for something, right?

Q: If you could make any single movie mandatory viewing for every single Dublin student, what movie would it be?
A: Oh my gosh, mandatory viewing, huh? I don’t think I’m going to be able to come up with an answer to that. One of the things that’s amazing about Dublin is the incredible breadth of students that we have and their individuality and their unique perspectives. I understand that no one movie is likely to be appreciated by every single person — we’re not homogenous enough for that.

If I had to choose something, it would probably be a comedy. I think that would be most broadly appreciated. Actually, “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” would, I think, be a safe choice. I say that because I’m imagining that a good percentage of our current student population haven’t seen it, whereas another pretty high-ranking option would be “Finding Nemo,” but I bet they’ve all seen that already.

Next, I prompted Tom to reflect on the “big picture” of his 10 years at Dublin School. We talked about his proudest moments, his role in developing our Maker Space, lessons he’s learned from students, and advice that he wants to share.

Q: What are some of your proudest moments or accomplishments over your time at Dublin?
A: Going back over 10 years, there have certainly been high points relative to my prior expectations or experience. It's been a pretty constant growth experience. It has not gotten boring in that respect.

I'd say in recent memory, receiving an email from a graduate who had, either intentionally or incidentally, taken every class I had taught during their last couple of years. They always took my classes with a complete lack of confidence that they'd be able to succeed, and they ultimately did succeed in each of them. They later wrote to me about their first semester college experience and how often they found ways to apply skills or concepts from my classes in their college theater program. That certainly left a very positive impression. Not only because I was glad to hear that they were doing well, but also that they obviously took not just the knowledge but the approach from my class and were able to apply it in a different environment. That's pretty cool.

Q: I know you’ve also played a big role in our Maker Space here on campus. Can you tell me about that?
A: That was such a wonderful learning experience for me. It not only introduced me to new technology, but I had been a proponent for a while of this merging of the Arts, Tech & Design department in the way that we are now because it’s all creative problem-solving. No matter whether I’m teaching a classroom programming lesson or I’m in the Maker Space 3D printing something that a student has designed, it’s very fulfilling to see the connections between creativity, technology, and problem-solving. And the Maker Space is another venue where that can be brought to life.

I can also be super useful to people on campus who need birthday gifts for their kids, or awards for their colleagues, or gifts for the community. It gives us a lot of opportunity to do things in-house, like the senior hammers that we give out before graduation. We can do those things in-house rather than having them mass-produced somewhere.

Q: Are there any lessons from students or from your time at Dublin that you’re going to carry with you beyond the School?
A: Oh, so many. The other shoe dropping on me saying that I came here never having expected to be a teacher, in a boarding school, et cetera, is that I never expected to be impacted so much by a job — and the vast majority of that comes from the student contact, from students being in this particular environment with the support and encouragement of all of the adults. Seeing them embrace the kind of community and culture that we try to foster, and seeing how much they get out of it, has taught me those same lessons. I can honestly say the words that I know that everyone wants to hear, about how we’re able to fail without judgement. Trying new things is going to expand your horizons, even if you don’t like the thing that you try. You know, all of the same things [that students can say]. I mean, I’ve basically been a Dublin student, just 30 years behind schedule.

Here’s another lesson I’ve learned about myself. It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped holding myself back from starting sentences with, “When I was your age…” For most of my time here, I was very cautious. I didn’t want to be seen as some kind of grumpy old man who is distant. But then I decided, no, in my area of expertise, where technology has transformed so drastically over the last three to four decades, the perspective that I have of “when I was your age” does provide a benchmark. How did I approach things when I was in high school? How did I make use of what are now vastly more advanced tools? What engaged me about it?

Q: If you could give one piece of advice to current and future students about their time at Dublin School, what would it be?
A: I’m struggling to think of something original. They get so much advice, right? And so much good guidance. I could say, just because I’ve certainly lived this experience myself, that studying what you’re interested in as an intellectual exercise is worthwhile, and it does not have to dictate what you’re going to do for your career. That probably hits harder at the college level, but I think it’s still worth it. I certainly have said that to students in my Advanced Topics class. I tell them that when I was in high school and people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I told them, “As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with computers, I’ll be fine.”

Lastly, we talked about what Tom is looking forward to in his next chapter, as he will be retiring at the end of this academic year.

Q: What do you have in store for your life after Dublin?
A: Well, with both of my children grown, it seems likely that they are both going to be landing in Europe. Within a couple of years, my wife and I are hoping to relocate to Europe as well. Our family has been fortunate to have exposed our kids to international travel with some regularity, and so the idea of not staying close to New England has been agreeable to them throughout their childhood. They’ve both taken advantage of that now, as they’ve gotten to be independent. We figured it was a pretty safe bet that if we relocate to Europe, they will either orbit around us, or we’ll chase them around, or who knows as their lives develop. But that’s been one of our goals ever since we led a study abroad program for Franklin Pierce in 2009 in Vienna, Austria. We pretty much came away from that thinking, ‘When we’ve got nothing else to do, we’re doing this.’

Tom, thank you for the years of service and passion that you’ve given to Dublin School! You will be missed, but we are so excited to get postcards from your European adventures