Blog Assignment 7

Dr. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is one of the most inspiring things I have watched in a long time. If I am ever in the position he was in when he gave this speech I hope to be as happy as he is. His passion for what he has accomplished is inspiring, and I am glad that it did not die with him. He was truly a great teacher. I would love to be the kind of teacher that can inspire greatness in all of my students to the point where it can reach more than just the students in my classroom.

The first thing that caught my attention was what his football coach told him. "When people stop telling you you're doing wrong that means they don't care." I feel that the world has forgotten this concept. Teachers are forced to pass children because it would look bad if they don't. In my opinion a kid is not going to learn anything if you just let them off the hook when they do something wrong. I've always thought that you learn more from failing at something than you do from getting it right. Maybe this is why I love baseball so much. In baseball if you have a career batting average of .300 you have a great chance of being put in the hall of fame. To hit .300 you must get three hits every ten at bats. That means you failed seven times, but from those seven times you failed you learned something to help you get the three hits you got.

I love the analogy of the brick wall. "Brick walls are there for a reason: They let us prove how badly we want things." If something gets in your way it is not a sign that you should give up, it is a way to show whoever put that wall in your way how determined you are. We've all heard all our lives that life's not easy. Too often lately I have noticed that as a culture if we don't get what we wan't right away we give up. We need to be able to teach our kids to keep pushing. If someone tells them they can't do something we need to be there to tell them to prove them wrong. Like Jim Valvano, North Carolina State basketball coach, said in his 1993 Espy Speech, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

I was also struck by the comment he made about the advice his mentor gave him after the first projects he got back from his new class. His mentor told him to not set a bar. He told him to tell them that those projects were good but he knew they could do better despite the fact that he had been blown away by the quality of the projects. Thats a great way to approach teaching. No matter how well a student does if you tell them they can do better you are encouraging greatness. If everyone kept pushing themselves to do better and better no matter how great they have done in the past imagine what this world could create. I will try everything in my power to never tell a student that they have done the best they could. I will tell them they could always do better if they just keep trying.

Thank you so much Dr. Strange for having us watch this video. It was not only a great learning experience, it was also very inspirational.