Blog Post # 7

Randy Pausch

Watching Randy Pausch's last lecture has been a humbling and an inspirational experience. It is sad to say that this sincere man has passed from this world because he put so much heart into his students. In his lecture he talks about obtaining your childhood dreams and enabling others to reach their dreams. His advice in his lecture to obtaining your childhood dreams is to have fun, never give up, and always search for the good in others.

Dr. Pausch talks about fulfilling childhood dreams. As adults we lose our "the child inside" and the "child-like wonder" and we become boring. If your are boring as an educator how do you expect your students to pay attention and to want to learn? Having a fun attitude in the classroom gives off an electric vibe and stimulates the learning juices in a students brain. The best kind of learning is having fun while you are doing it. They become interested and will take what they have learned and use it outside of the classroom.

Advice that Dr. Pausch gives I think is essential for an educator is to never give up. What makes Dr. Pausch so inspiring is that from his students to his health he never gave up. That fighting attitude is a force that I will demonstrate throughout the rest of my life. As an educator you can't give up whether its a student who you are trying to help or if you just have a really bad day. There are days that I just want to quit everything and become a beach bum. As enticing as that may sound, there are children out their who need a hero and who is better at being a hero than a teacher? I will never give up on myself or a child.

Dr. Pausch also expresses that we should always search for the good in others. Every rose has a thorn but if we just pay attention to the thorns we will fail to notice the beauty of that rose. Dr. Puasch says that if someone disappoints you just give them time and they will make you happy that you didn't give up on them. There are going to be times when a person or student fails you. You know they can do better than this. All you need is time and eventually those students thorns will no longer matter and you will see the beautiful flower that they have become.

Randy Pausch has forever touched my life in his last lecture. His message has left an imprint on thousands of lives and I hope one day that I can leave this kind of imprint on my students lives.