Blog Assignment #8

On September 18, 2007, Randy Pausch gave his Last Lecture. This was not a normal lecture that a teacher would give in a classroom. This lecture was about how to achieve your dreams. This lecture was about how to live your life. Randy Pausch said that there are brick walls in life. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want something, the let us prove how badly we want things, and let us show our dedication. When I become a teacher, I need to teach my students that simple statement. That yes, there will be brick walls or road blocks in life, but only the people who want something will move past them. If you sit there idol, that means that you did not want it bad enough.

Another thing I learned from Randy Pausch is that I should not limit my students. No matter how good their work is, there is always room for improvement. The greatest thinkers are never satisfied with their work. We always need to push ourselves and others to get better. Being satisfied with your work is just a disguised brick wall. If you settle for what you are doing, then you will never be the best you can be.

What can we learn about learning from Randy Pausch? We can learn to always have fun! Randy Pausch was given three to six months to live, yet he said he was going to have fun every day until he died. We can learn that life is full of "head fakes," things are not always as they seem. We need to learn to get more out of life. We need to learn to help others and put others first. We need to learn to never give up on our dreams, no matter how silly they are. Randy Pausch never gave up on his childhood dreams, he may have modified them, but he never gave up. We can learn many things from Randy Pausch and if ever anyone is feeling down or sorry for themselves, they need to watch this video. It could change the way they think forever.