Blog Post #7

I really enjoyed watching the video of Randy Pausch. It was amazing and extremely motivating! There were two main points I took away from him. The first point is that anything is possible if you want it enough and work for it. The second is that is okay to let students have fun.

I have always been a firm believer in being able to do anything you put your mind to. I have noticed lately that there are so many students with so much potential, but there is no one motivating them to use that potential. Instead of telling all these talented and creative students they can, more people are telling them they can't or they shouldn't. I miss seeing kids and teenagers aspiring to be doctors and lawyers or even artist and writers. They have been told they aren't good enough to do those things, and they need to aim a little lower. As teachers, it is our job to do so much more than stand at a board and teach from a textbook. Parts of our job are to be motivators, to nurture our students talents, and to help our students discover new talents. The words "I can't" will not be allowed in my classroom because I am there to show them that they can.

I have always detested worksheets and written test. I want to have a fun classroom where my students actually retain the knowledge I share with them instead of just memorizing it. The best way to accomplish this is with project-based learning. Students need to be engaged, otherwise they aren't really learning much. When students aren't being actively engaged they tend to not pay attention. They will start doodling, passing notes, or falling asleep. Doodling isn't helping them learn anything. Instead of having them take notes, try letting them act out a chapter of a book. If they are acting out a certain chapter of a book they will be more likely to remember what that chapter was about because they link it to an active memory. They may even have some fun while they are learning, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture