Dr. Arrastía-Chisholm: Professor Mom

This week a new group of VSU students participated in the Helping with Homework program at the Southside Library in Valdosta. The 16 kiddos that attended yesterday ranged from grades Kindergarten to 10th grade. To protect the identities of the minors involved, I have blurred their faces, but here are a few pictures of their hard work. I look forward to guiding a new batch of VSU students tonight.  Even though it was their first time meeting, all the groups clicked and I could hear laughter and chatter by the end of the evening. All the students finished their studies and homework, had a snack, and some even got to play legos or a game or two of Uno to reward themselves. My students got some experience tutoring reading, math, social studies, science, and English language arts. From what I have heard, the first group that just finished their field experience really enjoyed the hands-on experience. Some can easily see the concepts we discuss in educational psychology in...

This week I learned about an app, called Forest , from an academic mom group and immediately had to try it. Here is a really good  review  all about the app by Amy French. I did spring for the $1.99 paid version that allows you to connect with friends... This is a perfect example of gamification applied to staying on task, which is a primary problem for those of us who struggle with ADHD. Elements of gamification that the app uses includes points (leaves) earned for minutes spent on task. This is measured by not being able to toggle to any other app on the phone. One of my friends already pointed out that a browser version would be more helpful for her and guess what?!? The developers of Forest have a free Chrome extension you can use. For every block of time spent on task/off your phone (25 minutes is the default setting), your forest grows a tree and you earn points . With points (leaves) you can buy ( unlock ) special privileges, background music/sounds, and differen...

Midterms are here and we get to pause and relax with spring break. But before the break, there is a mad dash to get everything taken care of. My students are taking their third exam right now on cognitive development and motivation. And I am almost finished reading Michele Obama's memoir, Becoming. The book is structured mostly chronologically beginning with a description of her childhood on the Southside of Chicago. She admitted that the public school teachers didn't always care and that resources at the schools were scarce at times. In hindsight, Michelle knows that she was fortunate enough to have a parent that advocated for her education and participated in the PTA. Her mother knew about the opportunities available and encouraged her academic success. Michelle described herself as an ambitious and competitive student from day one when her Kindergarten teacher tested her class on sight words. She misspelled white and demanded a retest the next day. She was determined and exc...

When I think about the word diversity it's not hard to understand, but when I think an example of inclusion it is a challenge to conjure on my campus. Although I have experience researching and teaching these topics in a roundabout way, I want to make a more explicit effort in incorporating current research into my teaching and enhance my current research initiatives. The truth is that these topics are at the core of my work as an educational psychologist, teacher educator, and counselor educator. There isn’t a day that goes by that I am not discussing issues of access , representation , or cross-cultural competence . With my counseling students we tackle the issue of access to college and career readiness among rural students, an issue of equity . With my future teachers we discuss the research on how all students benefit from having a teacher of color, despite the high proportion of white female teachers. And yet with other students I have to explain why we should not scold stude...

On my commute to work each day, I pass by not one but two donut shops. I'm not talking about Krispy Kreme or Dunkin. These are two distinctly homemade donut shops - one in Thomasville, called  Nanee's Donut Hole  and the other in Valdosta, called  Dixie Cream Donut Shop . Each morning I have to fight the urge to stop in and buy a donut, not once but twice on my way into work. Often I think that if I stop in and buy a box of donuts for my students that it is in some way more altruistic and maybe that will pardon the unhealthy decision. The truth is that many of my students don't eat sweets. It seems that college students are a lot more  health conscious  than they used to be. Whereas, I remember eating just about anything that was free on campus as a student, some of my students routinely decline the free pop tarts the BCM (Baptist Campus Ministry) hands out every Wednesday. But I digress... Back to the donuts... Nanee's has a few specialities that can't go unm...

Now that we are into the third month of the year, I wanted to check in with some of my goals. Today is the last day before the final Team Lean weigh in and cholesterol screening so I must be on my best behavior. Team Lean is an 8-week team-based weight loss challenge hosted by my local YMCA. In addition to weekly weigh-ins they tried to make it fun by hosting events and nutrition talks for extra weight loss percentage points. One of the events was an obstacle 5k trail run that involved a lot of mud. Never before had I scaled a wall of made of tires or run through the woods carrying a bucket of sand, let alone struggle through a mud pit. Here is a picture from the 2019 Red Bug Run: In addition to this 5k, I ran the Swamp Forest quarter marathon, the Chehaw 10-miler, the Tallahassee half marathon, and the Flatlanders 10k at Providence Canyon. Running these events was fun, but the most fun I had was probably biking 30 miles of red clay roads through North Florida and South Georgia wi...