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Stacie Pettit, PhD - Augusta University. Augusta, GA, US

Stacie Pettit, PhD

Associate Professor | Augusta University

Augusta, GA, UNITED STATES

A respected leader in middle level teacher education and meeting the needs of marginalized young adolescents.

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The COEHD is charting new paths in Special Education at Augusta University | In the Wild

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Biography

Stacie Pettit, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Leading at Augusta University. She serves as the Middle School Program Coordinator and Collegiate Middle Level Association (CMLA) Advisor. Under her leadership, the AU CMLA chapter won the distinction of national host site for 2019-2021. She received the Outstanding Professor of Middle Level Education Award from NAPOMLE at the 2019 AMLE conference. Dr. Pettit received her undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Georgia in Middle School Education and has 18 years of experience teaching middle school (math, language arts, and ESOL) or in higher education (University of Mississippi and AU). Dr. Pettit has taught over 30 different university courses on young adolescent development, active learning, and middle level programs and schools, among others. Her research interests include teaching English Language Learners (ELLs), PDS partnerships, and interdisciplinary initiatives such as Junior Model United Nations. Her literature review on teachers’ beliefs about ELLs in mainstream classrooms published in the International Multilingual Research Journal has been cited 178 times. She is a board member of the MLER sig, as well as an executive board member and AMLE affiliate liaison for the Georgia Association of Middle Level Education.

Areas of Expertise (11)

Social Media Use in Middle Grades Education

Documentary Novels for Middle Grades

Foster Care and Education

Middle Level Education

Mathematics Education

Young Adolescents

Online Education

English Learners

Disney English

Literacy

ESOL

Accomplishments (3)

Outstanding Collegiate Middle Level Association (CMLA) Chapter (professional)

National Association of Professors of Middle Level Education, 2019

Outstanding Professor of Middle Level Education (professional)

National Association of Professors of Middle Level Association, 2019

Program Coordinator for the COE Nomination for the Augusta University Program Teaching Excellence Award (professional)

Augusta University, 2019

Education (5)

University of Georgia,: Doctoral degree, Education

Augusta State University: Master's degree, Mathematics Teacher Education

University of Georgia: Bachelor's degree, Junior High/Intermediate/Middl

University of Georgia: Bachelor's degree, Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education and Teaching

Professional Standards Commission: Georgia Teaching Certificate

Affiliations (5)

  • American Education Research Association - Middle Level Education Research SIG
  • Association for Middle Level Education
  • Association for Middle Level Education and Georgia Association of Middle Level Education
  • Association of Teacher Educators - Middle Level Special Interest Group (SIG)
  • Teaching and Teacher Education Invited Reviewer

Media Appearances (3)

Ohio Looks To Take On Social Media—But The Platforms Are Fighting Back

Forbes  online

2024-01-13

A new law in Ohio requiring children to get parental consent to use social media apps has been challenged in the courts, and a hearing will not determine until next month whether the law will be put on hold during the case. Should or should not end. Ohio's Social Media Parental Notification Act was part of the Buckeye State's $86.1 billion state budget bill that was signed into law by Republican Governor Mike DeWine last July. Dr. Stacy Pettit, associate professor of teacher education at Augusta University, said, “Parents who are already involved and invested in their children's lives have more power to limit their children's social media use. The mechanisms are available when they feel it is necessary.” “They will continue to do this without any laws,” Pettit added. “Parents who don't see the harm in social media use or who don't care about what their kids do online will still approve of it even with the law and allow their kids to use it. My In consideration, although the intention may be to help mental health crises, unfortunately, this legislation appears to only cause unnecessary red tape and additional costs.”

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Fox 54 interviews Dr. Stacie Pettit

WFXG  tv

2022-07-28

Dr. Stacie Pettit from Augusta University sits down with Danielle Ledbetter to talk about talk about COVID-19's impact on the education system.

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Teaching Social Media—Adding To K-12 Curriculum

Forbes  online

2023-06-18

An argument has been made that students should be taught at least the fundamentals of using social media. It could become a second set of the "3 Rs" of education. Along with "reading, writing and arithmetic," the social media 3Rs could perhaps include "research, responsibility and respect." The ability to "research" could help ensure that younger users of social media are taught how not to believe everything they see posted, and this could help stop the spread of misinformation. "Responsible" use of social media is also something that helps those users understand that they need to be careful of what they post, while "respect" is what should be shown to other users.

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Answers (3)

What are some of the challenges kids face going back to in-person instruction?

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Overcoming fear they’ve picked up through other people and the news. Feeling uncomfortable with their faces exposed after getting used to hiding behind a mask and dealing with germ phobia. Students also have the additional challenge of another recent school shooting in Uvalde, so not only are they getting used to being back in school full-time, but they also have safety concerns.

What kids might still struggle going back into the classroom?

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Certainly kids who missed kindergarten. Students from foster care. Students in special education who didn’t have the support they needed during at home learning.

Can kids make up for "lost" time in the classroom coming out of the pandemic?

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On one hand, you can’t completely make up for learning loss. Teachers just need to assess where students are and both students and teachers do the best you can from this point. On the other hand, students didn’t just stop learning altogether. There are important life and family skills that were gained during quarantine and the months after.

Articles (8)

How to Survive and Thrive Teaching Middle School Virtually

AMLE - Association for Middle Level Education

Melissa Martin, Stacie Pettit

2021 I’ve had the privilege of teaching seventh grade math virtually for four years, and I can tell you that teaching middle school students online takes even a little more finesse than my years in a face-to-face classroom. My students are the tech gurus, but they don’t know how to access your Google classroom. They can record themselves all day on TikTok, but they don’t know how to download a document. They can watch YouTube videos for hours, but they get bored a few minutes into a teacher-created video. So, how do you keep them engaged, learning, and begging for more? [...]

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Lessons Learned: Aligning Voices from the inside with Nine Essentials of Professional Development Schools

School-University Partnerships

Rychly, Laura; Pettit, Stacie K.; Buning, Megan M.

2020 This exploratory case study documents the experiences shared by teacher candidates and cooperating teachers in two contrasting Professional Development School (PDS) sites over four semesters. At the ends of semesters during which courses were moved from the traditional university site delivery to public middle schools as part of an emerging PDS, focus group interviews were conducted with teacher candidates and then with classroom teachers to document their experiences. Their voices were solicited because much that went on between them and outside of what could be directly observed by those making decisions is important for identifying what would strengthen a PDS model. [...]

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Best Practices in Middle Level Quaranteaching: Strategies, Tips and Resources Amidst COVID-19

Becoming Journal - Georgia Middle School Association

Christi Pace, Stacie K. Pettit, Kim S. Barker

2020 School closings resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have forced teachers across the world to scramble to shift their face-to-face classes online. This rapid transition to what we call “quaranteaching” has left teachers little time to prepare for virtual teaching and learning. Acknowledging this challenge, in this article we share steps, strategies, tips, and resources to support and empower middle grades educators to successfully continue the online instruction (more accurately called “crisis teaching) they have begun. [...]

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Quaranteaching in the Time of Covid-19: Exemplar From a Middle Grades Virtual Classroom

Becoming Journal - Georgia Middle School Association

Amanda Woods, Stacie K. Pettit, Christi Pace

2021 The COVID-19 pandemic dropped educators across the world straight into remote learning with little time to prepare. As some have inevitably struggled, other middle grades educators have overcome beginning hurdles to not only survive, but thrive amidst this new challenge. One teacher in particular, despite being in her first year, has found innovative ways to connect and motivate her middle grades students in a virtual environment. This article extends the steps, tips, and resources article (Author 3, Author 2, & Barker, K. S. also in this issue?) to provide a personal example of the successes (and yet still challenges) that exist when “quaranteaching” is done well. [...]

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How to “F-L-I-P” Your Middle Grades Classroom

AMLE

Stacie K. Pettit

2020 Recent mass school closings due to the COVID-19 pandemic have educators everywhere seeking ways to provide meaningful distance learning. In response, some educators are developing instruction around a hybrid model of the flipped classroom. Similar to the traditional model, students in a hybrid model prepare outside class assignments using online tools and technologies in preparation for their upcoming face-to-face class meeting.

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Online Teaching Module: Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Key Assessment Example

Becoming Journal - Georgia Middle School Association

Stacie K. Pettit, Susan Edwards

2018 The Augusta University Online Teaching Module is a key assessment administered once during one specified course in each educator preparation program. Augusta University teacher candidates are required to show proficiency in ISTE standards and CAEP standard 1.5. The online teaching model measures candidates’ ability to apply technology standards in order to design, implement, and assess learning experiences to engage students and improve learning. In order to pass the Online Teaching Module, candidates must score 3 out of 4 possible points on at least five of the six indicators. [...]

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What Kind of Possibilities Do We Have? Educators’ Complex Images of Latino Immigrant Students and Families

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

H. James McLaughlin, Stacie K. Pettit

2013 The Latino population in the United States is on the rise, but historically, Latino graduation rates have been low. Many educators lack sufficient intercultural preparation, and therefore, teachers may tend to blame student failure on cultural and familial deficiencies. In this study, we elicited educators’ perceptions of Latino students and the students’ families through 10 focus group interviews at 6 target schools (4 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school). Findings include contradictory views of students’ and families’ attitudes towards education, and consistently negative views of students’ and families’ educational backgrounds. Latino families were seen as close, caring, and hardworking, but with the wrong priorities and in a state of crisis. [...]

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Foster students are being left behind—educational leaders can change that

University Business

Stacey Pettit

2023-10-11

From the K12 to the postsecondary level, foster children face many challenges and risks that harm their academic success. Roughly half of foster children graduate from high school nationally, and less than five percent graduate from a four-year college. Foster students are also three times more likely to drop out of high school than other low-income children in general. With roughly 400,000 children in foster care in the U.S. today, too many children are being left behind. Educational leaders, administrators and decision-makers must become directly involved to protect their journey. But to do that, they must first understand what challenges these students face and then take specific steps to address them.

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