Blog Assignment 6

       After watching Randy Pausch's , Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, I have learned so very valuable lessons that I can carry with me as I become a teacher. He devoted his life to bettering his students and educating them to his up most ability. Many people in this world do not take the time to really learn lessons throughout their life instead they just look at a situation and see the immediate offerings it has. If we as people can walk away from different experience learning one thing; the lessons we learn are continuous. In this video I pulled many life lessons from it. I had four key lessons that really stuck out to me from this video.
     "Brick walls are there to prove how bad we want something." Randy Pausch made this statement in his lecture and it is one that I felt everyone needs to remember. I have learned this statement indirectly through out my life but to hear someone put it into words was something that I need to hear. This statement applies to everyone. I feel as if it is one that should be taught to students inside every classroom. So many children today not only struggle at school but at home as well. As teacher's we need to teach them that there will be brick walls as well as bumps in the road but they can overcome them as long as they keep trying. So many teachers just do not encourage their students to keep trying. What if you had that one student in your classroom that had no support and that was why he made failing grades; because no one at home cared enough to teach him that his education is important? Would you make that effort to give that student the support that they need to believe in themselves. As students get older those brick walls scare them more and more and we need to be their as teachers to be their safety net and let them know that those brick walls are only there to keep those out that are not willing to try.
     Another lesson that I learned in this lecture was one that I believe Jon

Snoody made, "Wait long enough and people will surprise you". We do not always know what is happening in our students life and for some if could be a rough one. With ample amounts of support though they my be the one at the end of the year to surprise everyone, even them self. As teachers never giving up on a student can mean so much to them. Sometimes you have to believe that there is good in all people and that they are capable of anything. It may take time and it may feel like you will never see it but in the end remember people can surprise you. Things are not always done when we feel they should be but everything has its own time.
     As teachers we sometime have to set out and try something new. It might be a new method of explaining a problem, or it could be a new approach in encouraging students. At some point and time all good teachers are going to have to find a new way to accomplish something within their classroom. And the one thing that we must always remember with pioneering something new is something that Dr. Pausch learned in one of his pioneering adventures, "if you do something pioneering you will always get those arrows in the back". What he is stating here is that no matter what you are going to have those that do not want you to succeed and others that want to be Negative Nancy about everything. This can be very hard and frustrating but we have to learn to keep going and teach the best way we know how. We also need to be willing to watch and learn from other educators as well as to what they have found works and does not work in their classrooms. This piece of advice is not only for teacher but students as well. They need to be prepared that they are always going to come across those that doubt their abilities. They need to learn that they have to just keep on and push through it.
     The last lesson that I really came away with from this lecture was," if you are screwing up and nobody tells you it means they have given up on you". I do not want to be one of those teacher that gives up on their students. They have so much left to live for and learn. Sometime I know that they might believe I am being to hard on them but it will only be

because I wan t them to be successful in what they do. Being a K2 teacher I have been put in a lot of uncomfortable situations where people think that I am too mean to my students and that I do not care about them. This is far from the truth. I have encountered some very independent head-strong students.What makes me know that I am doing a good job is when they leave my room the following year and they still want to come and give me hugs or tell me "hello". The highlight of my day is when my students will tell me they love me. I know then that I am doing okay as a teacher. Kids need to know that they can depend on us and we need to show them that by teaching them to become a better and stronger person.