Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He had cancer and was told he only had three to six months to live. Not letting that news bring him down, he continued to be positive and inspirational up to the day he passed away. His video, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, has really made an impact on my life. There is so much to take away from this lecture.
Dr. Pausch taught a class at Carnegie Mellon University that was all about project based learning. He said, "The best way to teach somebody something, is to have them think that they're learning something else." He was also the kind of teacher that always encouraged his students to never stop chasing their dreams and to never give up on them. In this lecture, Dr. Pausch told the audience about his own childhood dreams and how he worked hard to make them come true. Just listening to him talk about achieving his own dreams and wanting the same for others was very inspiring. One of the things that I have learned from watching this video is, teachers can inspire and encourage their students in more ways than they think. Dr. Pausch let his students create projects in a way that they could enjoy what they were doing. I think this way of teaching would really help inspire and bring creativity to children. It lets them be in control, and it can increase their self-esteem. Giving children some freedom in what they produce could actually surprise you.
A man named Andy van Dam told Randy to get his P.H D and become a professor after he graduated from Brown. Dr. Randy Pausch questioned him at first. In repsonse, Mr. Andy van Dam said, "Because you are such a great salesman that any company that gets you is going to use you as a salesman, and you might as well be selling something worth while like Education." You could tell from his voice that when Mr. Andy told him that many years ago, it impacted his life forever.
From this video I have learned that when it comes to teaching children we should encourage them to never give up, and we should inspire them to go after their dreams. We also need to set examples of helping others. There are a few quotes from this lecture that I think are too important not to be shared. So here they are:
1) "You have to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn't going to work."
2) "When you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up." -Dr. Pausch's Assistant FB coach.
3) "Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and they still care."
4) "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."
5) "The brick walls are there for a reason. They aren't there to keep us out. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people that don't want it badly enough."
6) "Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you." -John Snoody
7) "When you have something for a long time like 10 years, that you hold so precious, it's the toughest thing in the world to hand it over. Find somebody else that is better than you to hand it to."
8)"Don't complain, just work harder."
9) "Get a feedback loop and listen to it. The hard part is listening to it. Cheerish and use the feedback."
10) "Be prepared. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."
Randy Pausch ended his lecture by telling the audience, "This talk wasn't for you, it was for my kids."
No comments:
Post a Comment