(most recent at top)

To see a list of my current research activities, click here (CV updated: April 2015)

March 8, 2014

The first few months here in Australia have flown by! My last blog post was in January…so I think it is time to update this site. I have posted twice on my Charity Highlight page and have been sharing the occasional update on my current activities via Twitter, but am eager to post beyond 140 characters – so stay tuned for a new blog post 🙂

December 13, 2013

Moved to Sydney, Australia this week!
My current activities (goals..) include buying a desk for our rented apartment, getting internet service, catching up on emails, completing revisions for a co-authored article and helping finalize a research report, coding videos of secondary school teachers, reading, reading, and more reading, and…exploring our new neighbourhood in the sun!

September 5, 2013

The beginning of a new academic year…and me without coursework! I have completed my 2 years of courses and now I need to create my own schedule so I can keep up with other research projects and my dissertation writing.

Highlights of my activities since May can be found in my recent blog posts or via Twitter.

BIG news that I am excited about:

• In May I received notice that I had been awarded a 2-year Doctoral Fellowship from SSHRC for my research ($40, 000)
• Yesterday I found out that I won the University of Alberta’s President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction ($10,000)
• My husband accepted a job offer – to work in Sydney, Australia! We have never been there to visit – yet we’ll be moving by December!
• Thanks to my supervisor (Professor Klassen), I have already corresponded with a professor in Sydney! I am really looking forward to meeting with him and discussing any possibilities of working with him on his research projects.

May 5, 2013

Wow. May already!
-enjoyed my recent travels: conferences in the UK and San Francisco! Lots to reflect on and post about (soon).
-completed all my PhD coursework! Time to focus on my dissertation research
-looking forward to teaching EDPY 402 (Child Development for Educators) this month

I received SUPER EXCITING news from SSHRC last week! Stay tuned for details 🙂

February 20, 2013

Hello reading break 🙂

Time for…
-dissertation proposal writing
-planning for upcoming conferences
-writing term papers

…and extra sleep too 🙂

January 20, 2013

I received some good news in the past month:

– the World Universities Network accepted my application! They will fund my trip to the UK in July so I can learn about gaze tracking at the York Summer Institute with international researchers!

– my proposal for the BPS conference was accepted! I will be travelling to the UK in April!

– my proposal for the APA conference was accepted! -conference in Hawaii 🙂

– I received an email from SSHRC! My application has now made it to Ottawa for the final scholarship competition!

December 8, 2012

Once again, it seems I am not updating this page enough for it to represent ‘current activities!’

I am finishing another semester and celebrated a few achievements lately:

– my paper proposal was accepted by AERA! I will be presenting in San Francisco again (April 2013) – but this time without my poster tube 🙂

– my SSHRC research proposal was approved by my department and submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies (one step closer to entering the competition in Ottawa)

– my first (first-author) publication in an academic journal is online this month!

– I received an award for 1st place PhD student oral presentation at the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute research day

September 2, 2012

Wow…September already! I posted an update yesterday
– and also posted some activity updates (via blog posts) this summer:

June
July
August (and another in August)

Looking forward to beginning the second year of my PhD program!

May 26, 2012

It has been quite a month!

• I was in San Francisco for the Western Psychological Association convention (more on that in a future post)
• I taught a 4th year course for 3 weeks
• I have begun my summer research project that is funded by an award I received from the Women and Children Health Research Institute and the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families!

I just arrived at the University of Waterloo today for the Canadian Society for the Study of Education conference (click here to see a PDF of the poster I am presenting). I am looking forward to all the sessions this week!

April 27, 2012

It has been a busy semester! I will be updating this page soon 🙂 Click here if you are interested in viewing my recent poster presentations.

February 23, 2012

Last week, and for the next two weeks, I will be involved in collecting data at teacher conventions. I am also preparing for a midterm in statistics and creating several posters for upcoming conferences. I have started planning for a spring session teaching position! I will be teaching a 4th year child development course for pre-service educators and am looking forward to being in the teacher role again. I have had some good news in the past couple of weeks too: I will be receiving a student scholarship award from WPA at the San Francisco conference in April, and last week my first online publication went live! I found out that I didn’t get the SSHRC doctoral award this year, but will confidently apply again in the fall. I applied for a summer studentship research position through CUP (my current practicum placement) and I hope to hear soon if I have been accepted.

January 21, 2012

Wow – January already! I guess my ‘current activities’ have been keeping me busy since my last update here was in October. Research assistantship work, coursework, reading, and writing have been very rewarding. I have been working on abstracts for conferences, papers for possible publications, and helping develop and/or refine surveys. I am also enjoying my practicum – into my second semester of community-based research. I will also be involved in data collection soon. Stay tuned for more details…

October 10, 2011

I have had a busy first month of this program! Course work, my research practicum, and conference proposal submissions have been motivating forces. I also applied for a SSHRC doctoral award – my first time through the process! I am trying to be hopeful…but if I don’t get one this time, I will gladly try again next year 🙂 My research assistantship is gearing up, and I am enjoying all the literature on teacher motivation. Lots to learn – and lots to reflect on…as it is seems easy to think back on my days teaching when reading about certain experiences.

September 15 2011

I am already enjoying my courses this semester – all research related 🙂

“The Development of Emotion and Emotion Regulation” In addition to learning more about a research area that I am immensely interested in – this course involves the development of various research skills through several assignments:

• writing a professional review for a manuscript that was submitted for publication in a journal
• creating a course syllabus for teaching an emotion-related topic
• designing and delivering a lecture on an emotion-related topic
• writing a grant proposal related to emotional development in a specific area of interest

“Research Practicum in Psychological Studies in Education: Community-Based Educational Psychology” I met with two organizations who are doing outstanding research for the benefit of communities in Edmonton. For the next 8 months, I chose to acquire community-based research experience under the guidance of researchers at Families First Edmonton. I hope to start next week! 🙂

“A longitudinal examination of teacher motivation” This individual directed studies course involves longitudinal quantitative and qualitative analyses of pre-service teachers’ commitment and engagement in the profession. I am learning more about the motivation theory of self-determination through this course as well.

In addition to these courses, I am excited about a project with ACME where we will examine motivational and emotional links to physical health and academic functioning.

And – I am preparing proposals for 3 upcoming conferences, an outline for a paper submission, and a plan for my PhD research. 🙂

August 26 2011

I have enjoyed several research opportunities this summer (I mention some of them in my post Summer)

I just finished assisting with a literature review for Dr. Klassen and his collaborators on Teacher Efficacy and Professional Learning and Development for a research project that will soon enter the data collection phase.

I have also learned something new in the technology world – WordPress – by creating a website for Dr. Klassen and Dr. Daniels. That obviously led to my creation of this personal website 🙂

I am now exploring data on teacher motivation – specific to commitment and engagement – in hopes of publishing a paper with the British Psychological Society, and presenting at a Western Psychological Association conference in San Francisco!