Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

What a wonderful inspiring story. I really enjoyed Randy Pausch's lecture. For someone just diagnosed with terminal cancer to be so full of life and to have such a positive attitude is an amazing thing. This is a video that very one should see, it really puts life in focus. I love what Randy said, " We cannot change the cards we are dealt, but how we play them." What a wonderful way to view life. In his lecture Randy discusses his childhood dreams and how he accomplished them. Dreams like being Captain Kirk, playing football, and winning stuffed animals were a few of his dreams. As silly as some of them were, they were his dreams and he was going to some how accomplish them. I think as adults our childhood dreams fade away. We need to stop, refocus, and learn to dream again. As corny as this may sound I believe that if we keep dreaming then we will always have something to strive for. Teach your students to dream BIG! As teachers we need to remember what Randy said, "Never put a ceiling on what you can accomplish." What a powerful statement. Not only should teachers remember this, parents need to use this when raising their own children.

In his lecture Randy tells how everyone will hit a brick wall in their life time. A brick wall is there for a reason Randy said, they let us prove how badly we want things. How true is this in life. There have been many times in my personal life that I have hit brick walls and wanted to quit, but did not. Now as an adult I see how important that thinking is. We as teachers need to explain this concept to our students, that no matter how many brick walls you hit and there will be many that you just have to keep moving forward. Never quit and never stop dreaming.

Randy was a wonderful teacher. I found his way of teaching very inspiring. I loved the head fake theory. The head fake is football technique that is used to make your opponent believe you'll do one thing when you are really doing something else. Randy implemented this concept into his teaching lessons. Whats amazing is that to get your students to do something fun and interesting, while the whole time they are learning something. I think this is a great way to get children involved in school so that they REALLY enjoy it. They can learn while having fun too.

I thought it was a great idea when Randy talked about letting children paint their rooms. They are expressing themselves. This is a great lesson for myself that I need to remember with my own children. I loved how Randy took his college class on field trips. Even adults can have fun learning. I have learned a lot from Randy Pausch's Lecture and hope to bring his enthusiasm into my own classroom one day. Not only did I learn how to be a better teacher, but learned lessons on how to be a better person and just enjoy life. After watching the video it made me examine my own life and how I choose to live it. Like Randy I choose to be TIGGER!! You can view this wonderful video at the following link http://tinyurl.com/mvy4oq.