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Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Really Achieving your Childhood Dream


WOW! This is the best lecture I have ever heard! Randy Pausch is soooooo inspiring! I still am amazed at how much I was able to learn from that 1 hour! I feel like any comments I could make wouldn't give his lecture any justice! All I can say is "WOW"!

First off he talked about having the fundamentals to work with and not get too far ahead of what your wanting to achieve, take one step at a time. He also said reaching your dream or goal takes hard work. Randy said, "Brick Walls are there for a reason: They let us prove how badly we want things." I loved this saying, we shouldn't give up at the first, second, or third road block that we come to, if you want it bad enough you are likely to achieve it. It might take a lot of dedication, but in the end it will be so worth it.

He also said don't sell ourselves or others too short. When we do that we won't push ourselves to our maximum potential. He said the best way to learn something is to have someone think they are learning something else. I think this is true, if a child is learning how to play a sport that is fun to them, they will enjoy it while learning character skills, sportsmanship, interaction, and self discipline.

One of my favorite things he talked about was having FUN! Being a kid at heart and enjoy everything you're doing. I often forget this in my daily routine of working and coming home to daily household chores. I've always been a person that wants to enjoy every moment, but when you get caught up in our daily routine you forget.

I definitely believe in helping others as he talks about in this lecture. He states that, "You can't get there alone, and I believe in Karma." I do think that if you genuinely care for and help others, the favor will be returned more than you can imagine. Others are more willing to help if you have helped them. It all works together in a cycle. I think that telling the truth and apologizing when your wrong all goes hand in hand with karma.

He says to get feedback about yourself and listen to it and use it. It will help you grow in a positive way as a person. This self-reflection shows that you value others opinions that you may not see as a flaw. We should also show gratitude to others for what they do to help and let them know that you appreciate them. It's nice when someone acknowledges your hard work. Randy also says not to complain, just work harder. As a self-reflection, I need to work on this one. Then goes on to say, "Find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it." This can be so hard to do, but it shows that everyone does have some good to them.

He shared how to live life having fun and doing hard work to reach your dreams. To find more information about this inspiring man go to the following sites:

TIME Magazine
ABC News

Randy Pausch also has a book called, "The Last Lecture".

Mr. Fisch Blog

I found Mr. Fisch's post so inspiring, I am realizing through this class that it is more important to be a technologically literate teacher than I once thought. I read a lot of the comments on his blog and one lady said how just integrating PowerPoint into the classroom is not being a technologically literate teacher and I totally agree. Before this class I would have thought that using PowerPoint in the classroom would have been enough, but now I see it's not!!!

I've always know the basics of how to navigate around but not as in depth as I'm currently learning. The comment about parents being proud of not being good at Math rings a bell with so many parents that I've been around. My own mother who is still young, brags about not knowing how to turn the computer on. In the past few weeks, my sisters and I have her learning the basics and she now has email and facebook. I see that everyone no matter what you do should try to keep up to date on as much of the technology as possible. Even though I teach 3 year olds, I'm trying to think of ways to integrate it into my classroom. I am so thankful to be learning, it can be difficult at times, but overall it is well worth the pain!

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today


Overall this movie depicts my college experience pretty accurately. I didn't read very much in my text books. For the most part I didn't use the text books that I bought in college, I learned mostly through class lectures and studying notes given in class. I did have $20,000 in student loans when I graduated that I'm still paying on. The estimated number of hours spent sleeping, eating, studying, watching t.v., and etc. were mostly accurate for me.

When I was in college my classes were never larger than 35 people, and we didn't bring laptops to class. I didn't even have internet service when I was attending college, and I only graduated 5 years ago. I didn't know what facebook was until this past year. I also feel that probably 90% of my teachers new my name.

I would take longer pauses on the information given to make sure the people watching the video can have a chance to absorb the information. I would also have the writing clearer when focusing with the camera. Maybe show stacks of textbooks next to stacks of laptops. Or even show the movie following the average students day!

Mr. McClung's Blog

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. McClung's reflection from "What I've Learned This Year"! Mr. McClung talked about how as teachers we should focus on teaching our students rather than making everything perfect. He said that every lesson will end up different from the original plan. This is soooo true!!! You have to be able to improvise and sometimes that works out better than the original plan. You have to be able to adjust according to what the needs are that day. My favorite thing that Mr. McClung wrote is, "Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." I could really tell that Mr. McClung has the right attitude and heart when he teaches. He also talked about how teachers should be willing to learn and not be afraid to teach with technology. I agree if we expect our students to learn, we should too! Then he talks about listening to your students, you will have a much better teacher/student relationship if you take that time to know them! I feel this is so important, students will be more willing to respect and work hard for your if they know their teacher truly cares for them. Mr. McClung had so much insight from his first year of teaching!

Improving Podcast/Videocast

I feel podcast and videocast can be so helpful in education. Being able to see and hear what others around the world and country have to say about a particular topic gives a more global perspective than the isolating opinions we have in our own towns and schools. I enjoyed listening to all the opinions and found myself agreeing with them in their views of being a tech literate teacher.



While watching last semester's videocast, Tech Literate Teacher, I found a few things I would change to make it better. First I would have everyone try to coordinate their clothing color to the best of their ability. My eyes were mostly drawn to Dr. Strange because he was wearing a bright green shirt. Then to the other two ladies wearing bright clothing. I think seating everyone where we can be seen better when talking in their discussion could have been better. I also feel that some of the students dominated the conversation, I liked what they had to say, but feel that there should have been a little more participation from the quieter students.



I enjoyed looking at the Langwitches Blog, I saved it to my favorites for a resource when I work on my podcast. I liked how detailed her information is on preparing, planning, and creating a podcast. My favorite section was the preparing students, she gave more insight on the sound tone, expression, and volume. This will be the most helpful to me. I listened to the podcast of the different grades. I was impressed at the tone and expression of their voices. I think picking the right music can help the mood you want for your podcast topic.



I found the article on 100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better gave a lot of helpful information in using the podcast. My favorite section of the article was the podcast and more. I am excited to use this sight and have it on hand when I need it. Smithsonian Global Sound, The Education Podcast Network, Brain Quest, and Teach Kids Valuable Lessons with Free Sesame Street iPod Videos are several sites that I plan to check out in more detail.