Catherine Rawn

The first few weeks of summer term have been glorious. The weather has cooperated for the most part, and I have been able to take some time to breathe. March and April were more hectic than I anticipated they would be, including a surprise “proofread the entire textbook in the next four weeks” while teaching 8 different classes a week, including a new prep (stats), on top of the two full-textbook reads I expected to complete. [If you don't know what I'm talking about, I've been working for about a hear and a half on adapting the Cozby research methods textbook into a Cozby and Rawn Canadian Edition.] I’ll write more about my reflections on the year later, but for now I wanted to simply express how thankful I am that I’m in such a peaceful place right now.

After running the Vancouver Marathon two weeks ago, I’ve taken some time off of running. Instead, I’ve been doing a bit of swimming (our condo has a pool) and I signed up for an intro pass at Open Door Yoga. I’ve practiced yoga sporadically since moving to Vancouver 9 years ago (!), but never regularly. It seems like a wonderful way to develop strength, balance, and peace – both inside and out – so I’m giving it a whirl this summer. I’ve also been reconnecting with my friends and husband. It’s challenging for me during the school year to fully, truly relax. There’s always another lesson to prepare, another email to deal with. It’s been lovely just enjoying unscheduled time and laughter and wine with these lovely people once again.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope your summer is starting off at least as enjoyably as mine has.

This summer has flown by! Guess that’s what happens when you update an entire textbook, read another one to prep for a new course, revise multiple syllabi, attend two conferences, write a program evaluation report… and a few bits of R&R every now and again including a lovely, wine-filled weekend in Osoyoos, BC. So that’s what I’ve been up to this summer. How about you?

To students and faculty: Welcome (back!) to UBC! If you’re in my intro psych class (Psyc 100 Section 002, MWF 1-2 in CIRS 1250), you may be interested in checking out the syllabus. You’ll get a hard copy when we meet on Wednesday, but you can get the sneek peek here: Intro Syllabus. I had a ton of fun in this course last year and I’m looking forward to it again!

If you’re in either of my research methods classes (Psyc 217 Sections 1 or 2), you can find the syllabus here: Research Methods Syllabus.  I’m looking forward to this course — yes it’s a lot of work for all of us but it can be extremely rewarding and will prepare you well for all  your future studies (and for generally being an informed citizen). We start at 9am (Section 1) or 10am (Section 2) — and you *must* come to the section for which you are officially registered. Yes, it’s early, but let’s have fun anyway! I’m looking for a DJ for the first 5-10 mins before class starts to get us all energized… if you’re up for it let me know!

Looking forward to a fabulous year ahead, full of challenges, learning, new people, new experiences, and fun times  See you next Wednesday if not before — I’ll be co-facilitating Psychology TA Development Day on Friday, anda couple of Student Success Workshops on Imagine Day on Tuesday — come say hi if you see me around!

This morning I opted out of my to-do list to decorate my office! I went back through all my photos from the past year (an a few from earlier) and created a collage to hang on my office wall. So many memories surfaced as I perused files from TA Development Day 2009 and 2010, our Psyc 217 poster session and in-class demos, Psyc 208 team-based learning and final projects, Psyc 100 field trip to Science World and last day festivities. What a great year! I selected a few photos to represent each of these activities and I’m having it printed out as a giant poster to stick on my wall, that I can add to as years pass. Yay! It makes me smile

As for my to-do list… well, I have managed to check off 7 chapters of the research methods textbook I’m adapting. That’s half the book! Before I get to the other half (which I need to finish by the end of July), I need to spend some time on a few other projects. Let me share with you some of the other projects, besides the textbook, I’ll be working on these coming days…

UPDATE June 10: I have crossed out what I’ve accomplished in the past week. Not quite everything, but pretty close. Paperwork is complete for the poster session venue. Gotta pause the report for now while I get another couple of chapters under my belt!

• Analyze data and write up the Program Evaluation Report for 2010/2011 TA Development activities. Such a report is a condition of funding from the Provost’s office, and it’s been really helpful to make informed changes to the program based on participants’ feedback over the years.
• Do some early prep for the 2011 TA Development Day, including set the date, book the venue, set the broad agenda, send a “save-the-date” email to incoming grad students, and submit the ethics application for next year’s program evaluation.
• Book the venue for the Psyc 217 poster session upcoming in November 2011.
• Contact applicants for next year’s Psyc 100 Peer Tutors (I was *so* excited reading applications yesterday!! This is going to be a phenomenal team!)
• Help with the website and first meeting of the UBC Instructor Network, which will be a way for teaching-stream faculty to connect with each other. Previously we’ve been sprinkled around campus unaware of each other.
• Deal with the email backlog. Always the email backlog!
• Read a couple of chapters in the stats book I’m using for Psyc 218 in January.

Now that I’ve scared myself by listing all that, I better get to it! Well, after I make a cup of coffee…

My plans for working on revisions to a manuscript were derailed this morning by the news that our Student Evaluations of Teaching from last term were released. Reading these evaluations is an emotional event for me, and this is particularly true on the first look (of many!). As always, I’m filled with anxiety and hesitation: Did my students like me? Did they appreciate the risks I took in class? In testing? Did I push them to learn — just enough or too much or not enough? Did they take the time to complete the evaluations? (fyi: 583 did — which represents 54% of all my students.)

For the first look today I examined the numbers, particularly the six UBC University Module Items (UMIs), just to get a feel for what they’re saying. Here are my impressions of these numbers for 2009/2010: Overall, I’m satisfied, with some exceptions (both high and low). Psyc 217, Research Methods, is a course I love and have now taught 4 times – and I’m pleased to report that my students rate it highly. Students in my Intro Psychology courses, both terms, rated me well but not exceptional, and I think that’s totally fair. It was my first time teaching those courses, and the numbers are in the range of those I received the first time I taught Psyc 217. Onward and upward!

Across all 6 courses I taught this year, my highest scores come from the “Concern for Students” UMI. This tells me that my deep value of caring for students and their learning is being witnessed in the eyes of my students, through my efforts to this put this value into action (e.g., see my teaching philosophy). Wonderful news!

My lowest ratings come from the “Fair Evaluations” item, and this concerns me. These numbers, particularly for this of all items, are difficult to interpret: Are my students perceiving the learning assessments to be very challenging (which I don’t mind), or are assessments perceived to be so demanding that success is unattainable (which I do mind)? I definitely need to ponder this one further as I dive more deeply into the data. I already know that my evaluation strategy for 208 will change considerably next year (e.g., the midterm was much too difficult and/or lengthy; peer evaluations of papers didn’t work as smoothly as I’d hoped). Of all my courses this year, 208 was the course rated most poorly by my students. I think a large part of that had to do with the complications with evaluations. It was a brand new, custom course that I designed, and although lots went well (I have loads of data on what great things students learned!), there is a lot of room for improvement.

Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about my student evaluations. They help me to see from students’ perspectives what I do well and where I need to focus my improvement efforts. Thanks to everyone who completed them! I will share further insights as I consider them further. Note that I’ll be working on revising my courses over the summer months. If you were a student in any of my courses this year, and are interested in giving some specific, constructive  feedback on any aspect of the course, please feel free to contact me to set up an appointment.

Ah, May is upon us. Term grades have been submitted, and I’m just cleaning up a few loose ends from the term and year. I am feeling a sense of calm and space that I haven’t had in a while. This space is allowing me to ponder my teaching and learning (T&L) activities from a broad perspective, rather than the day-to-day rush of preparations and delivery. The latter is, of course, vitally important to T&L, but for me, my meaning and purpose is derived largely from these reflective times.

After surviving my first year as full-time faculty, I am pleased to report that I still love T&L!! It has been far from easy to make it through daily preparations for class, exams and assignments, and committees, meetings with students (both graduate and undergraduate), and so on. This year I have learned much about the material I was teaching, my students, and who I want to be as a teacher. I believe I did well this year (student evals forthcoming), under the pressing circumstances, but not as well as I would like. I am excited at the promise of preparing for next year, and for having the time and space to do it better. That is, for me, one of the many joys of teaching: Each year being more effective than the last.

I look forward to documenting here my journey this summer as I work toward bettering my courses and myself for my students in 2010/2011.