Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

This week I was required to watch Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. Randy Pausch's video has three points that are made. These points are childhood dreams, enabling others dreams, and lessons learned. Throughout his lecture, Randy Pausch discusses many methods and lessons that can be used in the classroom.

The first part of the lecture focuses on childhood dreams. Dreams are a large part of the life of children and these dreams influence their future lives. I believe that educators can inspire their students in many ways and these dreams that children have can be enhanced exponentially by inspiration. Inspiration can come from many avenues; among those are parents, teachers, and friends. As educators we should not set the bar in a particular place, but move it as needed. This bar will allow student to aspire to be more and achieve even more. We should expect much from students, because we should believe that they can do great things. Our expectations should be great, but we should not push those children too much because it may not be good for them.

Randy Pausch then discusses enabling the dreams of his students. He achieves this using many different ways that he believes in very much. Among the ways to enable students, is to instill certain values in children. Not only students, but anyone can grow by telling the truth, being earnest, apologizing when you are wrong, and focusing on others and not yourself. I find this information given by Randy Pausch as extremely intuitive. Educators need to make their classroom a place where students can enhance and further these important qualities. We do not see this as often as we should in the classrooms. We as educators should also try and further a child's acceptance of criticism. As students accept criticism, they can learn gratitude. This also teaches students that complaining will not get them anywhere, but by working harder they can achieve more. Randy Pausch also focuses on the importance of being prepared.

Students can learn many things through immersion. I believe that students can learn more by interacting with the subject they are learning. For example, by taking students to Holocaust museums they can learn more than they could by reading about that subject in a book. Another example is physics, students can learn much about this subject when they learn to build a rocket. These processes can make students learn hard things by having a great deal of fun at the same time.

Many issues and problems face students throughout their lives and education. They may hit a "brick wall" for instance. This wall, according to Randy Pausch, is meant to keep out those who do not try hard enough. This wall proves whether a person has dedication. People see others in certain ways. This view is important because how someone is seen influences their future. As educators, we want children to succeed and this is something we aspire to do.

Randy Pausch's lecture was very interesting and provided me with a lot of information. His purpose of this video was to give an explanation of how to live ones life. I enjoyed this video very much. I would have been honored to meet this man before he passed, because he is an inspiration to anyone who watches this video or reads the corresponding book about his lecture.