Blog Ten

"What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?"

I leave my computer opened to allow Randy Pausch's Last Lecture to load, head to the refrigerator to grab a drink and the first thing I noticed when I return is the length of the video, so I began to think "Great, an hour to sit and watch a boring lecture. This should be real fun!" I hope you picked up on the intended sarcasm.. But, within the first few seconds Paush grabbed my attention and never let go. Seriously! What I was expecting from this video was NOTHING like what I received from it. From Dr. Strange's question, "What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?", I was looking for a video full of teaching methods and maybe a few learning techniques as well. But what I got from this was SO MUCH MORE! Randy Pausch is just an ordinary guy who is taking advantages of "the cards dealt to him."

Within the first few minutes of his speech, Pausch declares what he will not be speaking on, which included cancer, his wife and kids, and religion, but what he will be talking about is his childhood dreams. There was SO MUCH to take in from this! One thing we could take from it was that when pursuing your dreams, there are always going to be brick walls. "The brink walls are not there to keep us out, the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." I couldn't have said it any better!

Again, we must LEARN not to give up, but to find a way around, over,or through those brick walls. We can also TEACH others by how we react to these brick walls in our lives. What do your actions to setbacks say about you? How are you TEACHING others, your students to respond to their brick walls?

On the first day of kindergarten Mrs. Adams went around the classroom asking students what they wanted to be when they grew up, and my response to her question was a teacher. It has always been my dream to be in a classroom full of students, teaching, helping them prepare for their bright futures, and making sure each student knows their full potential. Like Pausch, I have encountered many, many brick walls but I had to LEARN to find my way around them and continue on the path to my dream and I can only hope that I have TAUGHT others to do the same.