Blog Post #8

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



 Watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, one word comes to mind and that is  INSPIRATIONAL. In this video Randy discusses his childhood dreams, but states he will not discuss his cancer, wife and kids, and his religion/spirituality.  Knowing that you only have a couple months left to live and still manage to make the best of life, is a pure blessing. I know I have been so inspired to never stop reaching for my goals in life, no matter how difficult or the circumstance. Just from watching only a few of his videos he really seemed to be a genuine, humble, good hearted, and loving man.

The one fact  that captured my attention was that he gave his students the opportunity to be creative, with two rules that included no violence and pornography. This is something that I would also like to keep inside my classroom. Creativity is a very important aspect in education. I would also allow parents and the rest of the school (in that grade) to see whatever projects they have put together. Keeping the bar high is another important aspect needed in the classroom. Never stop at just enough, keep going as much as possible, because stopping is not going to help them in any way. Adding real life situations to the classroom is always an advantage to the students, whether it is social or financially.

I loved how he gives his audience a chance to have a small piece of him, by giving away a few of his stuffed animals that he had won. A quote that stood out to me is "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want!" Which I believe has some truth, when you think about the quote and it's meaning. In the end Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is great. It is wonderful that he accomplished his dreams, and was willing to share it with others in this lecture.