Monday, March 5, 2012

Blog Post 6

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch was one of the greatest inspirational stories the world experienced in our generation. "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" is what Dr. Pausch is primarily remembered for. It includes personal stories and many touching moments throughout. Dr. Pausch advocated a hands-on learning approach. Dr. Pausch, during The Last Lecture series, was a person who knew that he was going to pass away because of cancer, but understood that more people could learn from him while he still had time.

Dr. Pausch begins the video by speaking about his cancer. How he handles his cancer and his situation is one thing that I took away from this video that I can implement in teaching: dealing with big situations. Hopefully, the things I deal with in the classroom won't be quite as devastating as the things Dr. Pausch dealt with, but I can definitely say that the way he handled his sickness was masterful. By not ignoring the problem, Dr. Pausch took a big step in gaining his audience's attention.

Another thing I learned from Dr. Pausch was that being proud of yourself is a good thing. He explains that he had several goals from the time he was a child, and continues to list how he either accomplished them or did something very close to accomplishing them. Pausch talks about these things because he's proud of them. Some of them he even admits are "mundane," such as the stuffed animals, but he was still proud. I think being proud of our accomplishments is important because, as teachers, we should have a good self image and be proud of ourselves.

The last thing I learned from Dr. Pausch is to treat everyone the right way. He accomplished a lot of great things in his life, but the best thing about his life was that everyone had great things to say about him. He lived his life to the best of his abilities and put others before himself. What I can learn from Dr. Pausch is not just about teaching, but about life in general. We should be the same person in the classroom and out, just like Dr. Pausch.

2 comments:

  1. Levi,
    Good blog post! I enjoyed reading what you took away from watching "The Last Lecture". I too, think that as teachers we should have a good self image. The only constructive criticism I can offer is go into a little more detail. When writing just ask yourself "If I had not seen this video, would I understand what is being said?”. I use this question when writing to insure readers know what I am talking about. Other than that keep up the good work!
    -Heather

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  2. Although you have provided us with some contextual material and although you have given us the overall outline of the speech, you have not completed the assignment.

    Here are the instructions you were to follow:
    "Think about the teaching methods he advocated and used at" Carnegie-Mellon. "Identify and comment on those techniques in a blog post of at least 4 substantive paragraphs. You MUST include a discussion which includes all of the things discussed by Dr. Pausch that you can use in your teaching. "

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