Lisa school update

This semester is going to be a busy one! I am nearing the end of my classwork which means that pretty soon, I won't have to take any classes and I will start registering in dissertation credits. During this time I will still be teaching classes because that's how I get paid and what pays for my tuition credits.

With my program, I need coursework in 4 different areas: my area of concentration, my internal cognate, my external cognate, and research. There is a certain number of courses I need to take in each of those areas before I can consider my coursework complete. Once that is all done, I will work on my dissertation. My area of concentration is sport psychology, my internal cognate is growth and motor behavior and my external cognate is sociology/women's studies (everyone also has to take at least 3 classes in research methods). The internal and external cognates are meant to expand your expertise outside your narrow area of interest in things that can support your research. An internal cognate is something within your department (kinesiology) that is outside your area of interest (sport psychology). An external cognate is also supposed to support your research but is outside of your department (so it can be anything that is not in kinesiology).

After this semester, I am only going to have about 3 or 4 classes to take between the summer and next fall. Very exciting!!

This semester I am taking Pediatric Sport Psychology, Research Practicum, and Mentored Teaching in Undergraduate Kinesiology. So far I think I am going to enjoy all of my classes. I was originally enrolled in a sociology class called Gender and Power which sounded great but after two days I couldn't take it-- that's a story for another day!

I am also teaching Foundations of Kinesiology, Psychological Basis of Physical Activity (basically sport psychology and motor learning), and Sociocultural Analysis of Physical Activity (basically sociology of sport). I am really excited about all three classes so hopefully teaching will go really well this semester as well. The two things that concern me the most is 1. I haven't taught any of these classes before so it will be a lot of work and 2. I am team-teaching two of these classes. Everyone knows I work very well with others so that shouldn't be a problem at all... right?! I do like the two girls I am team teaching with so hopefully that's a good start!

The nice thing about my schedule is that I have really busy Mondays, kinda busy Wednesdays and light Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also can't complain that my responsibilities are over at 10:00 on Thursday. That definitely doesn't mean long weekends of nothing (because there's lots of work to be done) but it does mean I will have flexible weekends which I'm excited about!