Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Melon University who was diagnosed with cancer and was given 4-6 months left. He then decided he was going to give one last lecture of everything he has learned through life and who/what inspired him all the way up until now. Before he gave this speech, he made a $50 bet that he wouldn't fill the room up with people attending, and to his surprise, he lost the bet and every seat was filled. After I watched this video I became inspired and I am sure everyone who watched this does too.

Childhood Dreams

Pausch started off his lecture by telling us some of his childhood dreams he had while he was growing up. Some of them included being a football player in the NFL, seeing what it would feel like in 0 gravity, and authorizing an article in the encyclopedia. Pausch never made it to the NFL, but had great memories and learned much more from football than he imagined. He got his chance feeling what it would be like in 0 gravity, so one of his childhood dreams had been reached. His third goal was to authorize an article in the encyclopedia, and he also got his chance to do that also. Although achieving some of his childhood dreams were important to him, it was just important to him that everybody has childhood dreams. As educators, it is our responsibility to push our students to strive for their dreams everyday. No matter how crazy they could be, we are responsible for pushing them to achieve their dreams.

Pausch also talked about a head-fake he learned in football. Teachers give students head-fakes in the classroom often and the student then realizes after what they learned and what is important.I never knew what this called until I watched this and realized it was called a head-fake. Pausch used a head-fake on us in his speech and we didn't even know it until the end when he announced this speech was not for us, it was for his kids. I was so shocked when he said that, but then realized I could see why he would want his kids to see that.

This video was so inspirational and I wanted to learn more about him. I read the manuscript and I also read other stories about him. I learned so much from this video and I am so glad we were assigned to watch this. I did not know what to expect when I saw it was an hour long and had no idea what it was about, but after watching it I did not want it to be over!