Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch and his family .

   This time watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams made me laugh and cry and reflect on why I want to become a teacher. I have reflected on why I want to become a teacher (and why I use to not want to) in the past. I use to not want to be a teacher because I thought that I didn't have what it takes to make kids want to learn. I would think about my teachers in the past and realize all of the insanity they went through with kids and parents, creating lesson plans, grading mountains of scribble scrabble, and having to go to school for the rest of their career! All of this detracted me from teaching until I realized teaching was more than that. It's inspiration, motivation, caring for, leading and guiding our future. Being a teacher is more than a lot of work. It's not like any other job where you don't have to connect with the people you work with, do a bunch of desk work and then play on the computer for four hours, or decide to call in sick a couple of mornings just because it's not a good day for you. I would even go so far as to say teaching is not a job; it is a lifestyle.
Randy talked about many traits that I believe teachers should possess. One that really sticks to me is having faith in kids. So many schools, teachers, and even parents do not have faith in their kids. They don't give them freedom. They give them schedules, routines, and busy work which doesn't breed creativity; they suffocate it. Randy's parents allowed him to paint his room when he was younger. Any parent that I know would have thought they were crazy. However, Randy's room looked really fun and neat! In the video Randy looked really satisfied with his room and I could tell he must have been really proud of it especially as a kid. As a professor, he gave his students freedom to create their own world (with only two restrictions). His students blew him away every time a project was due. Freedom enables people to become, create, and believe in something beautiful. It unleashes their full potential and takes everyone, including themselves, by surprise. Kids need freedom in the classroom. I don't mean leave them unsupervised. Just let them branch out and discover their creative side. In return you always be surprised.
Speaking of potential, Randy received some really profound and wise advice. After he was blown away by the results of the first assignment Randy was at a lost of what to do next. His mentor, Andy Van Dam told him at the beginning of the next class to say to his students, "I know you can do better." Randy realized that he really didn't know his students' potential and neither did they. So instead of placing a "bar" for what he was expecting, he just let his students keep on advancing in their skills. What this means to me is don't ever expect less of your students. Even if they blow you away every time keep telling them to do better. Even if an athlete is the best at their sport do they stop training and practicing what they do? No, because they know and their coaches know they can do better. Teachers and their students should have this same mentality. Teachers are coaches and students are academic athletes.
The last thing I'm going to point out from Randy's lecture is probably one of the most important pieces of advice for me to remember when I am teaching. Brick walls are there for a reason which I feel ties beautiful to his quote "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." If we always had our way growing up, what would we have really gained? I know that I wouldn't be where I am today had there not have been a brick wall or two in my way. I wouldn't have the skills, the knowledge, or the appreciation for those who helped me overcome those hurdles. I would definitely not be a strong, persistent, and self confident person without those experiences from running into those brick walls in my life. My students are going to have the brick walls when learning. Some may not read as well or understand math as quickly as other students. But, those walls can be useful to have them and I experience trying new methods, having them assist their fellow classmates, receiving and giving positive criticism, and establishing a friendly environment where it is perfectly ok to ask questions. There will be brick walls in everyone's future, but they aren't going to keep me and my classes from achieving our goals in learning.

Thank you Randy Pausch.