Blog Assignment #10

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

In his presentation, Randy Pausch gives us hope. It is the kind of hope not only in our students and their abilities, but it is also hope in ourselves. Randy roots his presentation in his own childhood dreams. He describes his dreams, and then he shows us how he achieved them or what he learned in his attempts to achieve them. Randy's story is inspirational, and as his audience, we are given a "head fake." A "head fake" as Randy describes it is essentially indirect learning. We learn valuable lessons in this presentation, and at the same time we are enjoying the light-hearted delivery and appealing story of Randy's dreams.

In listening to Randy talk about dreams, he gave us important lessons about teaching and learning. One important lesson came from his dream to play in the National Football League. Randy references one particular coach who held practice without the use of a football. In this one example, we learn that we must get the fundamentals down in any area; whether it is football or life, if we do not know and practice the fundamentals, we might just fumble when the ball is handed to us. Through his football dream, Randy learned the value of hard work, and he learned that when someone is riding you to do better it means that they care; so, never stop pushing your students to do more.

I found many quotes from Randy in the presentation that I will probably be referencing for years to come. One of my favorite is the brick wall quote. Often times, when I run into my own brick walls, there is a feeling that it was "just not meant to be," and I quit pursuing that goal. However, Randy tells us that the brick walls are there to give us an opportunity to show how bad we want something. This quote alone had the wheels in my head turning regarding how many times I let the brick walls in my life win. And what if our dreams will just never come to fruition? That is okay too, because we our told that we are going to get experience regardless; experience is what you get when you did not get what you wanted.

Analyzing in words what we can learn about teaching and learning in Randy's presentation seems to do Randy an injustice. We must experience the presentation for ourselves, and then we must live it out, only then do we see the value in Randy's words. However, there are some tips to consider on our life journey learning, inspiring and teaching others. Randy tells us that we need people to help us, because we cannot get to our goals alone. We must tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when we screw up, and focus on others, not ourselves. We also have to get feedback and actually listen to it and use it. We need to show gratitude, work hard, be prepared, and we must never bail on our goals; Randy says, some of the best goals are at the bottom of the barrel. One of my favorite tips is to always find the best in everybody; this requires patience, sometimes it may even take years. Randy teaches us many things in this presentation, but it is up to use to take our dreams and apply them. If you have not had the pleasure of listening to Randy's talk, do yourself a favor and take a listen.