Katie Thompson-Laswell
Instructor
Contact Information
313 Justin Hall
785-532-5510
katietl2@k-state.edu
Education
- M.Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
- B.A. in Child Psychology with a minor in Theater, Ohio State University
Area(s) of Specialization
- Child Development
- Early Childhood Special Education
Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors
She enjoys teaching immensely and prides herself on providing interactive and engaging learning opportunities for her students. Continuous improvement and creative instruction are ever present goals.
Courses Taught
- ECED 310 Early Childhood (on campus and online)
- ECED 313 Pre-professional Experience in Early Childhood Unified
- HDFS 110 Introduction to Human Development
- HDFS 506 Middle Childhood and Adolescence
- HDFS 590 Capstone Experience in FSHS
Professional Biography
Katie Thompson-Laswell has worked in the early childhood field for about 25 years. During that time, she has been fortunate to work in almost every early childhood setting. She has worked in early childhood special education classrooms as an assistant and head teacher; provided home visiting early intervention services to a wide variety of families, including military families overseas in Germany and Spain; provided consultation services for home and center child care facilities; worked as the program development coordinator and infant/toddler program coordinator of the K-State Child Development Center and has taught a variety of college courses on a wide variety of early childhood and human development topics for the past 11 years, at Kansas State University.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Child Psychology (with a minor in theater) from Ohio State University. She earned her Master of Education in Early Childhood Special Education from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. She began a doctoral program in organizational leadership while overseas. She chose not to continue in the program since it would have prevented her from actually seeing Europe! Throughout her educational career, the emphasis of her studies was the education and care of infants and toddlers. Much of her career experience has been with the youngest of children in her field. She also spent a great deal of her career pursuing one of her great passions - caring for and educating very young children with disabilities.
Personal Information
Thompson-Laswell is the mother of two very wonderful and very talkative children, plus a very large dog named Charlotte and an energetic pound puppy with a penchant for escape and destruction named Ozzy. Her son, Jack, is almost 17 years old and taller than she, and her daughter, Lena, is almost 12 years old.
She has been married to her husband, Scott, for almost 23 years, and they have lived in Manhattan for 16 years - the longest they lived anywhere since they have been married. They like it here and intend to stay until they can find the right opportunity to move back to Europe, preferably Spain or Northern Italy.
You might see her hiking on Konza Prairie, one of her favorite activities outside of work and parenting. Her family loves seeing shows at McCain Auditorium and the Chapman Theatre, as well as seeing movies at the local movie theater.