Blog Assignment #7

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon. He is most famous for his last speech which was given shortly before he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. What's so great about this speech you ask? Well, it addresses childhood dreams and they ways to achieve them.

In this speech he describes how he achieved his own childhood dream and how it became so important to him to help others fulfill there's as well. He also tells of the importance of having fun, doing the unthinkable, helping others, and getting through seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

One of the things that struck me the most was his statement that brick walls are there in our lives for a reason. They're present to show us how bad we want something. It is far too easy to come to a wall and say well something's in my way and that's that. It takes far more willpower, patience, and perseverance to figure out a way to either climb that wall or go through it. I think as educators it is important for us to instill these values within our students. That no matter how hard or impossible it may seem to get what we want, we must always be willing to try our best to achieve it. If it's worth it then they must do anything they can for it.

Another important lesson Mr. Pausch teaches is that we can't always get to our goals alone. Sometimes we need help. I couldn't agree more. I feel it is a very important skill to be able to recognize when we need help and be able to ask for it. We must encourage our students to do this as well and to not be ashamed of it. A lot of times kids don't ask for help because they fear being ridiculed. We must make sure that our classrooms are places where students feel comfortable enough to come to us with any of their questions or concerns.