Dr. Arrastía-Chisholm: Professor Mom

This semester CAMP (College Assistance Migrant Program) students led VSU students in participating in Migrant Workers Awareness Week. One of the events included the Bandana Project. While at the College of Education and Human Services this week I was able to snap a few shots of the artwork before they took down the display. This is a justice for migrant women project started in 2017.  As you can see, students created visual depictions of the migrant women experience on bandanas. Some referenced the #metoo movement in their illustrations. Farmworkers, like other immigrant or migrant victims of sexual assault are less likely to report their assault in fear of losing their jobs or being reported to immigration authorities.   This bandana with sunflowers includes the words, valuable and powerful, a reminder of the worth of all people especially migrant women. Female farmworkers, like the one depicted below,  cover their faces while working to detract from th...

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...

Being a professor can often be rewarding. This isn't to say that the salary is high or that the thank you notes pile up every day. It's all about the small victories and the change overtime. This past week I have had both! The small victory included a student coming into my office and exclaiming that they changed their major to education! This is the same student that had come in earlier in the semester having trouble applying educational psychology to her field. Instead, she just changed her field to education... More importantly, this week I have gotten to be apart of some change overtime. Over the past few months I have made it a mission to connect with the Valdosta community. This involved volunteering for the attendance matters campaign at Maceo Horne Learning Center (the alternative school in town), participating in Family Fun Night with my counselor education students at Pinevale Elementary, and working with Valdosta City Schools on their social emotional learning init...

I am writing as my students take their first exam. Out of five exams, I drop the lowest grade in this class; I make sure to remind students of this policy before they begin. Some exclaimed that I'd probably be dropping this exam for many students because they didn't know what they were getting themselves into. We can ll relate to the jitters that accompany the first exam in any class. It isn't until after the first exam that you learn the assessment style of that particular instructor. I'm looking through the exam just now and realized that I left two answers from the answer key on the exam. So the grades will definitely be inflated. This is my first time giving an exam in class since starting at VSU. Before this semester I opted to give online tests, but decided to switch it up this semester and compare the results. I had forgotten all the details that go into a traditional paper and pencil test... Test anxiety as the first test comes around, scantrons, accommoda...

It's only the second week of classes and students are asking for make-up work, to take exams early, and to excuse absences. I have also met with a number of students this week to discuss serious life decisions, dropping classes, and even managing serious mental health issues. On top of all this, my daughter has been waking up several times in the middle of the night so my husband and I have been taking turns comforting her. So much happening! In other words, thank goodness it's Friday! It's never too early to discuss preventing burnout . How do you destress? How do you take steps to prevent burnout at work or home? One suggestion in this  article  is to take time off . I teach five days a week this semester so taking a whole day off isn't really an option. Instead, I got away between office hours this week to take a two-mile run during some mild weather. Below is a photo from the Azalea Trail that runs through the Valdosta State University campus. When I was applying ...

Today is the last day of the first week of the spring semester at Valdosta State University . Every Friday we wear red to show school spirit. I went ahead and just bought red glasses to make things easier! This semester I *get to* teach two sections of an introductory educational psychology course, called Exploring Learning and Teaching, along with an online section of Educational Psychology for Teaching Adults. These are not new preps; in other words, I have taught these classes before and get to have fun with them. This first week is just an introduction so I chose to try out this empathetic syllabi review exercise from the blog, Faculty Focus . In my face-to-face sections, I asked students to bring in their syllabi and critically review them for missing information, as well as mark important dates in their calendars (paper or electronic). This then facilitated a discussion about why some instructors may leave out due dates or points for each assignment. This is my attempt t...