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Anth101: Cultural Diversity

Active Engagement, Well Being in the Classroom, Personal Growth

Reflection on Instructional Change:

"Start typing here IN our CISLE course we learned about well Being in Academic Settings and read an article produced by SFU health. I implemented an extra credit assignment encouraging students to participate in a campus activity during campus wellness week or another wellness activity the following week, on or off campus. Here is a an excerpt from the assignment prompt:

I hope you all received the University message about this week being wellness week on campus. I highly encourage you to attend an activity and try something new! The "Wellcome" event on Friday from 1-4 pm looks great and there are tons of prizes to win too!

Wellness Week FlyerLinks to an external site.

Research shows there are a number of positive outcomes from engaging more with the campus community and knowing the resources available to you on and around campus. Some positive impacts are related to social connectedness, increased self-esteem, resilience, lifestyle balance, and stress management.

If you attend an activity take a photo of yourself there. Next week I will open an extra credit assignment for you to submit a short write-up about your experience and attach the photo. If you can't attend something this week then look at the classes offered at "The Well" and plan to attend one next week, if you'd like to earn some extra credit points.

https://thewellatsacstate.com/Links to an external site.

If you're not near campus look up an opportunity to go to a fitness class, meditation class, music event, crafting event, etc.(most gyms let you have a free week, or most fitness/yoga studios give you the first class free as a new customer and Buddhist centers or yoga studios usually have a free meditation classes). Go to the class and you may still participate in this extra credit option in addition to the photo and short write-up you will also need to link the website/ schedule of the gym/studio/event you participated in.

I choose this activity because of the positive health and wellness findings associated with students engaging in their community and doing something new for personal growth. Last semester I asked students in an extra credit survey if they would want to participate in an extra credit assignment such as this and overwhelmingly students said yes. Creating good habits that help you feel balanced in life are important for all individuals that is why i wanted to implement this activity with my students.

Implementing this extra credit activity had a positive effect on all the students who participated. The majority of students attended a yoga class indicating that students are looking for an activity to relax them and help them manage stress. One student went to a yoga class in the park, another went to one on campus and another did one online. Here are some direct quotes from students: 1. "I really enjoyed attending this Step class and will be making a commitment to attend this class every Wednesday at 6:30pm. This Step class really made a good impression on me." 2. "After the yoga class ended I definitely felt better than the day before and had no regrets about going, my joints even felt looser as the instructor promised. I really do want to make it a habit to go once a week and add it to my workout split but we’ll see how my motivation is next week!" 3. "I enjoyed the session because it was relaxing." While implementing this did not impact my teaching it generated a positive response from students and appeared to be rewarding for each individual.

The ACU learning activities that influenced changes I made were the Downloadable Reference PDF's. There were a lot of good tips regarding class techniques to use on various subjects like engaging students, making online classes feel more like a community, and the well being in the classroom etc. The demonstration videos were also helpful, such as the syllabus reconnaissance activity and the think- pair-share-; it was good to see those strategies done on video. It would have been difficult to read about them and implement them that way, so the strategies were best taught via the videos. However, the overdramatized poor teaching method videos were a bit too fictional to buy into.

The Observe and Analyze session was worth it's weight in gold! I greatly appreciated hearing feedback and having discussions with my colleagues. This iterative learning style was the most impactful by far. One "aha" moment for me was that one of my colleagues pointed reminded me about students with access limitations. I had not originally considered students with physical limitations, although I did suggest that meditation classes could be attended. Another great comment was that perhaps I should make it worth more points and then I might have more student participation.

Evidence of Instructional Change

Screen shot of the assignment prompt from Professor Roberts's canvas course. It's explaining to students activities they may consider participating in for the extra credit assignment.

Image of the Assignment prompt from my Canvas Course

Student Submission Showing the images and the write up about their experience

Image of a powerpoint slide with text on it showing a quote from one of the ACU class readings about Well being in the Classroom. The slide also has images of people working on on it.

Observe and analyze video wherein I quote the SFU Health article about Well Being in the Classroom.

Practice and Reflect on: Equity in the Classroom Helping students be Prepared CISLE Practice and Reflect.docx

Course Syllabus: Syllabus Cultural Diversity Anth 101 Sac State Fall 2024 online.pdf

Faculty Bio

Woman in white shirt and black pants with a ball cap on sitting in tall grass. She is holding a pink water bottle and smiling. She has curly blonde hair and sunglasses on.

I started teaching on college campuses in 2004 when I began my masters program. I taught through my graduate studies and continued to teach after earning my PhD. I started teaching at Sacramento State in January of 2012. I am an adjunct faculty member here and at the University of Nevada Reno.

I am a cultural anthropologist that works within the fields of environment, agriculture, and development especially in Southeast Asia. I earned my PhD in 2011, which included a 14-month field research component of living in the Lao PDR and working with the International Rice Research Institute, the Center for International Forestry Research, the Lao Government, and eight villages with a mixture of ethnic heritage including Lao, Khmu, White Lao, and Hmong. My husband and four-and-a-half-year-old daughter accompanied me on my field research.
I have conducted market and entomophagy research in many other countries across Southeast Asia. I have been going to the region since 2001 and plan to go for the rest of my life! Although my Lao language skills are rusty now, I enjoy speaking the local language when I'm there.
I lived in Malawi, Southeast Africa for two years working as an agro-forestry extension agent with the District Agriculture and Forestry Office in collaboration with the US Peace Corps. I learned the Bantu dialect of Chiyao, the local language of the Yao people. I lived in a mud and thatch hut in a small rural village outside of a forest reserve.

I teach a number of lower division Anthropology courses in addition to my specialty courses: Peoples and Cultures of Southeast Asia, Plants and Peoples (Ethnoecology) and Culture, Agriculture and Globalization.

My most recent research pursuit involves the environmental sustainability of edible insects (Entomophagy).

In addition to being an Anthropology professor I am also a Forester and work on international environmental development projects. My current project is a Reforestation project in Lao PDR, working in collaboration with Australian colleagues with funding from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research.

This work was supported by:

National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335

US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project Degree with a Purpose P031S210061

US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012

*Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.

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