Blog Post #7 What Can We Learn About Teaching And Learning from Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was very interest me and incredibly inspiring. This profesor from Carnegie Mellon was an intelligent, down to earth, and creative man. Randy Pausch teaches us what it means to really deal with something. He choose to talk about how to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others instead. This was one of the most inspirational lectures I have ever watched in my entire life. Randy is chasing and even achieving your childhood dreams can make such a difference in your life.Childhood dreams are goals one has when young, and can serve as great motivation to attain the things one wants in life. So, what can be learned about teaching and learning from childhood dreams? As it turns out, a great deal. Teachers can be facilitators of their students' dreams. Instilling qualities in students that help them succeed is enabling their childhood dreams. In his case, Randy has been told he does not have much longer to live yet he continues to live with a "nothing is impossible" attitude.

Another interesting point Randy bring up is "Brick Walls." They will always be there and we have to accept that. We should not look at problems in a bad way, but rather a challenge to see if we want something bad enough. Problems will not get in the way of our opportunity if we choose to fight back and go after our goals. When I encounter problems in my classroom I will not give up, instead I will find a solution. There will always be some kind of problem that I am facing in my career, but I know that I will rise up to the challenge every time.

The final lesson on teaching and learning is to never give up. As teachers, we should never give up on a student. We need to show them that we are always there to help make them better. And we should never give up on ourselves. Every teacher is going to have a lesson that they spent so much time creating and it fails. Just because one lesson failed doesn't mean they all will. We must learn to never give up, not to complain, work harder and help others. As future educators, we should train ourselves to find the best in everybody. We should surround ourselves with people who will tell us the truth even if it hurts. We should listen to that truth and use it. The Last Lecture is a video I would recommend to anyone. It is an exceptional speech that gives many lessons for the viewer. In this lesson anyone can learn from Randy is what he called a "Head Fake". Randy uses the example of sports. While many children are put into sports. Parents want their kids to, of course, learn how to play football or how to score a touchdown, there are always other lessons to be learned. These are called "head fakes", lessons like working with others, hard-work... This should always be considered while teaching. During any group project these lessons become more useful and needed.