Deborah Thompson, M.Ed.

Clinical Instructor & Student Supervisor, Department of Leadership and Teacher Education Elementary Education


Education

B.S., Special Education K-12, Jackson State University, 1979

M.A., Special Education, University of South Alabama, 1993

Educational Leadership and Administration Certification, University of Southern Mississippi, 1996


Teaching Philosophy

All students can learn. It is the responsibility of instructor/teacher to identify and nurture the student's learning style. It is through this process that the student achieves academic excellence and social competence. The use of higher order thinking skills, rigorous curriculum and encouragement the student becomes a teacher regardless of their age.

Teaching is the highest level of learning and the goal of the instructor/teacher is to use effective, efficient and relevant instruction to teach one that will in turn teach many.


Research

I am currently studying the effects of grandparents rearing young children, academic achievement and social adjustment.


Outreach

Working with my church and community is a life-long experience for me. I am very involved with educating youth, children and adults within my church and community. As a volunteer I have provided professional development on bullying, professionalism in the workplace, ethnicity and student achievement, parenting and social/emotional development of children, ADD/ADHD and differentiated instruction to name a few. I also work with youth in particular to help them to understand and internalize the importance of self-respect and personal value. The goal is to not only tell them, but to demonstrate why character is far more important than popularity.


Biography

I have been an educator for 36 years. Thirty of the those years were in PreK-12 in Mississippi. I was an elementary classroom teacher for 10 years and spent 20 years as an administrator. As a district administrator I worked with curriculum and instruction, special education services, gifted education, human resources, grant writing, professional development, counseling services federal programs, English Language Learners and interagency collaboration. I have also worked as an Educational Consultant for school districts, Head Start, public agencies and municipalities. After retiring from the public school setting I was given the opportunity to work with the USA College of Education in preparing future teachers.


Courses

  • EDU 303 - K-6 Tier II Field Experience
  • EDU 345 - K-6 Tier III Field Experience
  • EDU 430 - K-6 Internship
  • EDU 495 - K-6 Internship SPE