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04 March 2012

Blog post #6

Randy's Family


Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Randy Pausch should be the measuring stick in everyone's life. Having been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, he never stopped having fun. He had a desire to enable others to accomplish their dreams and worked very hard to succeed. On July 25, 2008, the world lost a great man.

Self reflection is one of the topics in Randy's lecture. Not necessarily personal self reflection, although very important, but teaching your students, or athletes, to be self reflective. Some on can tell you that you need to take a shower, but actually knowing how bad you smell is a much more powerful motivator. As teachers, we should never just tell a student what they have not done correctly, it is imperative that we show them the mistake as well as show them how to correct that mistake. For me, learning is knowing my errors and making sure I take the necessary steps to not make the same mistake twice.
Randy also says it is important to tell the truth and I couldn't agree with him more. Trust is earned, not given. Trust is a difficult thing to acquire, but one of the easiest things to lose. Honesty is the only way to gain someone's trust. As an educator, we have to gain the trust of our students or we will never be able to teach them anything. If your student cannot trust that what your are teaching them is legitimate, then you have failed.
Along with telling the truth, Randy says we must also be earnest in everything we do. To be earnest means to be sincere. As an educator, earnestly approaching education of your students is very important. I have seen plenty of people doing a job just to earn a pay check. While this attitude may not be a serious detriment in a large number of professions, if the attitude is presented in the world of education, it could have serious consequences on a students future. In most cases, teachers play a very important supporting role in the development of a child, second only to that of their parents. The responsibility is huge! A teacher who is not sincerely trying to facilitate the empowerment of their students through education is wasted space.
Focus on others, not yourself. Randy embodies this piece of advice about as well as anyone could hope to. As teachers, coaches, just educators in general, the focus should be on the students and no where else. Our purpose is not to be teacher of the year or coach of the century, it is to give our students the best possible tools to be successful in life.

We will miss you Randy

1 comment:

  1. "Some on can tell you that you need to take a shower, but actually knowing how bad you smell is a much more powerful motivator." An interesting way to put it. But it works!

    The reason we include this video is to inspire you to bust through those brick walls, to raise the bars, to execute effective head fakes and much more. I hope you will do these things when you are a teacher. Keep on learning!

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