Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

At first I did not want to really take the time to sit for an hour and watch a man talk on YouTube, but I am very glad that I did. When he started out and showed the cat scan of his liver which had ten tumors in it and that he only had 3-6 months to live, I felt plenty of sympathy for him.  However, after seeing his take on it I was truly amazed that he was so positive and yet was not in denial. His first point is very inspiring and that dreaming is okay and important and that anything is possible and we can not loose sight of that. 
He also states that fundamentals are very important, because if you can not get those fundamentals of anything in life then the other stuff just really is not that important.  I really enjoyed his second story about the football coach, when he kept ragging him all practice and pushing him hard.  The whole time the coach was doing that, it meant that he never gave up on him, because if the coach would have stopped ragging him then he would have given up on him.  To me, this a lesson to use in a classroom as a teacher and to never give up on your students.  These children now days already have so many people who give up on them, the last person they need to give up on them is their teacher.  I love his humor about the Encyclopedia and telling the freshman what they were, because these are the students who grew up with technology. 

Randy and family

He goes on to state that learning indirectly is very important. Like his example of football.  Yes playing football is great and learning how to play is also great, but learning sportsmanship, teamwork, fairness, among many other things are the true reasons we get our children to play sports. These are very important qualities that our children will need and use for life.
He also talks about leadership for a brief moment, which I find strange that he did not talk more about it.  I think leadership is very important, especially as an educator because we have to lead these children in the right direction. They need boundaries and guidelines to follow, it gives them structure. 
As he goes throughout his speech his continuously talks about brick walls, which we all run into when trying to achieve our dreams which are there to see how badly we want something and how many times we will try to aim for a goal.  Therefore, if we give up on the first brick wall, we obviously did not want it bad enough.  This is another technique that I find important.  Our youth have to see us, as educators, constantly strive even when we get shot down, so that they will do the same. They learn by leadership and showing them what is right.
He also thinks that being a professor was one of best ways he could help enable people to reach their dreams.  I wish I could have heard him lecture in person.  He is truly an inspiring person and I am sure that he has touch the lives of millions.  I hope to become a teacher and implement these same skills into myself to inspire my students to be better individuals and students.   

after watching the video, you will know what these stuffed animals mean.