This morning a dream became reality with the first ever Run for Pedagogy (Pedagogy: art or science of teaching). Two years ago, when the Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy was in its second year, I joked about holding a 5K Run for Pedagogy in conjunction with the event. This year, on a whim and with a shiny new conference Facebook page, I issued an invitation to our participants for a Thursday morning run. A group of eight left the conference hotel at 6:30 am for a 4'ish mile run. Probably another ten people later said something along the lines of they intended to come but 6:30 am turned out to be just too early! We had a great time, and as I always tell our Director, I do my best networking while running or cycling.
With nearly 1000 registrants, my goal is to get at least 25 out on the run next year. Maybe we could ask the Office of the Provost to set up an aid station -- coffee and scones? I'm thinking tshirts too. A technical tshirt, but more theoretical than applied-- an academic tshirt that is peer-reviewed and has references.
Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and I have to say it's been quite the endurance event of solving problems, meeting needs, talking and smiling. It's kind of like a Ragnar Relay for our team.
I plan to start this final conference morning with a Swim for Pedagogy but so far there are no other takers ;-)
