Blog Post 1

About Me

Hello, my name is Rodney Patrick and I am a student in EDM310 at the Univeristy of South Alabama. I am from Saraland, Al which is about 20 minutes north of the University. I currently major in Mathematics/Secondary Education. I hope to be able to teach at the high school level however, I am not opposed to teaching at a middle school. As a future educator, it is my personal belief to go where ever I am needed the most.

I graduated from Satsuma High School in 2010. While in high school I participated in the marching band, concert band, jazz band, and pep band. Needless to say music plays a big role in my life. I am a peaceful person so I can just sit alone for hours and just listen to music. Aside from muscic, I also enjoy spending time socializing with friends and family. My family really puts emphasis on the "importance of family" idea so often times I can be found grabbing lunch, playing games and activities such as phase 10 or badminton, or just conversating with any of my family members.

Randy Pausch on Time Management

Randy Pausch was an assistant and associate professor at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science who later also became associate professesor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2008, Pausch passed away as a result of complications due to pancreatic cancer that he had been diagnosed with in 2006. He became a hit on YouTube when his inspirational lectures began being posted on the popular site.
His most recent lecture, titled Randy Pausch on Time Management focused primarily on how to better manage time by using tools such as "To Do" list and how to effectively use them. Dr. Pausch also gave valuable advice on how to handle daily tasks and to accomplish goals. From his lecture, I learned that order in to help manage time and plans is to first actually have a plan and that I am not bound to just one plan . It is fine if decide that I want to change my plans, but it is impossible to do so without actually first having one. Secondly, in order to effectively accomplish daily tasks and goals, it is probably best to begin with the dirtiest of the task and work my way up to easier goals. Finally, I learned that I should plan tasks in levels. For example, I should plan on the tasks I have to accomplish for today, then the tasks for by the end of the week, then the end of the semester and so forth. Dr. Pausch said that "it's better to do the right thing adequately than the wrong thing beautifully." In my opinion, this is a powerful statement that should be use whenever anyone is trying to effenciently manage time. I recommend that anyone who would like to learn how to better manage time watch his lecture. He provides very good advice on how to effectively manage time and plan goals. To view his lecture simply click on Randy Pausch on Time Management.