Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Before I begin to discuss the information presented in Randy Pausch's Last Lecture I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this video. This man is so energetic and optimistic while going through something that causes most people to be depressed. His talk inspired me as a future teacher and a person. These things I should know and do, but I needed to be reminded to live my life to the fullest, take everyday for granted, and know that everyone that I come into contact with is important. He discussed several ideas and techniques that are not only useful to teachers but good principles for life. He talked about chasing your dreams, helping others, and also gave very good advice.

Randy Pausch mentioned dreams throughout the entire lecture. He talked about how important it is to go after your own specific dreams. I think that it is important to recognize your goals at a young age and practice making effort to achieve those dreams and goals. This sets up a lifestyle that will bring more success than one with no determination to reach any goals. He also talked about how important fundamentals are in your life. We learn certain things at a young age that can be used throughout life. He called those fundamental lessons "head fakes" because we get them indirectly from learning something else. His example was how sports teach us teamwork, discipline, and perseverance which is exactly right. This concept can easily be used in the classroom because you can make learning fun and interesting by playing games or doing fun projects while teaching the students the lesson behind it all.

In his lecture, Randy Pausch also discussed the importance of other people in our lives and us in other people's lives. He worked on several programs (Alice, Building Virtual Worlds, and Entertainment Technology Center Masters) that required students to work together in groups. Their success was determined by the group. Throughout life, we have to learn to work with other people. Teamwork and an open mind are required of most people on a daily basis, so it is important that we learn those skills at a young age and continue to practice those things. His students received a bar chart that showed them the feedback from their classmates as to how well they worked with others. Feedback is always important, and we should take that information and use it to fix the problems and better ourselves. Randy Pausch made the point that when no one bothers to tell you that you are doing something wrong, that is bad because that means they have given up on you. He made the point that everyone in our lives is important; teachers, friends, colleagues, and even students are all people that we can learn from. Also, I completely agree with him that we need to take advantage of opportunities to help other people.

Randy Pausch had very good advice to pass on in his last lecture. One of the most important points to him seemed to be to always have fun. I agree that this is something that will definitely help teachers because students are always eager to have fun. It makes it easier to learn something that is presented in an interesting, enthusiastic manner. He also said that we never need to lose our childlike wonder. This is so true. One of my favorite things that he said was that brick walls do have a very important purpose. He said that they are there to keep out the people that did not want it badly enough and to let the people that did want it badly enough to prove that. This was something that is inspirational to me because I often get overwhelmed and ask "Why?" when I hit a brick wall. He also made the point that you have to decide if you are Tigger or Eeyore. Only you can decide if you want to be happy and optimistic about life, or pessimistic and become a victim of your circumstances. Even in spite of the fact that he is dying, he decided to be a Tigger, and that spoke to me because I find myself being more of an Eeyore sometimes and I would love to change that. I like that he closed with the "head fake" of the entire lecture, and that was that he was trying to tell us that the big picture of his talk was that these things are ways that we should live our life. Thank you Randy Pausch for a wonderful, inspirational last lecture.