July 11, 2023 • 35 mins
Dr. Stephanie Lemley talks to us about agriculture literacies and connecting with our communities. Stephanie is known for her work in the areas of disciplinary literacies and specifically agricultural education. Dr. Lemley recently served as a Mississippi Education Policy Fellow. She is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Mississippi State University.
Resources from this episode:
- Mississippi Blues Trail Curriculum: https://arts.ms.gov/programs/education-initiatives/mississippi-blues-trail-curriculum/
- Mississippi Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom: https://msfb.org/ag-in-the-classroom/
- National Ag in the Classroom: https://agclassroom.org/matrix/
- American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture: https://www.agfoundation.org/ag-lit-catalog
To cite this episode: Persohn, L. (Host). (2023, July 11). A conversation with Stephanie Lemley (Season 4, No. 1) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI:10.5240/0731-D2F6-B040-7F75-8B2C-T
Connect with Classroom Caffeine at www.classroomcaffeine.com or on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lindsay Persohn (00:10):
Education research has a problem. The work
of brilliant educationresearchers often doesn't reach
the practice of brilliantteachers. Classroom caffeine is
here to help. In each episode, Italk with the top education
researcher or expert educatorabout what they have learned
from their research andexperiences.
(00:35):
In this episode, Dr. StephanieLumley talks to us about
agriculture literacies andconnecting with our communities.
Stephanie is known for her workin the areas of disciplinary
literacies and specificallyAgricultural Education, Dr.
Lemley recently served as aMississippi Education Policy
Fellow. She is an associateprofessor of literacy education
(00:58):
at Mississippi State University.
For more information about ourguest, stay tuned to the end of
this episode. So pour a cup ofyour favorite drink. And join me
your host, Lindsay Persohn. Forclassroom caffeine research to
energize your teaching practice.
(01:18):
Stephanie, thank you for joiningme. Welcome to the show.
Stephanie Lemley (01:21):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so
excited to be here.
Lindsay Persohn (01:25):
Thank you. So from your own experiences in
education, will you share withus one or two moments that
inform your thinking now?
Stephanie Lemley (01:33):
Sure, I don't know if these are really moments
or just phrases that I keeprepeating myself over and over,
they're kind of become my mantrain life. The first one is to
always keep learning. A lot ofmy research that I currently do
now and work with teachers isvastly different from my own
(01:53):
educational background. And sojust to kind of give a little
bit of detail about that myteaching background is in social
studies primarily. And thenmiddle school reading and
creative writing. When I went toMiddle Tennessee State for my
undergrad, I got a degree inpolitical science and secondary
(02:13):
education. And I always reallyfelt comfortable with social
studies. It was something I wasvery passionate about enjoyed in
school. And when I went tocollege, I just thought that'd
be the perfect career path forme is to become a social studies
teacher. And so when I moved toFlorida, I started teaching high
school social studies. And thatled me to getting into some
(02:36):
literacy work, particularlyworking with other teachers in
the school site that I was at,and then getting a master's in
reading and then pursuing a PhDand literacy studies. And while
I was there at USF mydissertation work looked at high
school, AP US History teachersand their disciplinary literacy
(02:57):
beliefs, knowledge and practicesand their implementation of
disciplinary literacy in theclassroom. So social studies
really was my my main area offocus for quite a while when I
was hired at Mississippi State.
Mississippi State is a landgrant institution, it is a an
institution that has a veryproud ag program and a college
of that medicine and lots ofopportunities there. And so I
(03:21):
was afforded to collaborate withsome people in human sciences,
which is where agricultureeducation is housed at
Mississippi State. And I servedas the literacy expert on some
grant works and applications andsome other projects with them
some theses and dissertationwork as well. And that led me to
(03:45):
some grant work with the UnitedStates Department of Agriculture
and the National Institute ofFood and Agriculture,
specifically looking atprofessional development
agricultural literacy. Now mymantra is always keep learning,
because AG is very foreign orwas very foreign to me. As a
city girl from memphis Tennesseeinitially, I was very
(04:11):
agriculturally illiterate. Andso when I got these
opportunities to work with somecolleagues in human science, it
really started changing mythinking. It caused me to really
continuing the education processin a completely different field
than I ever thought I would bein my husband is Animal and
Dairy Science faculty. And so in2021, we applied for a
(04:35):
professional development andagricultural literacy grant on
animal science, plant scienceand meat science content
primarily with some literacythrown in. specifically working
with agricultural literacy andin the reading, writing,
speaking and listening practicesof scientist and
(04:55):
agriculturalists and a littlebit of teacher leadership. And
so we targeted sixth through12th grade Ag teachers and
science teachers for thisparticular grant. And while I
was the primary investigator ofthe grant and the coordinator of
the PD, and primarily didliteracy work with the teachers,
I was able to do some of thescience or the Ag experiences.
(05:17):
And so part of that opportunityallowed me to ultrasound and
palpate, a beef cow added ourbeef units, which was a learning
experience. And so when I doprofessional development with
teachers, I really want toparticipate in and experience as
much as they are going to. Soit's more of an authentic
(05:39):
practice that I am also learningwith them and doing the things
that they're doing. So I try toparticipate in pretty much the
entire PD as much as I can, Ilove to be there for the entire
day, or week, you know, go intoall of the different activities.
And so part of that allowed meto learn more about reproductive
physiology of beef cattle andhow we can determine or detect
(06:02):
pregnancy. And so this was a anamazing learning opportunity and
learning experience. And so, youknow, prior to my getting
involved with this grant, inparticular, my interaction with
agriculture, even though myhusband was an ag was still
fairly limited. I wasagriculturally illiterate. So I
didn't know a lot about whereproducts came from. I was one of
(06:25):
those individuals that if youasked me where our milk came
from, I probably said Kroeger,not even thinking about the
dairy and the whole process. Andso getting to step out of my
comfort zone getting to havethese opportunities with
colleagues from differentdepartments really informed my
thinking, because it allowed meto understand more deeply that
(06:48):
as teachers, we're alwayslearning, right, we are always
continuing to evolve in ourpractice and learn new things.
And we can, in particular, getopportunities to experience
those new things and then findways to share them with others.
And so I've been able to do thatby sharing my experiences both
with other in service teachersaround the state of Mississippi,
(07:11):
but then also my own pre serviceteachers in the College of
Education. And so getting tohost some agricultural literacy
seminars for them, leading themon thinking about how we can
bring agriculture education intoour science standards and our
social studies standards,thinking about how we can do
things with different types oftext in that field as well. And
(07:33):
giving them opportunities tolearn more about where they're
from, in particular. And so, youknow, Mississippi is a very
agricultural based state, and alot of our students go back to
their home counties, or movesomewhere else in the state and
get put in situations wherethey're dealing with a lot of
(07:54):
families that have ag experienceeither on the animal side of the
plant side, and opening theireyes up to more of what the
state has to offer, in regardsto content that we can bring
into our classes and make thingsmore authentic for our students.
Because agriculture content inparticular, is one of those
areas that's very hands on, it'svery often in content in states
(08:16):
where agriculture is a bigindustry. And so through this
work, I've seen teachers reallyembrace these experiences and
then take that back and sharewith their with their students.
You know, learning really isthis continual process, and we
always can share our experienceswith others and continue to just
(08:38):
teach others in a variety ofways. The other I guess piece
along with that is just the factthat it's really okay to get out
of your comfort zone and to trynew things. And I think that's
really important as a teacher,to not get complacent. And that
fact that you might feel veryuncomfortable trying new
(08:59):
curriculum or having a newexperience, but that's okay. And
we're all feeling the same way.
For me. I was so agriculturallyilliterate as I mentioned
before, and incredibly nervousdoing anything related to AG
because I didn't want to mess upI didn't want to embarrass
myself. But having thoseexperiences really allowed me to
(09:24):
to learn and really embrace anarea of the curriculum that
sometimes doesn't get as muchattention as other areas. In
Mississippi in particular,there's a lot of professional
development for teachers, butnot a lot of agriculture,
professional development, and soAg teachers might, or teachers
that want to incorporateagricultural literacy into their
(09:46):
classrooms might get anopportunity to go to an ELA or
literacy PD or a science PD mathPD, but not something that
pertains necessarily to thecontent they're teaching. And so
you know, having thoseopportunity He's getting out of
your comfort zone, trying newthings really embracing the
learning process. Just somethingthat I think really has
(10:09):
reaffirmed to me how much I loveeducation and just being in this
field and wanting to share thatwith other people.
Lindsay Persohn (10:15):
Well, Stephanie, your energy is
certainly very inspiring. And I,I would, I would guess that many
folks, particularly afterhearing you talk about some of
your experiences might alsoconsider themselves to be a bit
ag illiterate, you know, we dolive in a day and age where we
can be so separated from thingslike where our food comes from,
(10:36):
and what those processesactually look like, as you said,
milk doesn't really come fromKroger, right, that's just sort
of where it ends up before itlands in our household. So this
is really important stuff,something that you we've known
each other for a long time forthe benefit of listeners. But
something you might not knowabout me is that I was involved
in the FFA and ag department inhigh school, I was I think I was
(10:59):
vice president of our FFAchapter as well as I don't know,
something like historian and Idid dairy judging citrus judging
all kinds of things at our youthfair. So So yeah, I know exactly
what you're saying here that,you know, sometimes we become so
far removed from these processesthat we don't really understand
where you know, where our foodcomes from, I do think that
(11:20):
COVID changed that a little bit,we paid a little bit more
attention when things weren't onthe shelves, but that certainly,
it leaves a lot for us to learn.
So I also really love youroverarching messages of always
keep learning and it's okay toget out of your comfort zone. I
think that this is such animportant mindset for any
educator. So I love the way youhighlight that, while sort of
underscoring it with lots of agliteracy tidbits. So thank you
(11:43):
for that. Thank you. So what doyou want listeners to know about
your work?
Stephanie Lemley (11:50):
Well, I would say a couple of things. One,
just the importance ofagricultural literacy. And so we
think about agriculturalliteracy. And we look at what
that term means, essentially,the definition that is primarily
used over and over and overagain, is from the National
Research Council's 1988 report.
So quite a while ago, reportthat says, essentially, an
(12:16):
individual is aware of the foodand fiber systems. And so
understanding where your foodcomes from understanding how,
you know, products are made, butthey leave out the literate
portion, right. And so indisciplinary literacies, we talk
a lot about those habits ofmind, those habits of practice,
what disciplinarians really doto engage with text in their
(12:40):
discipline, to read to write tospeak like a member of that
discipline. And so foragricultural literacy, that
definition is not really there,you know, so we think about
scientific literacy, we canthink about not just the idea of
understanding science content,but understanding the habits of
mind that a scientist engages inthe types of texts that they
(13:02):
read the graphs, the charts, thetables, you know, how they write
in that field, the same thingwith a historian. So going back
to my social studies,background, you know, Sam
Weinberg and his work with thehistorian heuristics, sourcing
and contextualization andcollaboration, and even close
reading their history lens. Andag literacy is not really there,
(13:23):
the definition that primarilyhas been around and continues to
evolve by researchers in thefield of ag ed, is really on the
content of agriculture. Sounderstanding, you know, where
your food comes fromunderstanding, you know, the
cultural aspects, the societalaspects, the environmental
(13:44):
aspects, but leaving out thatwhole idea of the literate
practice. And so for me, one ofthe things that I'm really
intrigued with, is trying tofigure out what that is. And so
what that process is, what doesit mean for an agriculturalists?
To read a text, for example,going back to my husband, he's
an animal scientist,specifically, he does a lot of
(14:06):
work with reproduction, withcattle. And so a lot of those
texts are not your traditionaltexts that you quote, unquote,
would read. in that field, hecan view an ultrasound and knows
exactly what he's seen on the onthe screen, he can use a thermal
camera, and take pictures andlook at different distributions
(14:28):
of heat in color and understandwhat that means in regards to
that cow that he is he's lookingat or the herd. Those are text.
And so one thing that I'm reallyintrigued on is number one, what
do agriculturalists read? Andthen how do they write? How are
they different than otherscientists? You know, because a
(14:49):
lot of times when we think aboutdisciplinary literacy in the
schools, we talk a lot aboutscience and social studies and
we We all put those areas inone, when in fact science is
physics and astronomy andgeology and biology and
chemistry, agriculture, butwithin AG, there's plant science
(15:13):
and soil science and meat,science and animals that there's
all these different areas. Andso what does it really mean to
be agriculturally literate? Andhow can we bring those practices
in to help our students makesense of what they're reading
and writing in those classrooms,not just in ag ed classrooms,
but in any classroom that ateacher wants to bring in
(15:34):
agricultural content, you know,in the state of Mississippi,
fourth grade is Mississippistudies. And so there's a whole
section of the standards ongeography, there's a whole
section of the standards on thehistory of the state. And so
bringing in text and lettingstudents learn about the Delta
and the row crops that aregrowing, they're letting them
learn about aquaculture, youknow, products Vardaman, in the
(15:55):
sweet potato capital of theworld and the plant side of
things. You know, there's somany different ways to bring ag
into our classrooms to reallyhelp us meet state standards.
But how do we teach our kids howto access those texts, and
really learn how to understandthem in a way that
agriculturalists would at agrade appropriate level. One of
(16:17):
the other things that I wouldlike listeners to learn about me
is when I talk to my studentsabout disciplinary literacy
practices in my K to six contentand disciplinary literacy
methods course, I talked to themabout the idea of teaching them
to use those practices withtheir kids in a grade
appropriate way. And that inkindergarten, we can have our
(16:40):
students asking questions,making a hypothesis, sourcing a
text, and that might lookdifferent than a fifth grader or
a sixth grader, just because ofthe fact that the practice can
get more complex and more deep,so to speak. As you go through
school, you know, you can askmore questions you can you can
(17:02):
do some of those things. So whenI talked to my students about
accessing agricultural text in agrade appropriate way, for
example, I talk a lot aboutvocabulary in the classroom and
how our students can learnterminology. And they can
utilize those terms. But again,that level of complexity might
differ slightly depending ongrade level. So for example, I
(17:26):
have an almost six year oldgoing to kindergarten in the
fall and he loves to learn aboutwhat his daddy does at the farm.
And one of the texts that I usewith my students to kind of
highlight this is the milkmakers by Gail Gibbons, I love
Gail Gibbons text, she's gotsome phenomenal books,
specifically related to to agand to science, but also some
(17:50):
beautiful social studies text aswell that are really great to
use in primary grades. And so myalmost kindergartener could
learn the term udder, u DD ERare about being read aloud. Gail
Gibbons, the milk makers, right,we can talk about what another
is what it's being used for inthat cow. A high school student
(18:11):
might learn about a cow's udderwhile reading an extension
publication. You know, extensionpublications are written for the
public's consumption, maybeproducers in the field to read,
they're written in a very clean,easy, X easy way to explain
information. And so if I have a,an extension publication, let's
(18:35):
say on dairy cattle, judginggoing back to what you were
saying earlier, Lindsey, then astudent in a high school or
middle school classroom, mightlearn more about that specific
part of the cow though thatpublication but we're both
teaching discipline specificterminology. We're both having
our students learning aboutagriculture and ways that they
(18:56):
can communicate throughvocabulary precise terminology
about a given field. And so I'mreally intrigued on how we can
do more of that teachingdiscipline specific practices,
and really uncovering what theyare specifically those
comprehension practices andthose writing practices in the
(19:17):
field. And I'm trying, I'm juststarting to really try to
scratch the surface there andworking with faculty on some
some research ideas for that.
Lindsay Persohn (19:28):
That's great information. And I'm glad you
also mentioned a book titlethere. I'm wondering if you have
any kind of resource lists thatyou've compiled that we might be
able to share with listeners?
Stephanie Lemley (19:41):
Sure. Yes. One phenomenal resource just to
mention in regards to lessonplanning is National Ag in the
Classroom, National Ag in theClassroom is I believe it's run
by Utah State University or it'shoused there, Utah State
University right now. They havelesson plans for K through 12,
(20:03):
students, science, math, ela,you know, there's some art
opportunities there, you canfind things for across the grade
levels and in a variety ofsubjects. And so a lot of them
are, you know, very hands on,but there's a lot of really nice
reading that goes along withthem. And so what's really neat
(20:24):
about those lesson plans is theyprovide you with vocabulary to
teach, they provide you with aBackground section. So if this
is not your area of expertise,but you still want to teach your
kids about it, you can accessthat information and share the
kind of the history and theBackground section with them.
They do a lot of crosscurricular work, which is really
(20:46):
nice. So you can bring inscience and math together, or
ELA and social studies or ELAand science into the same
classroom. And so that's areally great resource. I'm also
on a USDA grant right now calledfarm to classroom, which is a
grant that Dr. Carly Morrison,who's in our School of Human
(21:08):
Sciences and myself are both coPI's on. And for that grant, in
particular, we're working withMississippi teachers K to 12, on
agricultural literacy, and howyou can bring it into the core
four in your class. So English,science, social studies and
mathematics. And so forMississippi, in particular, we
have some Mississippi basedlessons that are really neat,
(21:31):
that I could share out, youcould always bring them into any
other classroom as well, butthey pertain to the Mississippi
commodities. So what isrecognized by Farm Bureau as the
products that we sell in ourstate agricultural commodities.
And that's a really, you know,really neat opportunity project.
Learning Tree is another greatprogram that does some
(21:53):
phenomenal work with resources,natural resources, as well. So I
can certainly get you some, somethings. But then again, Gail
Gibbons is just phenomenal. Asan author, I can't preach more
about how much I love Gail, if Icould be Gail, when I grow up, I
think I'd be okay. Because she'sjust phenomenal I mean, if you
corn, she's a book called corn,and if you can make corn sounds
(22:17):
super awesome. And so cool. Youknow, I mean, that's just
amazing, right? I mean, yeah,it's such a well done book, you
have to purchase it and share itwith your students. So I can't
sing her praises more, I preachabout her every every semester
in class.
Lindsay Persohn (22:34):
That's great.
Yeah, thank you, and, andanything that you do have
compiled, we can certainly linkthat on your guest page, and
also in the show notes for yourepisode. So thank you so much
for that. And as you've beentalking about your work with a
Stephanie, the phrase that mymantra that keeps ringing
through my mind is thateverything is connected, right?
We might think of agriculture asbeing some specialized field,
(22:57):
which of course it is, but it isalso related to economics,
health, it is a part of readingscience, social studies, math,
you know, all of the above.
Everything is so very connected.
And so I hope that that kind ofthinking will also prompt
listeners to think about howthey can bring ag concepts into
(23:19):
other lessons, if they feel asthough this isn't something they
have time carved out for intheir day.
Stephanie Lemley (23:27):
Yes, I think what you said is just perfect
there that everything isconnected. And so you know,
we're thinking about in a, youknow, ela classroom, and we're
meeting those informational textstandards, going back to
National Ag in the Classroom,they have little newspapers, on
different ag topics that youcan, that you can buy, get a
(23:48):
class set of 30 of them, andthey're relatively cheap. And
you can use them to teach abouttext structures, you can use use
them to teach about making senseof charts and graphs. So how to
read data, you know, there's somuch that you can do with them.
And you can ELA classroom oryou could use them in a science
classroom or a social studiesclassroom or a math classroom,
(24:10):
we're thinking about making acontext for our mathematical
learning, right, and howimportant it is to see not just
give students problems on a pagethat have no contextual
component to them. And so AG issuch a great way to do that. And
there are so many resources outthere that are pre made, that
you don't have to be like youhave to recreate the wheel, you
(24:30):
know, and that's something thatI think might give people a
little bit more give thelisteners a little bit or
assuring that they can do thisbecause there are things out
there made for you, so that youdon't have to now go learn all
about soybeans, for example, tonow teach Ag in your classroom,
you can utilize resources thatare made for you done really
(24:52):
well and then implement in yourclassroom and it gives your
students an opportunity to dosome hands on learning. So and
research skills. So, last summerone of the things that I did
with some teachers, I had a twoweek professional development,
it was called acre, agriculturalscience professional
developments. And it was on meatscience, plant science, animal
(25:15):
science, specifically, mainlycattle, although we did hit on
other livestock, and thenliteracy instruction and teacher
leadership. And so when thelessons that we did, for
example, from National Ag in theClassroom was beef based burgers
versus plant based burgers, andso Beyond Meat, and then
(25:36):
Morningstar veggie burgers andall of those things. And so we
were able to bring in somesamples, and have the teachers
investigate what those productswere made from. So we got to do
some research, they got topractice some research skills,
putting together some anchorcharts on each product. And then
we got to do some sampling andtasting and kind of ranking our
(25:56):
preference order and things. Andthat's a really cool opportunity
and really neat experience. Soone of our acre teachers, Miss
Tammy bright, duplicated thelesson this past year with her
AP environmental science class.
And so, again, practicing someof those research skills,
getting the students to look upwhat is valid information
online, you know, reliability ofSources, bringing in all kinds
(26:20):
of critical thinking components.
And so all of that is just,again, a premade lesson, all she
had to really do is purchasesome of those products and have
her students cook them and thentaste them. And so you know,
really awesome opportunity.
We've done desktop greenhouses,as part of our, our work. And so
(26:42):
bringing in, you know, the plantscience piece, I've done DNA
extraction from strawberries inkindergarten all the way up
through working with high schoolteachers. And again, kind of how
you approach it and talk aboutDNA, genetically modified
organisms, all of those things,berries, certainly in
(27:03):
kindergarten, we're going to betalking more about just
strawberries and what berriesare. And I read again, a Gail
Gibbons book called berries. Ijust love her work. She's so
phenomenal, that again, youknow, pre made lesson, I
modified according to the grade,and the kindergarten students
loved it, you know, and I'vetaught that in probably three or
(27:23):
four kindergarten classes now inthe Starkville area. And you
know, just a really coolopportunity. And the kids are
excited about it. When they comehome and tell their parents,
they got to extract DNA from astrawberry today and the whole
process of that. So really neatopportunities there.
Lindsay Persohn (27:43):
Yeah, for sure.
What a cool experience for youngpeople to not only see that come
to fruition, but also, you know,to spark their interest for the
future as well, right, becausethis is never a one and done
kind of experience. But I thinkit could prompt other taste
tests or other conversationsabout DNA and genetic
modifications to plants andanimals. And I love the idea of
(28:04):
a desktop greenhouse. Thatsounds like a lot of fun. So
Stephanie, given the challengesof today's educational climate,
what message do you wantteachers to hear?
Stephanie Lemley (28:18):
So I'm going to try not to get emotional,
because I always get emotional.
When I talk about teachers, twothings really get me crying pomp
and circumstance. So talkingabout graduation, I cry. Every
time I hear pomp andcircumstance, it doesn't matter
if I'm walking into agraduation, or if it's on TV,
I'm boo hooing. And teachersmake me cry and make me cry in
(28:40):
the sense that I see you. And Istill respect the work that
you're doing. And I reallyappreciate you. Right, teaching
is hard. If it was easy,everyone would be a teacher. And
they're not. And just the sheeramount of gratitude that I have
(29:01):
for our public school or privateschool or charter school, every
teacher, our daycare, you know,teachers, my son's teachers from
the infant room to now blessthem. I mean, you know, I so
appreciate and respect and lovewhat they do. It makes me so mad
(29:21):
when people don't, and theydon't value what they do. And so
I want to tell them, first ofall, that I see you and I
appreciate you. And I see allthe work that goes in and out of
being a teacher and I respectyou so much because it is hard.
And people don't don't know whatthey're getting into until they
(29:46):
get into it. You know, and thoseof us that have taught know how
much work it really is and howwonderful of a profession it is
and how you really deserve allthe respect in the world and all
the pay, but we're not going toget into all of that, you know.
So that's first. And thensecond, a little bit of what we
(30:06):
touched on earlier, the factthat collaboration is really key
here, right, some of theseexperiences that you can do in
your classroom, collaborate witheach other, you work with each
other, you know, we don't alwayshave to do things on our own
teaching is not a silo, youknow, we need to lean on each
other, we need to work with eachother. We're in a time right
(30:29):
now, where teachers are sooverloaded with 1,000,001 things
that they have to do. And socollaborate with each other,
collaborate with your peers,collaborate with people at other
school sites, get opportunitiesto form partnerships with each
other, you have faculty atuniversities, collaborate with
(30:51):
them, you know, I, I love goinginto classrooms, and I rarely
turn down an opportunity to goin and work with a teacher and
do a lesson or a couple oflessons. And, you know, I know
there's a lot of Universitypersonnel that want that
opportunity to and we're here tohelp just collaborate with each
(31:14):
other, and conquer the world.
Because that teachers driveevery other career, we wouldn't
have anyone else in this world,working without teachers to get
them there. I just I just lovethe teaching profession.
Lindsay Persohn (31:34):
Thank you. I you know, I think that's such an
important point too, aboutcollaborating. And I think
specifically about reaching outto collaborate with your your
universities. I know when I wasa classroom teacher, that was
probably the furthest thing frommy mind to think that I could
reach out to a local universityor, or even a not so local
university, particularly nowthat we've gotten so adept at
(31:57):
working remotely, I don't knowthat I would have ever realized
that that was an option. And soI hope that listeners do know
that there are so many folks whowork in higher education who
want to partner with classroomteachers in order to, like
you're doing support theirprofessional development, or
sometimes it's working tosupport their students directly.
(32:19):
So what an important message toshare.
Stephanie Lemley (32:22):
And, you know, depending on your state, in
regards to University personnel,if your state has extension
offices, extension is awonderful resource. Not only are
extension agents, individualsthat can come into classrooms
and do lessons, but they alsocan provide you with materials
if you don't want them to comein and do something and you want
(32:43):
to do it all yourself. InMississippi, for example, we
have an extension office andevery county. And so you know,
even if you don't have one inevery county, every every state
has a land grant institution.
And so you can reach out tothose individuals there. So
that's another way to bringagriculture into your classroom,
you know, you're not necessarilycomfortable teaching it
(33:05):
yourself, reach out toextension, have them come in as
guest speakers, get your kids togo on a field trip, you know, if
that would be possible. Andagain, that's giving them an
amazing learning opportunity.
But reaching out to thoseUniversity personnel where this
is their job, you know,extension agents are supposed to
(33:26):
work with the public. And sobringing that all together is a
is a wonderful way to startbuilding a relationship with
that local university or not. Solocal university.
Lindsay Persohn (33:38):
Yeah. What a great tip. What a great tip for
folks. Well, Stephanie, I thankyou so much for your time today.
And I thank you for yourcontributions to the field of
education.
Stephanie Lemley (33:48):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
Lindsay Persohn (33:50):
Thank you. Dr.
Stephanie Lemley is known forher work in the areas of
disciplinary literacies andspecifically agricultural
education. Through her work, sheseeks to enrich her community
through outreach and play spaceeducation linking people with
agricultural related resources.
Her research has been funded bythe United States Department of
(34:12):
Agriculture, National Instituteof Food and Agriculture. In
addition to presenting her workat state and national
conferences. Her work hasappeared in venues such as the
Journal of higher educationTheory and Practice, the Journal
of Agricultural Education,Journal of Extension, literacy,
Research and Instruction,Journal of language and literacy
(34:33):
education, reading in the middleand the Journal of Social
Studies Education Research.
Before moving to highereducation, Stephanie taught
reading, creative writing andSocial Studies at the middle and
high school levels. Dr. Lemleyrecently served as Mississippi
Education Policy Fellow She isan associate professor of
literacy education atMississippi State University.
(34:54):
For the good of all studentsclassroom caffeine aims to
energize education research andpractice. If this show provides
you with things to think about,help us spread the word. Talk to
your colleagues and educatorfriends about what you hear. You
can support the show bysubscribing liking and reviewing
this podcast through yourpodcast provider. Connect with
(35:16):
us on social media throughInstagram, Facebook and Twitter,
on our website at classroomcaffeine.com You can learn more
about each guest findtranscripts of our episodes,
explore topics using our dropdown menu of tags, request an
episode topic or potential guestsupport our research through a
(35:36):
listener survey or learn moreabout the research we are doing
on our publications page. Wewould love to hear from you. As
always, I raised my mug to youteachers. Thanks for joining me
Education research has a problem. The work
of brilliant educationresearchers often doesn't reach
the practice of brilliantteachers. Classroom caffeine is
here to help. In each episode, Italk with the top education
researcher or expert educatorabout what they have learned
from their research andexperiences.
(00:35):
In this episode, Dr. StephanieLumley talks to us about
agriculture literacies andconnecting with our communities.
Stephanie is known for her workin the areas of disciplinary
literacies and specificallyAgricultural Education, Dr.
Lemley recently served as aMississippi Education Policy
Fellow. She is an associateprofessor of literacy education
(00:58):
at Mississippi State University.
For more information about ourguest, stay tuned to the end of
this episode. So pour a cup ofyour favorite drink. And join me
your host, Lindsay Persohn. Forclassroom caffeine research to
energize your teaching practice.
(01:18):
Stephanie, thank you for joiningme. Welcome to the show.
Stephanie Lemley (01:21):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so
excited to be here.
Lindsay Persohn (01:25):
Thank you. So from your own experiences in
education, will you share withus one or two moments that
inform your thinking now?
Stephanie Lemley (01:33):
Sure, I don't know if these are really moments
or just phrases that I keeprepeating myself over and over,
they're kind of become my mantrain life. The first one is to
always keep learning. A lot ofmy research that I currently do
now and work with teachers isvastly different from my own
(01:53):
educational background. And sojust to kind of give a little
bit of detail about that myteaching background is in social
studies primarily. And thenmiddle school reading and
creative writing. When I went toMiddle Tennessee State for my
undergrad, I got a degree inpolitical science and secondary
(02:13):
education. And I always reallyfelt comfortable with social
studies. It was something I wasvery passionate about enjoyed in
school. And when I went tocollege, I just thought that'd
be the perfect career path forme is to become a social studies
teacher. And so when I moved toFlorida, I started teaching high
school social studies. And thatled me to getting into some
(02:36):
literacy work, particularlyworking with other teachers in
the school site that I was at,and then getting a master's in
reading and then pursuing a PhDand literacy studies. And while
I was there at USF mydissertation work looked at high
school, AP US History teachersand their disciplinary literacy
(02:57):
beliefs, knowledge and practicesand their implementation of
disciplinary literacy in theclassroom. So social studies
really was my my main area offocus for quite a while when I
was hired at Mississippi State.
Mississippi State is a landgrant institution, it is a an
institution that has a veryproud ag program and a college
of that medicine and lots ofopportunities there. And so I
(03:21):
was afforded to collaborate withsome people in human sciences,
which is where agricultureeducation is housed at
Mississippi State. And I servedas the literacy expert on some
grant works and applications andsome other projects with them
some theses and dissertationwork as well. And that led me to
(03:45):
some grant work with the UnitedStates Department of Agriculture
and the National Institute ofFood and Agriculture,
specifically looking atprofessional development
agricultural literacy. Now mymantra is always keep learning,
because AG is very foreign orwas very foreign to me. As a
city girl from memphis Tennesseeinitially, I was very
(04:11):
agriculturally illiterate. Andso when I got these
opportunities to work with somecolleagues in human science, it
really started changing mythinking. It caused me to really
continuing the education processin a completely different field
than I ever thought I would bein my husband is Animal and
Dairy Science faculty. And so in2021, we applied for a
(04:35):
professional development andagricultural literacy grant on
animal science, plant scienceand meat science content
primarily with some literacythrown in. specifically working
with agricultural literacy andin the reading, writing,
speaking and listening practicesof scientist and
(04:55):
agriculturalists and a littlebit of teacher leadership. And
so we targeted sixth through12th grade Ag teachers and
science teachers for thisparticular grant. And while I
was the primary investigator ofthe grant and the coordinator of
the PD, and primarily didliteracy work with the teachers,
I was able to do some of thescience or the Ag experiences.
(05:17):
And so part of that opportunityallowed me to ultrasound and
palpate, a beef cow added ourbeef units, which was a learning
experience. And so when I doprofessional development with
teachers, I really want toparticipate in and experience as
much as they are going to. Soit's more of an authentic
(05:39):
practice that I am also learningwith them and doing the things
that they're doing. So I try toparticipate in pretty much the
entire PD as much as I can, Ilove to be there for the entire
day, or week, you know, go intoall of the different activities.
And so part of that allowed meto learn more about reproductive
physiology of beef cattle andhow we can determine or detect
(06:02):
pregnancy. And so this was a anamazing learning opportunity and
learning experience. And so, youknow, prior to my getting
involved with this grant, inparticular, my interaction with
agriculture, even though myhusband was an ag was still
fairly limited. I wasagriculturally illiterate. So I
didn't know a lot about whereproducts came from. I was one of
(06:25):
those individuals that if youasked me where our milk came
from, I probably said Kroeger,not even thinking about the
dairy and the whole process. Andso getting to step out of my
comfort zone getting to havethese opportunities with
colleagues from differentdepartments really informed my
thinking, because it allowed meto understand more deeply that
(06:48):
as teachers, we're alwayslearning, right, we are always
continuing to evolve in ourpractice and learn new things.
And we can, in particular, getopportunities to experience
those new things and then findways to share them with others.
And so I've been able to do thatby sharing my experiences both
with other in service teachersaround the state of Mississippi,
(07:11):
but then also my own pre serviceteachers in the College of
Education. And so getting tohost some agricultural literacy
seminars for them, leading themon thinking about how we can
bring agriculture education intoour science standards and our
social studies standards,thinking about how we can do
things with different types oftext in that field as well. And
(07:33):
giving them opportunities tolearn more about where they're
from, in particular. And so, youknow, Mississippi is a very
agricultural based state, and alot of our students go back to
their home counties, or movesomewhere else in the state and
get put in situations wherethey're dealing with a lot of
(07:54):
families that have ag experienceeither on the animal side of the
plant side, and opening theireyes up to more of what the
state has to offer, in regardsto content that we can bring
into our classes and make thingsmore authentic for our students.
Because agriculture content inparticular, is one of those
areas that's very hands on, it'svery often in content in states
(08:16):
where agriculture is a bigindustry. And so through this
work, I've seen teachers reallyembrace these experiences and
then take that back and sharewith their with their students.
You know, learning really isthis continual process, and we
always can share our experienceswith others and continue to just
(08:38):
teach others in a variety ofways. The other I guess piece
along with that is just the factthat it's really okay to get out
of your comfort zone and to trynew things. And I think that's
really important as a teacher,to not get complacent. And that
fact that you might feel veryuncomfortable trying new
(08:59):
curriculum or having a newexperience, but that's okay. And
we're all feeling the same way.
For me. I was so agriculturallyilliterate as I mentioned
before, and incredibly nervousdoing anything related to AG
because I didn't want to mess upI didn't want to embarrass
myself. But having thoseexperiences really allowed me to
(09:24):
to learn and really embrace anarea of the curriculum that
sometimes doesn't get as muchattention as other areas. In
Mississippi in particular,there's a lot of professional
development for teachers, butnot a lot of agriculture,
professional development, and soAg teachers might, or teachers
that want to incorporateagricultural literacy into their
(09:46):
classrooms might get anopportunity to go to an ELA or
literacy PD or a science PD mathPD, but not something that
pertains necessarily to thecontent they're teaching. And so
you know, having thoseopportunity He's getting out of
your comfort zone, trying newthings really embracing the
learning process. Just somethingthat I think really has
(10:09):
reaffirmed to me how much I loveeducation and just being in this
field and wanting to share thatwith other people.
Lindsay Persohn (10:15):
Well, Stephanie, your energy is
certainly very inspiring. And I,I would, I would guess that many
folks, particularly afterhearing you talk about some of
your experiences might alsoconsider themselves to be a bit
ag illiterate, you know, we dolive in a day and age where we
can be so separated from thingslike where our food comes from,
(10:36):
and what those processesactually look like, as you said,
milk doesn't really come fromKroger, right, that's just sort
of where it ends up before itlands in our household. So this
is really important stuff,something that you we've known
each other for a long time forthe benefit of listeners. But
something you might not knowabout me is that I was involved
in the FFA and ag department inhigh school, I was I think I was
(10:59):
vice president of our FFAchapter as well as I don't know,
something like historian and Idid dairy judging citrus judging
all kinds of things at our youthfair. So So yeah, I know exactly
what you're saying here that,you know, sometimes we become so
far removed from these processesthat we don't really understand
where you know, where our foodcomes from, I do think that
(11:20):
COVID changed that a little bit,we paid a little bit more
attention when things weren't onthe shelves, but that certainly,
it leaves a lot for us to learn.
So I also really love youroverarching messages of always
keep learning and it's okay toget out of your comfort zone. I
think that this is such animportant mindset for any
educator. So I love the way youhighlight that, while sort of
underscoring it with lots of agliteracy tidbits. So thank you
(11:43):
for that. Thank you. So what doyou want listeners to know about
your work?
Stephanie Lemley (11:50):
Well, I would say a couple of things. One,
just the importance ofagricultural literacy. And so we
think about agriculturalliteracy. And we look at what
that term means, essentially,the definition that is primarily
used over and over and overagain, is from the National
Research Council's 1988 report.
So quite a while ago, reportthat says, essentially, an
(12:16):
individual is aware of the foodand fiber systems. And so
understanding where your foodcomes from understanding how,
you know, products are made, butthey leave out the literate
portion, right. And so indisciplinary literacies, we talk
a lot about those habits ofmind, those habits of practice,
what disciplinarians really doto engage with text in their
(12:40):
discipline, to read to write tospeak like a member of that
discipline. And so foragricultural literacy, that
definition is not really there,you know, so we think about
scientific literacy, we canthink about not just the idea of
understanding science content,but understanding the habits of
mind that a scientist engages inthe types of texts that they
(13:02):
read the graphs, the charts, thetables, you know, how they write
in that field, the same thingwith a historian. So going back
to my social studies,background, you know, Sam
Weinberg and his work with thehistorian heuristics, sourcing
and contextualization andcollaboration, and even close
reading their history lens. Andag literacy is not really there,
(13:23):
the definition that primarilyhas been around and continues to
evolve by researchers in thefield of ag ed, is really on the
content of agriculture. Sounderstanding, you know, where
your food comes fromunderstanding, you know, the
cultural aspects, the societalaspects, the environmental
(13:44):
aspects, but leaving out thatwhole idea of the literate
practice. And so for me, one ofthe things that I'm really
intrigued with, is trying tofigure out what that is. And so
what that process is, what doesit mean for an agriculturalists?
To read a text, for example,going back to my husband, he's
an animal scientist,specifically, he does a lot of
(14:06):
work with reproduction, withcattle. And so a lot of those
texts are not your traditionaltexts that you quote, unquote,
would read. in that field, hecan view an ultrasound and knows
exactly what he's seen on the onthe screen, he can use a thermal
camera, and take pictures andlook at different distributions
(14:28):
of heat in color and understandwhat that means in regards to
that cow that he is he's lookingat or the herd. Those are text.
And so one thing that I'm reallyintrigued on is number one, what
do agriculturalists read? Andthen how do they write? How are
they different than otherscientists? You know, because a
(14:49):
lot of times when we think aboutdisciplinary literacy in the
schools, we talk a lot aboutscience and social studies and
we We all put those areas inone, when in fact science is
physics and astronomy andgeology and biology and
chemistry, agriculture, butwithin AG, there's plant science
(15:13):
and soil science and meat,science and animals that there's
all these different areas. Andso what does it really mean to
be agriculturally literate? Andhow can we bring those practices
in to help our students makesense of what they're reading
and writing in those classrooms,not just in ag ed classrooms,
but in any classroom that ateacher wants to bring in
(15:34):
agricultural content, you know,in the state of Mississippi,
fourth grade is Mississippistudies. And so there's a whole
section of the standards ongeography, there's a whole
section of the standards on thehistory of the state. And so
bringing in text and lettingstudents learn about the Delta
and the row crops that aregrowing, they're letting them
learn about aquaculture, youknow, products Vardaman, in the
(15:55):
sweet potato capital of theworld and the plant side of
things. You know, there's somany different ways to bring ag
into our classrooms to reallyhelp us meet state standards.
But how do we teach our kids howto access those texts, and
really learn how to understandthem in a way that
agriculturalists would at agrade appropriate level. One of
(16:17):
the other things that I wouldlike listeners to learn about me
is when I talk to my studentsabout disciplinary literacy
practices in my K to six contentand disciplinary literacy
methods course, I talked to themabout the idea of teaching them
to use those practices withtheir kids in a grade
appropriate way. And that inkindergarten, we can have our
(16:40):
students asking questions,making a hypothesis, sourcing a
text, and that might lookdifferent than a fifth grader or
a sixth grader, just because ofthe fact that the practice can
get more complex and more deep,so to speak. As you go through
school, you know, you can askmore questions you can you can
(17:02):
do some of those things. So whenI talked to my students about
accessing agricultural text in agrade appropriate way, for
example, I talk a lot aboutvocabulary in the classroom and
how our students can learnterminology. And they can
utilize those terms. But again,that level of complexity might
differ slightly depending ongrade level. So for example, I
(17:26):
have an almost six year oldgoing to kindergarten in the
fall and he loves to learn aboutwhat his daddy does at the farm.
And one of the texts that I usewith my students to kind of
highlight this is the milkmakers by Gail Gibbons, I love
Gail Gibbons text, she's gotsome phenomenal books,
specifically related to to agand to science, but also some
(17:50):
beautiful social studies text aswell that are really great to
use in primary grades. And so myalmost kindergartener could
learn the term udder, u DD ERare about being read aloud. Gail
Gibbons, the milk makers, right,we can talk about what another
is what it's being used for inthat cow. A high school student
(18:11):
might learn about a cow's udderwhile reading an extension
publication. You know, extensionpublications are written for the
public's consumption, maybeproducers in the field to read,
they're written in a very clean,easy, X easy way to explain
information. And so if I have a,an extension publication, let's
(18:35):
say on dairy cattle, judginggoing back to what you were
saying earlier, Lindsey, then astudent in a high school or
middle school classroom, mightlearn more about that specific
part of the cow though thatpublication but we're both
teaching discipline specificterminology. We're both having
our students learning aboutagriculture and ways that they
(18:56):
can communicate throughvocabulary precise terminology
about a given field. And so I'mreally intrigued on how we can
do more of that teachingdiscipline specific practices,
and really uncovering what theyare specifically those
comprehension practices andthose writing practices in the
(19:17):
field. And I'm trying, I'm juststarting to really try to
scratch the surface there andworking with faculty on some
some research ideas for that.
Lindsay Persohn (19:28):
That's great information. And I'm glad you
also mentioned a book titlethere. I'm wondering if you have
any kind of resource lists thatyou've compiled that we might be
able to share with listeners?
Stephanie Lemley (19:41):
Sure. Yes. One phenomenal resource just to
mention in regards to lessonplanning is National Ag in the
Classroom, National Ag in theClassroom is I believe it's run
by Utah State University or it'shoused there, Utah State
University right now. They havelesson plans for K through 12,
(20:03):
students, science, math, ela,you know, there's some art
opportunities there, you canfind things for across the grade
levels and in a variety ofsubjects. And so a lot of them
are, you know, very hands on,but there's a lot of really nice
reading that goes along withthem. And so what's really neat
(20:24):
about those lesson plans is theyprovide you with vocabulary to
teach, they provide you with aBackground section. So if this
is not your area of expertise,but you still want to teach your
kids about it, you can accessthat information and share the
kind of the history and theBackground section with them.
They do a lot of crosscurricular work, which is really
(20:46):
nice. So you can bring inscience and math together, or
ELA and social studies or ELAand science into the same
classroom. And so that's areally great resource. I'm also
on a USDA grant right now calledfarm to classroom, which is a
grant that Dr. Carly Morrison,who's in our School of Human
(21:08):
Sciences and myself are both coPI's on. And for that grant, in
particular, we're working withMississippi teachers K to 12, on
agricultural literacy, and howyou can bring it into the core
four in your class. So English,science, social studies and
mathematics. And so forMississippi, in particular, we
have some Mississippi basedlessons that are really neat,
(21:31):
that I could share out, youcould always bring them into any
other classroom as well, butthey pertain to the Mississippi
commodities. So what isrecognized by Farm Bureau as the
products that we sell in ourstate agricultural commodities.
And that's a really, you know,really neat opportunity project.
Learning Tree is another greatprogram that does some
(21:53):
phenomenal work with resources,natural resources, as well. So I
can certainly get you some, somethings. But then again, Gail
Gibbons is just phenomenal. Asan author, I can't preach more
about how much I love Gail, if Icould be Gail, when I grow up, I
think I'd be okay. Because she'sjust phenomenal I mean, if you
corn, she's a book called corn,and if you can make corn sounds
(22:17):
super awesome. And so cool. Youknow, I mean, that's just
amazing, right? I mean, yeah,it's such a well done book, you
have to purchase it and share itwith your students. So I can't
sing her praises more, I preachabout her every every semester
in class.
Lindsay Persohn (22:34):
That's great.
Yeah, thank you, and, andanything that you do have
compiled, we can certainly linkthat on your guest page, and
also in the show notes for yourepisode. So thank you so much
for that. And as you've beentalking about your work with a
Stephanie, the phrase that mymantra that keeps ringing
through my mind is thateverything is connected, right?
We might think of agriculture asbeing some specialized field,
(22:57):
which of course it is, but it isalso related to economics,
health, it is a part of readingscience, social studies, math,
you know, all of the above.
Everything is so very connected.
And so I hope that that kind ofthinking will also prompt
listeners to think about howthey can bring ag concepts into
(23:19):
other lessons, if they feel asthough this isn't something they
have time carved out for intheir day.
Stephanie Lemley (23:27):
Yes, I think what you said is just perfect
there that everything isconnected. And so you know,
we're thinking about in a, youknow, ela classroom, and we're
meeting those informational textstandards, going back to
National Ag in the Classroom,they have little newspapers, on
different ag topics that youcan, that you can buy, get a
(23:48):
class set of 30 of them, andthey're relatively cheap. And
you can use them to teach abouttext structures, you can use use
them to teach about making senseof charts and graphs. So how to
read data, you know, there's somuch that you can do with them.
And you can ELA classroom oryou could use them in a science
classroom or a social studiesclassroom or a math classroom,
(24:10):
we're thinking about making acontext for our mathematical
learning, right, and howimportant it is to see not just
give students problems on a pagethat have no contextual
component to them. And so AG issuch a great way to do that. And
there are so many resources outthere that are pre made, that
you don't have to be like youhave to recreate the wheel, you
(24:30):
know, and that's something thatI think might give people a
little bit more give thelisteners a little bit or
assuring that they can do thisbecause there are things out
there made for you, so that youdon't have to now go learn all
about soybeans, for example, tonow teach Ag in your classroom,
you can utilize resources thatare made for you done really
(24:52):
well and then implement in yourclassroom and it gives your
students an opportunity to dosome hands on learning. So and
research skills. So, last summerone of the things that I did
with some teachers, I had a twoweek professional development,
it was called acre, agriculturalscience professional
developments. And it was on meatscience, plant science, animal
(25:15):
science, specifically, mainlycattle, although we did hit on
other livestock, and thenliteracy instruction and teacher
leadership. And so when thelessons that we did, for
example, from National Ag in theClassroom was beef based burgers
versus plant based burgers, andso Beyond Meat, and then
(25:36):
Morningstar veggie burgers andall of those things. And so we
were able to bring in somesamples, and have the teachers
investigate what those productswere made from. So we got to do
some research, they got topractice some research skills,
putting together some anchorcharts on each product. And then
we got to do some sampling andtasting and kind of ranking our
(25:56):
preference order and things. Andthat's a really cool opportunity
and really neat experience. Soone of our acre teachers, Miss
Tammy bright, duplicated thelesson this past year with her
AP environmental science class.
And so, again, practicing someof those research skills,
getting the students to look upwhat is valid information
online, you know, reliability ofSources, bringing in all kinds
(26:20):
of critical thinking components.
And so all of that is just,again, a premade lesson, all she
had to really do is purchasesome of those products and have
her students cook them and thentaste them. And so you know,
really awesome opportunity.
We've done desktop greenhouses,as part of our, our work. And so
(26:42):
bringing in, you know, the plantscience piece, I've done DNA
extraction from strawberries inkindergarten all the way up
through working with high schoolteachers. And again, kind of how
you approach it and talk aboutDNA, genetically modified
organisms, all of those things,berries, certainly in
(27:03):
kindergarten, we're going to betalking more about just
strawberries and what berriesare. And I read again, a Gail
Gibbons book called berries. Ijust love her work. She's so
phenomenal, that again, youknow, pre made lesson, I
modified according to the grade,and the kindergarten students
loved it, you know, and I'vetaught that in probably three or
(27:23):
four kindergarten classes now inthe Starkville area. And you
know, just a really coolopportunity. And the kids are
excited about it. When they comehome and tell their parents,
they got to extract DNA from astrawberry today and the whole
process of that. So really neatopportunities there.
Lindsay Persohn (27:43):
Yeah, for sure.
What a cool experience for youngpeople to not only see that come
to fruition, but also, you know,to spark their interest for the
future as well, right, becausethis is never a one and done
kind of experience. But I thinkit could prompt other taste
tests or other conversationsabout DNA and genetic
modifications to plants andanimals. And I love the idea of
(28:04):
a desktop greenhouse. Thatsounds like a lot of fun. So
Stephanie, given the challengesof today's educational climate,
what message do you wantteachers to hear?
Stephanie Lemley (28:18):
So I'm going to try not to get emotional,
because I always get emotional.
When I talk about teachers, twothings really get me crying pomp
and circumstance. So talkingabout graduation, I cry. Every
time I hear pomp andcircumstance, it doesn't matter
if I'm walking into agraduation, or if it's on TV,
I'm boo hooing. And teachersmake me cry and make me cry in
(28:40):
the sense that I see you. And Istill respect the work that
you're doing. And I reallyappreciate you. Right, teaching
is hard. If it was easy,everyone would be a teacher. And
they're not. And just the sheeramount of gratitude that I have
(29:01):
for our public school or privateschool or charter school, every
teacher, our daycare, you know,teachers, my son's teachers from
the infant room to now blessthem. I mean, you know, I so
appreciate and respect and lovewhat they do. It makes me so mad
(29:21):
when people don't, and theydon't value what they do. And so
I want to tell them, first ofall, that I see you and I
appreciate you. And I see allthe work that goes in and out of
being a teacher and I respectyou so much because it is hard.
And people don't don't know whatthey're getting into until they
(29:46):
get into it. You know, and thoseof us that have taught know how
much work it really is and howwonderful of a profession it is
and how you really deserve allthe respect in the world and all
the pay, but we're not going toget into all of that, you know.
So that's first. And thensecond, a little bit of what we
(30:06):
touched on earlier, the factthat collaboration is really key
here, right, some of theseexperiences that you can do in
your classroom, collaborate witheach other, you work with each
other, you know, we don't alwayshave to do things on our own
teaching is not a silo, youknow, we need to lean on each
other, we need to work with eachother. We're in a time right
(30:29):
now, where teachers are sooverloaded with 1,000,001 things
that they have to do. And socollaborate with each other,
collaborate with your peers,collaborate with people at other
school sites, get opportunitiesto form partnerships with each
other, you have faculty atuniversities, collaborate with
(30:51):
them, you know, I, I love goinginto classrooms, and I rarely
turn down an opportunity to goin and work with a teacher and
do a lesson or a couple oflessons. And, you know, I know
there's a lot of Universitypersonnel that want that
opportunity to and we're here tohelp just collaborate with each
(31:14):
other, and conquer the world.
Because that teachers driveevery other career, we wouldn't
have anyone else in this world,working without teachers to get
them there. I just I just lovethe teaching profession.
Lindsay Persohn (31:34):
Thank you. I you know, I think that's such an
important point too, aboutcollaborating. And I think
specifically about reaching outto collaborate with your your
universities. I know when I wasa classroom teacher, that was
probably the furthest thing frommy mind to think that I could
reach out to a local universityor, or even a not so local
university, particularly nowthat we've gotten so adept at
(31:57):
working remotely, I don't knowthat I would have ever realized
that that was an option. And soI hope that listeners do know
that there are so many folks whowork in higher education who
want to partner with classroomteachers in order to, like
you're doing support theirprofessional development, or
sometimes it's working tosupport their students directly.
(32:19):
So what an important message toshare.
Stephanie Lemley (32:22):
And, you know, depending on your state, in
regards to University personnel,if your state has extension
offices, extension is awonderful resource. Not only are
extension agents, individualsthat can come into classrooms
and do lessons, but they alsocan provide you with materials
if you don't want them to comein and do something and you want
(32:43):
to do it all yourself. InMississippi, for example, we
have an extension office andevery county. And so you know,
even if you don't have one inevery county, every every state
has a land grant institution.
And so you can reach out tothose individuals there. So
that's another way to bringagriculture into your classroom,
you know, you're not necessarilycomfortable teaching it
(33:05):
yourself, reach out toextension, have them come in as
guest speakers, get your kids togo on a field trip, you know, if
that would be possible. Andagain, that's giving them an
amazing learning opportunity.
But reaching out to thoseUniversity personnel where this
is their job, you know,extension agents are supposed to
(33:26):
work with the public. And sobringing that all together is a
is a wonderful way to startbuilding a relationship with
that local university or not. Solocal university.
Lindsay Persohn (33:38):
Yeah. What a great tip. What a great tip for
folks. Well, Stephanie, I thankyou so much for your time today.
And I thank you for yourcontributions to the field of
education.
Stephanie Lemley (33:48):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
Lindsay Persohn (33:50):
Thank you. Dr.
Stephanie Lemley is known forher work in the areas of
disciplinary literacies andspecifically agricultural
education. Through her work, sheseeks to enrich her community
through outreach and play spaceeducation linking people with
agricultural related resources.
Her research has been funded bythe United States Department of
(34:12):
Agriculture, National Instituteof Food and Agriculture. In
addition to presenting her workat state and national
conferences. Her work hasappeared in venues such as the
Journal of higher educationTheory and Practice, the Journal
of Agricultural Education,Journal of Extension, literacy,
Research and Instruction,Journal of language and literacy
(34:33):
education, reading in the middleand the Journal of Social
Studies Education Research.
Before moving to highereducation, Stephanie taught
reading, creative writing andSocial Studies at the middle and
high school levels. Dr. Lemleyrecently served as Mississippi
Education Policy Fellow She isan associate professor of
literacy education atMississippi State University.
(34:54):
For the good of all studentsclassroom caffeine aims to
energize education research andpractice. If this show provides
you with things to think about,help us spread the word. Talk to
your colleagues and educatorfriends about what you hear. You
can support the show bysubscribing liking and reviewing
this podcast through yourpodcast provider. Connect with
(35:16):
us on social media throughInstagram, Facebook and Twitter,
on our website at classroomcaffeine.com You can learn more
about each guest findtranscripts of our episodes,
explore topics using our dropdown menu of tags, request an
episode topic or potential guestsupport our research through a
(35:36):
listener survey or learn moreabout the research we are doing
on our publications page. Wewould love to hear from you. As
always, I raised my mug to youteachers. Thanks for joining me
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.