Blog Assignment #8

Blog Assignment #8

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

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

A better question would be what didn't you learn from watching this video. It was an emotional and motivating speech for his audience. All of these "lessons" are more life lessons than educational lessons. One of the first eye opening statements that he said was "you can't change the cards you were dealt, just how we play the hand." There are many situations is everyone's life that doesn't go according to plan. You can choose to make it worse or make it better just by your attitude. I feel like his attitude couldn't be any better especially considering his situation. Another one of his great lessons was that when people stop telling you your mistakes that's when people stop caring and believing in you and that's when you should worry. As future educators it will be our job to correct our students and show them their mistakes. I feel the younger the children are the more receptive they are to corrections and criticism. When people get older they tend to think they "know everything" and are less likely to accept and learn from their mistakes. Being able to own and learn from your mistakes makes you smarter than someone who doesn't; literally, because you learned something new and/or corrected something that was wrong.

"There is a good way and a bad way to say the same thing." This is another quote from Randy Pausch that I thought was simple and brilliant. If more people would think before they speak they could get a while lot more accomplished. This is not only a great life lesson but also a great lesson to future teachers. We have to watch what we say and more and importantly how we say it. People react, it's just what we do. People respond by how what is being communicated to them is said. If you want someone to hear you then the best way is to say it in the way you would want to hear it. Children especially hear things in this manner. I feel like they pay more attention to the way things are told to them than what is actually being said. Thinking about how you are going to say something is important to be a successful teacher.

Another one of the things he talked about was pioneering. Pioneering is a wonderful thing but it is important to know when trying out new concepts that things go wrong and there will be some people who are not supportive of you. Pioneering is all about taking a risk. Sometimes you are successful and sometimes you may not be. When you are doing something that has never been done before it is up to you to find solutions to problems that will arise. Also, everyone will have an opinion and it's up to you to allow those opinions to effect you either positively or negatively. In the end whether you are successful or not at least you tried. This brings me to the next topic that I liked in this lecture. He mentioned being self reflective and how important it is. Most people never stop to criticize themselves or even pat themselves on the back for anything. People are usually too busy judging each other to judge themselves. If you can learn to self reflect successfully and really listen to yourself then you can create an advantage for yourself.

One of my all time favorite quotes that was on this lecture was "Ignore what they say and pay attention to what they do." I believe this was more directed toward relationships but this advice should be used in every aspect of your life. Everyone knows to tell people what they want to hear but it doesn't really mean anything until it is done.

The last two and most important lesson I learned today is to stop complaining, just work harder and always have fun; you never know when it could be your last day.

Callie Barton