Blog Post # 6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Let me start of by saying Randy Pausch is amazing and his videos are so inspirational. His last lecture begins by sharing with the audience three of his current brain scans, and due to cancer his days are numbered. He mentions that "We can not help the cards that we are dealt, it's how we play them." He lives true to this statement in his life and how he speaks about death. When you watch him speak you can see how passionate he is about his students and education. All I can say is what an amazing man, friend, mentor, educator, and just all of the above example to live by.

I learned many different things from Randy Pausch to use in my classroom. I loved how Randy Pausch painted on his bedroom walls as a child. I think allowing children to express their creativity is important in the classroom. As a future educator I never want to give up on a child. When no one says anything to you anymore, then they have given up. I believe that no student of mine will ever be have to worry about me giving up. He truly embraced his childhood dreams, even though they may not all have come true. Experience is what allows us to chase our dreams, and make certain the important dreams be fulfilled and come true. I never would have thought a childhood dream of Mr. Pausch's would have been to join the NFL. He might not have achieved them all, but he focused and achieved the dreams that came to him by working hard. Fundamentals are necessary or nothing else will ever work was a statement that I know personally is a necessity in life. I struggled in math for many years, until I met a tutor that taught me the correct basics and fundamentals. Without the basics how can you advance and learn more? Well it is impossible the fundamentals are where you start and how one grows.

The fact that Carnegie-Mellon and Brown University both denied Randy Pausch for admission blew my mind. " Brick walls let us prove how badly we want things, and stop the ones who don't want it badly enough." I thought this showed through in this video. If he had given up and stopped pushing himself he would have never attended Carnegie-Mellon. One of The childhood dreams that he had was to be in zero gravity. When his students gained the opportunity to go into the "Vomit Comet", an aircraft that allows one to experience zero gravity. Randy later found out this was an opportunity for students only and not the instructor. That did not stop Mr. Pausch he found an alternative way to climb aboard the creation by NASA. He was not going to allow a little brick wall to stop him, because he kept pushing and achieved another childhood dream. He taught a class for ten years called, Building Virtual Worlds. The class was filled with group work, and mainly working with the left and right side of the brain. The class consisted of fifty students creating virtual worlds using the technology available.

Becoming a teacher was not always a dream of mine as a child. Now, I can not see myself doing anything else besides educating others. It took experience throughout my life so far to realize what dreams to let go of. Certain dreams I wanted for the wrong reasons, I originally always dreamed of being a nurse. I think one of the main reasons I never pushed towards education was due to the lack of funding and the salary teachers receive. My childhood dreams have been altered, but I don't think I could be happier with the goals I am working towards achieving. Experience is what you get when you do not get what you want. Without certain things happening in my life I may not have ever ended up in this class or achieving a degree in Elementary Education. I thought Randy Pausch's video on achieving your childhood dreams was so empowering. I am so glad I took the time out of my day to watch this video from start to finish. In the end, I was literally in tears at how strong he is for all that he has done and continued to do throughout the days he had left.