Catherine Rawn

In response to Rick Mercer’s recent rant, UBC students are once again showing their rocking engagement! Check out the UBC Vote Mob and plan to ROCK THE VOTE! I know I will!

A year ago I was — decidedly — not a runner. I was a walker. I had walked an entire marathon in fact (2008 BMO Vancouver Marathon with Team in Training). But, I had taken a year off of taking care of myself after burying myself in my new job, and I knew something had to change. AND we had just bought a condo with a gym right downstairs from us, so there was no excuse. With the co-commitment of my husband and our good friend Lesley, I started walking again. Then something weird happened. One day on the treadmill I felt like running. So I did. It was only for a couple of minutes that first day, but I didn’t die! I was ok! It actually felt good!

Fast forward a year, and along with some sage advice from the amazing instructor and personal trainer Andrea Perrino, as well as a lot of sweat along the way, Lesley, our friend Lara Aknin, & I ran the full 10k of the Sun Run today! We *ran* it! The whole time! I can hardly believe it! It was the longest distance I had ever run without stopping, and we completed it in 1:01:41. We had a hunch we might do it in an hour, but we didn’t have a watch among us so we weren’t sure. But we did it! Well, just about… and now we have our next goal: to complete in under an hour!

It feels great to complete this accomplishment and to own this new identity as a runner. This school year I feel like I have really been putting into practice what I teach so often: take care of your physical & mental health, take breaks from work, cultivate social connections, set SMARTER goals, and implementation intentions to acheive them. I’m looking forward to keeping up my progress this summer as I write my textbook and prepare for next year’s adventures. Look for me next year teaching Psyc 100 (6 credits), Psyc 217 (research methods), Psyc 218 (stats), and my custom course Psyc 208: Psychology in your life: How social psychology can help you succeed).

I *finally* was able to see UBC’s contribution to LipDub and I must say it brought a few tears to my eyes! I continue to be impressed by the energy, enthusiasm, and engagement of so many of our students here at UBC, and it was so fun to see some of my students taking part! Congratulations to all involved on a fantastic celebration of UBC-V!

Check it out here. Ok… break’s over… must get back to creating exams…

And what a term it’s been! It’s certainly been busy and challenging, but I feel like I have learned a lot and I have had a ton of fun! This term I taught learners in two courses: the continuation of Intro Psyc (go section 6!) and Psyc 208 (a course I designed called How Social Psych Can Help You Succeed).

This year the students in my Intro Psych class were so wonderfully curious and engaged! I felt such great energy from them every day (some days more than others, but that’s normal!), and they truly inspired me to bring my “A game” every day (which I tried my best to do!). Here are some photos from our last day together. I had asked them to write their most important take-away message from this course. Take a look… 

Last week in Psyc 208 we held the Creative Advertisement Showcase, which was a fantastic celebration of what they had discovered throughout the term! Previously, teams of students had identified a learning challenge they face, investigated primary sources for insight into understanding and addressing the challenge, and summarized those sources in annotated bibliographies and team abstracts. The purpose of the Creative Advertisment was to get the word out to fellow students about research-based techniques and strategies for addressing the learning challenges they face. They truly were creative! Projects ranged from video and live games to posters to live skits and demonstrations to videos and pamphlets… an impressive variety! Check out some of their videos and websites (ordered by team #)…

Team 7′s Learning about Distractions:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lts-wX9L8q4

Team 9′s Learning Environments: http://psyc208.wordpress.com/

Team 12′s Sleep & Learning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaqQkImzagU

Team 15′s Stress Happens, Even for a Jedi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnmYyz61Mys with website: http://ipixels.net/stress/

Team 18′s Technology Crackdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zBCkhIoS74  

Team 22′s Cultural Differences and Learning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jPW6tRA20w

And here’s a shot of Team 13′s interactive ”Choose Your Own Adventure” study strategies station in action!

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic year! Study smartly for your finals… and remember that no matter how you do on them, that’s not a reflection of your worth as a person.