October 31, 2009 8:21 PM

NMSA 2009 - Indianapolis, IN

I have finished getting my PowerPoint ready for my presentation at the NMSA 36th Annual Conference and Exhibit in Indianapolis, IN from November 5 - 7, 2009. I will be presenting Friday, 11/6/2009 from 9:15 AM - 10:30 AM on Differentiated Instruction and Technology. I am looking forward to sharing with the participants many of the online sources that I have discovered that integrates technology with differentiated instruction. I believe that it is very important to make sure that all educators from the P - 20 arena stay current with the ways in which to help each child succeed with the use of technology.

I think that it is stated best in the video "Pay Attention" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw

I am looking forward to making many connections that will assist me in ensuring that I am imparting information to future teachers, school counselors and instructional leaders that will prepare them for the 21st Century!

October 6, 2009 8:01 PM

Learning to Prioritize

Where does one begin when they are attempting to stay abreast with the most current information within one's field? I find myself torn between several different topics as I try to ensure that I am providing my undergraduate and graduate students with the most current information within their respective disciplines. "Reading in the Content", "Foundations of Curriculum", "Leadership Theories and Applications", "Thesis Research and Planning", "iKnow Qualitative Research", "Effective Graduate Collegiate Online Teaching" and "Differentiated Instruction & Technology". There are so many topics that I am trying to maintain my knowledge base while also trying to make sure that I give proper time to my Lord God and family. "Google Reader", "Twitter", "Facebook", "Wikis", "Nings", "Blogs", "RSS feeds" - where does it end? I pray that my students feel as though I am adequately preparing them for the teaching, counseling, and administrative professions! There are times when one must realize that there is a need to take recreation in order to be effective in all areas of life! Proverbs 16: 3 "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." NIV

September 25, 2009 11:31 PM

My Children's Literature Teacher

I am really thankful that I had the opportunity of reconnecting with Dr. Betty Watson, my Children's Literature teacher! I am indebted to her for instilling in me a love for quality children's literature.

Dr. Betty Watson

September 25, 2009 11:21 PM

What a wonderful day!

My brain is saturated with all of the material that I have absorbed today! It is very good to be able to get away for a couple of days and share best-practices with colleagues from Sister Institutions. I was encouraged this morning when I heard Mr. Henderson reminding all of us to make sure that we are incorporating the three "R's" into our teaching: Relevance, Relationships, and Rigor!

I also enjoyed being able to walk the campus of Harding this afternoon and seeing all of the new buildings that have been built since the last time that I have visited the campus. It really brought back memories of the time that Beth and I were students here.

Cannon-Clary College of Education

September 25, 2009 7:14 AM

ACEPP Conference

I am going to be able to glean information from the following presentations today and tomorrow!

"Joy and Change at Work"

"Finding Joy in Assessment: A Comparison of Student Grades to Standards-Based Assessment Scores, Coupled with Teacher Grading Practices"

"Challenges and Issues in Christian Teacher Education"

"Comparing Elementary Degree Plans and Core Curriculum among Church of Christ Schools of Education"

"Finding Joy in Teaching Graduate Students"

"Sharing our Joy in Message, Ministry, and Mission"

"Joy Found in Serving Others"

"Making Technology Resources Available to Our Students - Free Software!"

"Improving Our College Teaching: Let's Rekindle our own Excitement!"

September 24, 2009 11:57 PM

Taking time to collaborate

It has been a while since I have posted any items on my blog. I am hoping to get back into the swing of making at least weekly postings!

I am currently attending the Association of Christian Education Preparation Programs (ACEPP) National Conference at Harding University in Searcy, AR. I have the chance to meet colleagues from across the nation that have the same passion toward teaching preservice teachers, school counselors and administrators as I do. I believe that it is very important to take the time to renew one's battery and to receive new ideas that will allow one to become a better professor.

I am having the chance to renew my friendship with Dr. Betty Watson who taught me Children's Literature several years ago when I was pursuing my BA in Elementary Education at Harding College. It has also brought back many great memories as I walked among many of the new and old buildings on campus.

Dr. Elizabeth Saunders and I are presenting "A Model for School-University-Corporate Partnership: Demonstrating the Heart of Teaching for P-12 and Higher Education Students". We will be discussing the partnership between South Elementary, Jackson-Madison County, Discovery Education and Freed-Hardeman University.

June 23, 2009 5:27 PM

Collaborative Learning

Collaboration is a tool that is very important for all of today's students to be able to do in whatever arena that they decide to be employed. It is very important that we as educators make sure that they truly know how to collaborate both orally and in their writing. I want to encourage you to take a look at this article. In Him, Doc Tatom

http://www.techlearning.com/article/18764

Collaborative Learning at Tech Forum Midwest with Jon Orech, Scott Meech, and Henry Thiele

April 24, 2009

Orech:

What is the first thing you think of when you think of collaborative writing? Probably wikis. But, it won’t just happen by building a wiki. Wiki is a tool. Collaborative writing is a process. Not a patchwork quilt, but a seamless comforter.

This requires positive interdependence for:
Goal – what are you trying to achieve?
Role – what will your role be in the process?
Environment – the wiki itself
Task – schedule the goal
Identity – personalize your wiki

Work in small groups (3 is ideal), have frequent assessment, view the history of the wiki to see who is doing what, ask random questions.

Consider: what social skills are they learning? What is the group process? The teacher should go in and make evaluative comments to let the kids know you are watching the process.

Recent research indicates:
Asynchronous writing results in richer collaboration (Mabrito, 2006)
Online collaborative writing produces higher quality writing than face-to-face collaboration (Passig and Schwartz, 2007). Why? Students may be more likely to post anonymously online.
Monitor progress and give feedback on the wiki itelf

Most important: the final document must be valuable to others. Read Jon’s blog on the subject here.

Please go to this link to read the rest of the article. Doc Tatom
http://www.techlearning.com/article/18764

April 24, 2009 9:03 PM

Technology Integration

I want to encourage my students to take a look at this very interesting article. Each of us as educators must do our best to begin embracing the technology that is at hand so that we will be able to utilize it to our best ability. Tools that are at our disposal are only as good as we enable them to be through truly integrating them. Doc Tatom

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58362

Study: Ed tech leads to significant gains

Experienced, skilled teachers make a particular difference, says a study examining the use of Promethean's ActivClassroom suite
By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor

Primary Topic Channel: Instruction

Students whose teachers used Promethean's ActivClassroom demonstrated significant achievement gains. Integrating Promethean's ActivClassroom--a suite of educational technologies that includes an interactive whiteboard, teaching software, and student response systems--into instruction can raise student achievement by an average of 17 percentile points, according to new research that also confirms the experience, comfort, and skill level of teachers in using the technology has a huge impact on how effective they'll be.

The study determined that student achievement can really soar if a teacher has 10 or more years of teaching experience, has been using the technology for two or more years, has high confidence in his or her ability to use the ActivClassroom suite, and uses it 75 to 80 percent of the time in the classroom.

During the 2008-09 school year, teachers and students took part in independent studies to find out whether using Promethean ActivClassroom can improve student achievement. The study included 1,716 students whose teachers used ActivClassroom to augment their instructional practices, as well as 1,622 students whose teachers--the same teachers as in the experimental group--used other strategies and materials to facilitate instruction.

Please go to the link to read the rest of the article. Doc Tatom

April 20, 2009 7:50 AM

Technology in Action

I want to share information concerning one of Freed-Hardeman's current Graduate Students - Cortnie Buck. She has made two presentations at West TN Educational Technology Associations Spring Administrative Technology Academy the past two years. She has the opportunity of showing technology in action every day as she interacts with the students who are taking her class at Lexington Middle School. I am very proud of Cortnie!

Hands-on science for middle-schoolers
BY TAJUANA CHESHIER
TCHESHIER@JACKSONSUN.COM
• APRIL 20, 2009

LEXINGTON - Lexington Middle School Engineering and Technology teacher Cortnie Buck keeps her students busy with enrichment activities that help them in their core classes.

Buck works with 50 to 70 students a week.

"The seventh-graders are learning how to conduct research, present information to the class and (do) basic drafting and sketching," Buck said.

Some of the seventh-grade projects include designing their own sports drinks and water rockets.

Students are selected to participate in her class.

"We base student selection on their Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program scores," Buck said.

You may read the rest of the article at: http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20090420/NEWS01/904200307/1002/rss

April 17, 2009 7:22 AM

Cheating

http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=15591

Taking Cheating Seriously: Academic Honesty without Sanctimony

by David Wasserman & Sheldon R. Gelman — March 12, 2009

I would encourage everyone to read this article very carefully. It is much easier for students to copy and paste items into their papers than it was many years ago. As educators, we must always be proactive when it comes to educating our K-20 students concerning plagiarism! It is my prayer that we each continue to grow in our academic knowledge of every area of education. Have a great day! Doc Tatom

Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record, Date Published: March 12, 2009
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 15591, Date Accessed: 4/17/2009 8:15:11 AM

April 16, 2009 9:26 PM

EsnTV

I would like to encourage each of us to take time to look at all the information that is available at eSchool News.TV for Today's K-12 educator. They have several categories to choose from. There are items that will assist us as educators and well as topics that will be of interest to our K-12 students. Thanks, Doc Tatom

http://eschoolnews.tv/

April 16, 2009 6:35 PM

Multiple Intelligences - #2

I want to share another great article concerning Multiple Intelligences. This site also has some great links in our quest of obtaining further knowledge to assist our K-12 students in their educational growth. Please take the time to explore this site. Thanks, Doc Tatom

An Educator's Journey Toward Multiple Intelligences | Edutopia

Source: www.edutopia.org

Thousands of articles, videos, slide shows, expert interviews, blog entries, and other resources highlight success stories in K-12 education. Core concepts include integrated studies, project learning,technology integration, teacher development, social and emotional learning, and assessment.

April 16, 2009 6:31 PM

Multiple Intelligences & NCLB

There are 3 very good videos at this site that discuss Multiple Intelligences. We must realize that we are never through growing and learning! Each of us must continue to be on the journey of adding to our educational knowledge each and every day! Whether we interact with elementary or secondary children, we must realize that every avenue must be addressed to insure that we are reaching the full potential of every one of our children. Multiple Intelligences is one tool that we can utilize to help us in this endeavor. Doc Tatom

Multiple Intelligences Leave No Child Behind | Edutopia

Source: www.edutopia.org

Thousands of articles, videos, slide shows, expert interviews, blog entries, and other resources highlight success stories in K-12 education. Core concepts include integrated studies, project learning,technology integration, teacher development, social and emotional learning, and assessment.

April 15, 2009 3:43 PM

Let's Get Connected

I would like to encourage each of us to take a look at this video clip along. We need to each continue to stretch ourselves educationally and technologically to ensure that we are covering every aspect to reach each child. As educators, we must be willing to explore the various Web 2.0 tools to determine which ones will help us to be more effective among our colleagues and our students. In Him, Doc Tatom

Company as Wiki and Wikified Schools at Change Agency

Source: www.ed421.com

HUGE hat tip to Clarence Fisher for finding this video and posting it on his blog. This is exactly what I wrote about and what I envisioned for schools in Stephanie Sandifer book Wikified Schools

April 15, 2009 3:46 PM

Continue to Learn

I would like for each of us to take a look at this article. As educators, it is very important that we stay on top of trends in technologies that will impact the integration of technology to learning. Teachers, para-professionals, counselors, and administrators must be willing to learn new techniques to stay abreast of the fast growing field of technology. In Him, Doc Tatom

Ready or not, here IT comes

Source: www.techlearning.com

New Articles From the Classroom Leadership Professional Development Tech/Media Coordinators Tech Talk Studies in Ed Tech Ideas and Opinions How To

April 15, 2009 3:42 PM

Continue to Grow

I want to encourage everyone to take a look at this video concerning the Cynefin Framework. I want to encourage each of us to continue to grow in our educational knowledge and application in order to assist each child to reach their ultimate potential. In Him, Doc Tatom

Anecdote: A simple explanation of the Cynefin Framework

Source: www.anecdote.com.au

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April 13, 2009 8:39 PM

Introduction

Thank you for visiting "Dr. Tatom's Blog." I welcome you to use my blog. It is my desire that you use my blog to discuss issues and/or post questions related to all aspects of the education profession. Some of my interests are Differentiated Instruction, Data Mining, Technology Integration, Learning Centered Leadership, and the best use of Web 2.0 tools within the classroom.

I appreciate your cooperation as you use my blog. I look forward to hearing from you and the discussion which will take place. Please note that I have the right to delete any blog that I do not see as appropriate. If you discuss real life situations please remember to not mention names and/or places.

Thanks, Doc Tatom