Blog Post 7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I have watched Randy Pausch’s lecture before, and I could watch it again and still be captivated by his presentation. He is so prepared with his lecture, he speaks with an easy confidence, and he injects humor into his presentation that keeps you captivated by what he says. Randy Pausch uses power point to outline what he is going to talk about in his lecture and he includes many visuals like pictures and videos to really capture your attention. One of the things that Randy Pausch talks about in great detail is how to achieve your dreams. It is important to emphasize the importance of dreams and how one must go about to achieve their dreams. Randy Pausch gives you the history and motives behind his childhood dreams and how he went about achieving them. The first dream he goes over in his presentation is his want to experience zero gravity. he was presented with the opportunity to accomplish this dream when a group of he lead won a NASA competition. The group won the chance to experience zero gravity but Randy was disappointed when he found out that his group was not allowed to bring faculty with him. He did not let that bit of information crush his dreams though, because he found a way to get around that obstacle. He did research and he found out that the group could bring a news journalist with them and he found a way to get a press pass. With a bit of cunning and hard work he was able to achieve a dream of his. This brings us to one of the very important lessons that Mr. Pausch teaches in his lecture.

Randy Pausch talks about not letting roadblocks get in the way of solving your dreams. He faces a roadblock with the NASA situation, but with a bit of hard work and ingenuity he was able to overcome the obstacle and achieve his dream. I think it is very important as future educators to point out to our students that they should not give up when they face difficulty. Students must realize that they will face roadblocks in their lives, but that should not deter them from achieving their dreams. Obstacles will always arise, but if the students believe in themselves, they will be able to overcome the obstacles that they encounter.

Randy also talks about a class he taught where students turned in some of the best work he has seen. He asked a fellow professor for advice on what he should say about the work of his students, and the professor replies that Randy should tell his students that he believes that they can do better. That may seem like a harsh thing to say to students who turned in excellent work, but I believe that it is a way to motivate his students to continue to do their very best. Randy listens to the teachers advice, and he was happy to see that his students continued to work hard. This emphasizes the importance of pushing students to always strive for excellence and their personal best. Mr. Paush calls it a “disservice” to not keep pushing your students. Students should be constantly challenged so that they continue to make achievements.I have found in life that some of the most challenging teachers teach you the most important lessons because these teachers pushed you to succeed.

Another important point that Randy emphasizes is the importance of critiques. Randy details the story of how his football coach critiqued Randy a lot during one of his football practices. After practice, someone came up to Randy and mentioned that they noticed the coach had a lot to say to Randy during his practice. This person said that the people who critic you are the people who show that they actually care. I agree that giving criticism does show that you care, because you are trying to help someone fix something. It takes effort to give feedback and if you were to just ignore that someone has a problem, you would not be helping them. Positive, constructive feedback is an important tool to use in the classroom. I think it is important to reassure students that a teacher's criticism is not something to get upset about. It is essential to let students know that getting criticized does not mean that they are doing something wrong, it just means that they are doing something that can be improved upon. If a teacher ignores a problem exists, they will not help their students.