Catherine Rawn

Back in December, my friend and I decided to run the Vancouver marathon on May 6. We had been running 10k most weekends, so quadrupling that distance (42.2k) seemed like the next logical step for us overachievers.

We’re starting to pack on the kilometers rapidly. Over the weekend we ran 19k in about 2h15. This was a bit of a game changing run. It was the first one we had to gear up for. We learned we needed to bring electrolyte-replacing water and a gel called Gu to give us a boost before we tired out. Just the fact that we needed to bring supplies made this run more psychologically daunting than the 17k we ran before.

Then came the hills.

Vancouver has inescapable hills.

We tried to be clever and turn off our pr-planned route to avoid them. We couldn’t.  We got disoriented between Point Grey and Shaughnessey and had to pull out the GPS. I learned that when I have a long long way to go, just stick to the path and face whatever comes. At least I’ll be sure I’m headed in the direction I intended.

Training for a marathon is taking commitment (no surprise there). In some ways that’s been quite liberating. In my line of work, there’s always always more to be done. I’m coming off a three year stretch of having to work until I fall off my task chair from exhaustion (a dissertation, first two years full-time teaching, and a textbook will do that). But it’s become crystal clear to me I can’t sustain that frenetic pace. I need time to take care of myself and my marriage and my friendships… and not feel guilty about that. (High levels of guilt for not working is a common side-effect of grad school.) By making runtime mandatory (and with a friend), this marathon is helping me practice choosing to cultivate my whole self,  rather than just me as academic. Oddly enough, making an extreme commitment is helping me learn moderation.

What a start to the term! It’s so easy to forget how much energy and stamina is needed to teach with enthusiasm. One month away from the classroom and after 2 days I’m exhausted! But I’ll find a new rhythm soon enough.

All my classes have now been started. It’s been fun getting to meet new students and to welcome back familiar faces… and only, um, a tad hectic behind the scenes.

Both my new courses started off with some activities that seemed to engage and intrigue… and maybe even relieve! (Comment below with your thoughts if you were there!) For example, yesterday in 218 (stats), I brought a bunch of Psychological Science journals and asked people to flip through results sections and find statistical concepts that were familiar at least a little. There were concepts from the whole course! Really helped to show that we’ll just be building off familiar ideas, which (I hope) made it not so scary. Thanks for participating, everyone! Looking forward to another adventure tomorrow.

I had begun to think that 2011 had been a bit dull, so I came up with 11 adventures I experienced last year. I tweeted about them all day yesterday. Here’s the full list, as tweeted, in case you’re interested:

#11 I’m now a runner (not the illegal kind). I learned to run. Outside. This was a big deal for me.

#10 Joining a book club. Never been a big reader, but this symbolized new commitment to valuing leisure in my life.

#9 Climbing a mountain! The Chief in Squamish. It was amazing. Stunning view, picnic @ the top. Great friends.

#8 Joined friends in a motorboat ride around Vancity from False Creek to Deep Cove. Glorious once I got used to it!

#7 I took a 10th Ed US research methods textbook and created its 1st Canadian Ed: Cozby and Rawn (2012).

#6 Stayed out at a house party until 4am… something I hadn’t done in many many years (thanks@Wine2Three!)

#5 I was the designated driver for a whole weekend in the Okanagan. More driving than in the past 3yrs combined!

#4 Treated like Rockstars on Okanagan trip. Thanks @Road13Vineyards @PaintedRockJohn@SandraOldfield @RussellBall

#3 VanSantaClausParade with Wes the Westjet balloon, peppmocha, sun, & great friends who support my parade love!

#2 Achieved winegeek status: had a 2010 ehrenfelser & wished it was 2009. Then looked @lesleyduncan & laughed!

#1 I met someone the day she was born & watched her grow for 9 wks. Pretty awesome. So are my friends who made her.

Here’s to an even more adventurous 2012! Happy New Year everyone!

Term 2 is now right around the corner! If you’re interested in checking out syllabi for my sections early, by all means take a look! My Psyc 218 (Analysis of Behavioural Data) syllabus is available here, and my Psyc 208 (Special Topics: How Social Psychology Can Help You Succeed) syllabus is available here. I suspect that both of these courses will challenge learners–and me–to grow in new directions. They won’t be a walk in the park, but they can be valuable learning experiences if we all put in the thought and effort… and isn’t that what university is for?

I hope your 2011 wraps up safely and your 2012 brings you joy and adventures!

I hope this holiday season has brought you much joy and peace. Last week was quite hectic for me as I finished up grades for term 1 while preparing syllabi for term 2 (I’ll finalize and post those in a couple of days). But then I had a wonderful long weekend celebrating Christmas with my husband. For the past few years we’ve had friends in town to share festivities, and that’s always lovely fun. This year it was just the two of us, and it was perfect too One of the things we love to do together is cook. We just love the teamwork! So this weekend we spent ages cooking together… and then eating our delicious results!

I still can’t believe how quickly Term 1 went by! The end of November brought our 2nd Annual Psyc 217 Research Methods Poster Session: this year with over 130 posters and over 600 students across 7 sections of the course. The energy about research projects was exciting! I think we developed a good system this year too, smoothing out some of the registration kinks from last year. Next year we’ll be ready to bring in a larger audience and media — how exciting!

Our Psyc 100 Section 002 is coming along swimmingly in my opinion. The larger size (about 375) compared with last year (about 270) presented a few disruptions at the beginning of the term, but I think those are subsiding for the most part. A unit that stands out for me this past term was Language and Thinking: We had great fun exploring how babies learn one language and two. Such fascinating research is being done on this front! Take a look at this TedTalk by Dr. Patricia Kuhl for a taste of what we learned. If you are in this course, what was your favourite unit from Term 1?

Thanks to everyone for an interesting Term 1. It has been great getting to know many  of you, and I hope to meet everyone else in Term 2. I look forward to another exciting term of leading you on your learning journey!