Blog Assignment #10

What can we learn  about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?

In the video, Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, there was so much to learn from the way he lived and the way he taught. When I opened the link to watch the video, my first thought was "I seriously have to sit here for an hour and watch this video". My mind was quickly changed. You would have never expected Randy to have ten tumors with the way he presented himself and with his lifestyle. Just by the introduction of Randy, I knew I would remain interested, which I did.  A big thing that stood out to me was the fact that he started his lecture with the slide stating he wasn't talking about cancer, his wife and kids, and religion/spirituality. He didn't want that to be the reason he was talking. He had much more planned to discuss. 


The thing I learned the most from Randy was that he loved what he did. He would never be as influential if he didn't live his life fun and trying to entertain, and as we later heard "edutained". I loved that he went into detail about his childhood dreams. NFL, zero gravity, winning stuffed animals, Disney Imagineer, and Captain Kirk were all things that could've been achieved but some were difficult to achieve. First thing I learned was that you have to take steps, risks, and challenges in order to achieve. Brick walls will be there at every step in our lives; however they aren't there to keep us out. They are there to see how badly we wanted in. They are there to allow us to prove to people that we will do whatever it takes to get into the wall. Nothing is going to be handed to you. 

So often we think of our childhood dreams and we see them as just that: dreams. Randy made sure he made his dreams into his life. Even if he couldn't have the dreams that he made, he compromised such as Captain Kirk. He made his dreams work. The second thing I learned is to never allow myself to tear someone's dreams down. As an educator, I want students to see their dreams and work toward them until they have reached the stars. Learning is more that books and tests. Learning is about living. I can give a book to a student all day everyday but students won't reach for the stars that way. I have to tell my students they can do better even if I feel they did an excellent job. Like Randy's advisor Andy said, I would be doing the students a disservice if I told them they did it right the first time. 

Listening to Randy was a wonderful hour of my week spent. I learned ways to teach, but more importantly, I learned to live a brighter life.