Randy Pausch's last lecture, Achieving Your Childhood Dream, was a really inspirational video. He was born October 23, 1960 in Baltimore, MD. After college, he became a professor at Carnegie Mellon University where is also obtained his Ph.D. He started off his lecture discussing his cancer and how he was only given three to six months of good health. However, he would not allow this news to discourage him. He felt that he could not change anything but he could still live his life the best he could.
He talked about some of his own childhood dreams. Some of which included working for NASA and even Disney. However, neither of his childhood dreams came to surface. In his lecture he also mentioned these things called "brick walls." He said that brick walls let us know how badly we want things. After hearing that in his lecture, I really had to think about that statement. It is very true, especially when pertaining to me. If an obstacle comes into my way and blocks me from reaching my goals, I would fight to reach them if I really wanted it. If it was not something I really wanted, I would just let it stay blocked by the "brick wall" in my life.
Another thing that was emphasized by Pausch is helping others. He also said that when helping others you should have fun as well. I also agree with this statement. If you are able to enjoy helping others, then you would want to do it more often. This also works parallel to teaching. In my opinion, the majority of a career is the relationship between educators and students. This includes them helping each other to learn. Students will not be the only ones learning. As an educator we have to learn as well which is why we have to help the students and they have to help us. If we enjoy helping each other, then it would make the experience even more worthwhile and students more eager to learn.
At the end of the lecture, Pausch stated that this lecture was not for the audience. This lecture was for his kids. This video taught me a lot of lessons that I hope I could use in my classroom one day. I would encourage anyone and everyone who is wants to be an educator to watch this lecture. Yes, it is a lengthy video but every second is worth watching. Dr. Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008 from pancreatic cancer leaving behind a legacy that will last forever.
Hey Rodney.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post.You make a very good point about the brick wall analogy. I agree that all educators should watch this. I think everyone that has the opportunity to watch this should. This video has a lot of life lessons that anyone could use. Good luck with the rest of your semester.
You only skimmed the surface of the many things that Dr. Pausch had to say about teaching and learning. Your post could have been much better with a more thorough commentary.
ReplyDeleteThe reason we include this video is to inspire you to bust through those brick walls, to raise the bars, to execute effective head fakes and much more. I hope you will do these things when you are a teacher.