Blog #8

Randy Pausch did not only show great teaching skills in this video he also gave hope. He was able to install hope into people who may be going through a hard time in their life. Pausch put aside his life problems to give inspiration and sow others that things are possible even if things might not be going your way in life. He makes it a point to show that he did not wait around for something to happen or to go his way, he made sure things would happen. Which is something everyone can take a lesson on, when things are bad do not just sit around waiting for a change you be the change.

In the video the last lecture Pausch brings up a key point about hitting "the brick wall" which is when one hits a dead end and feel as if they can no longer stay on the course they are going on. What Pausch says about this part in your path is it shows how much you as a person really want what you are going after, you can either let it defeat you or you can keep pushing and eventually overcome this block in your path. This is something that made me take a minute and think because I know in one point in my life I have had or know someone who has had these moments and for it to basically be put into the words of "it's not the end unless you let it" shocked me. Not because it is blunt or straightforward but because I had never thought of it like that before.

Pausch also states that we need to be lifetime learners, which means even if we are no longer in school we should never stop taking in important information. Ways that one can be a lifetime learner would be keeping connections with people of the same interests and or majors as you. The reason I say this could be a way to keep that up is the person or persons you keep in contact with might be more up to date on something going on in yall's field of interest than you are. This in turn allows you to be able to learn from the other what is going on and vice-verse. One way that Randy Pausch taught us about learning in this video would have to be his childhood dream of playing pro football. He stated that knowing how to play football was the key, however you needed other skills besides knowing how to play. The skills needed were: trust, loyalty, friendship, and teamwork. He then described this as Head Faking, which is when you make someone believe they are learning one thing, but in reality they are learning something totally opposite of what the believe. The idea of Head Faking could easily be applied to a classroom setting, I say it could easily be applied because students get into this routine of school work, so by keeping with their routine and incorporating skill learning tasks they would also be learning things of that sort without knowing.

Pausch also states that we as educators need to set the bar for what our students can achieve. What he means by this is if your students are doing great projects and assignments but feel as if they can do better then tell them "I feel as if improvement can be made" this in turn will motivate the students to go above and beyond the teachers expectations. This will nit only allow the teacher to see the full potential of their students, but also allow the students to see they can in fact do what they one thought was too hard, or too much work.