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.

Check out this resource I found from the Canadian Psychological Association. Useful tips if you’re considering majoring in and pursuing a career in psychology and related fields.

http://www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents/Simner%20Career%20Guide%202009_Web.pdf

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.

This trailer was put together by Michael Wesch, an Anthropologist asking big, provocative questions about education in a digital age.

The Visions of Students Today 2011 Remix One (Trailer)

What do you think? How do you view your education — in class and out?

Tired, nervous, excited, and hungry… I’m sitting in the Toronto airport about to return home to Vancouver after a whirlwind 24 hour stopover! I have spent the full day today meeting with the developing and sponsoring editors of my textbook. That’s right! I’m adapting a textbook! Specifically, I’m adapting Cozby’s Methods in Behavioural Research (currently in its 10th edition) for the first Canadian edition of this text. This is what we use for our Psyc 217 Research Methods courses at UBC.

Wow! I never thought I’d be writing a textbook… at least not so early in my career. But the opportunity presented itself, and I’m never one to pass on a chance to challenge myself and grow my skill set. Recently I have been feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing, including a touch regretful at the thought of the time committment that’s going to be involved. But after today’s meetings, during which we went through each chapter’s key needed revisions, the whole thing is feeling much more do-able. Still a lot of work, but manageable. Kim & Jen (the editors mentioned above) did a great job assuring me I needn’t change everything this round. The most important tasks are updating examples (featuring Canadian research where it makes sense to do so),  and clarifying the writing. And it all relates back to my Research Methods course… so time spent on this book is time spent developing my thinking and knowledge base for that course.

Students: are you interested? I’ll be developing this text over the next year and a half, and I would *love* to have student input on how I can make this text better for the next generations of Psyc 217 students! If you’re interested in contributing your ideas and feedback about this text – particularly if you’ve already taken the course with me – please get in touch with me!