Blog Post #8

Today's blog post is surely a meaningful one because of the video, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, was one that I will never forget. When you think about the average person who's only given a few months to live, what do you think they'll say? If you're anything like me, you think that if you were given just a few months to live, you wouldn't be as positive and uplifting as this guy was. He was (and still is) unbelievably inspirational and I strive to be as amazing as he was because I feel as if he was speaking directly to me. We need to be more like this man because of his great perseverance and how thoughtful he was toward each and every person in his life. If I took only one thing away from this video, his biggest point was to follow your dreams no matter what! When you decide to follow your dreams, you find yourself and when you've achieved your dream, you're something valuable and nobody can take that away from you.

He emphasized the point to stay positive and find the good in each of your students because although it takes a large amount of time, it's worth it to know the strong points of your class. When you've learned the strong points of each student, you're able to showcase them in such a way that makes the child feel valuable! When a child does wrong, don't tell them that their work isn't worth anything or not good enough- instead, show the student their high points and tell them, "this is great work but let's make it better." As previously mentioned and for further emphasis, I'd like to point out that when you do take the time to figure each student out, you're opening yourself up to learning something and as Randy mentioned in his lecture, "learners and teachers are one in the SAME because we learn from each other!" What a powerful statement and one that I will probably keep in my mind to remind myself in my future classroom. It's evident that this man loved what he did and tried to make each of his students feel like they were of high value. I'll learn to adopt his way of thinking no matter what i may do. He also emphasized that Project Based Learning/Technology were an outlet for students to make learning fun and to keep their interest level go up through the duration of their education. He wanted to let everyone know that learning can be exciting and captivating for both teacher and student! At the moment, it seems as if it'll be impossible to learn all of the ways to incorporate PBL but I know that if I learn a little bit at a time, it'll all pay off and keep me as well as my students happy.

In life, we beat ourselves up for not being able to do/learn something that we're interested in. Mr. Pausch's advice was of the utmost inspiration and I'll take it and run with it. I know there will be rough times in my future classroom but I will always remember to remind my students to work hard and keep the complaints to minimum, I'll help them search for the best in their peers, I'll also help them to the best of my ability and be happy to do so. Above all, I'll take his advice to possess a childlike wonder because when you keep your mind open and constantly wondering, you'll learn so much more than you realize. It's so important to be open to learning because when you learn something new, you either add that information to an existing schema, or create a new space for it to utilize for later use. No matter what you learn, vigorous or shoddy, you've still learning something and you're able to use that stored information to adapt accordingly. Always, always, ALWAYS search for the best in people and show gratitude no matter the situation because when you do, you're making them and yourself feel great. As a future educator, I will try to be as amazing as the late Randy Pausch because he's truly an inspiration to all.