After watching Randy Paunch's "Last Lecture" for the second time and reading selections from Parker Palmer, I am trying to learn how to have more patience with myself and others. As Lendy pointed out in class it is so hard to be up-beat all the time, especially when you work with teenagers.
Do you have any new thoughts about teaching and learning after reading Parker Palmer and watching the Randy Paunch lecture?
If you were unable to attend class, you can watch The Last Lecture by clicking on the link I have provided.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
In response to Paula's comments on "The Last Lecture", I wanted to add some thoughts that I came away with after viewing the tape. As sad as it was to watch, his lecture was very poignant. His insight into the value of one's life and influence was very powerful. He sent the message that life is about service and the difference that you can make. I liked the way that he placed emphasis on helping others, showing gratitude, and enabling the dreams of others. This last point of advice had a lot of impact on me as it reminded me that teachers place a crucial role in enabling the dreams of others.
"Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you." – Jon Snoddy to Pausch
This was just one of the many quotes that I found to be incredibly true and meaningful as I watched Pausch's lecture. I was deeply touched by all that he said, and by the zeal and fervor with which he said it. What I think I took away most from his lecture was the idea that our dreams (goals/plans) may come true in ways that are unexpected. It is hindsight that makes everything seem worth while, and thus the true lesson I learned...reflection is the key to living a joyful and rewarding life. Without reflecting on what we do, not only as teachers but as human beings, we will not be able to truly see the difference that we made and the difference that we will make.
I was not present for the class, but have had a chance to watch the video. I am a teacher, and very much enjoy on most days, however, there are times when I wonder if I had been exposed to more as a child if my choices may have been different. I, like most students, made choices without a clear vision of the impact it would have. I hope, and I know there are many skeptics, that the career clusters will help with this. Parents can only expose their children with what they are familiar with, and for me that was selling and teaching, both of which I have utilized. Again, I am very happy with my decisions and choices and had those been different, I am not sure I could say the same. At any rate, encouraging students to have dreams and fullfill them, if only to a small degree (his example of football) is extremely important. Without dreams, we have no where to go. With dreams (and hard work, real expectations, and diligence) we can do anything! May we teach students to dream big but keep their feet on the ground!
What would I say if I had to give a last lecture? Would I have the courage or the will to be funny, witty, reflective, and encouraging like Professor Randy Pausch? He didn’t have a pity party or even once complain about his plight. Instead he reflected on his childhood dreams and how he enabled others to live out their childhood dreams. He talked about doing pioneering things and receiving arrows in the back for doing so. He considered the arrows part of the brick walls that he had to climb in order to succeed. He withstood those arrows and climbed the walls no matter what obstacle came before him. He said that getting people to be self-reflective is one of the greatest things an educator can do. That statement will stay with me always.
He really only referred to his illness once when he said that he like Moses could see the promised land, but not step foot in it. I don’t know of his demise but I certainly hope he beats all odds.
In my next lecture, whether it is before a class or before my own children I will try to be in Pausch’s words a “Tigger” not an “Eeyore”. I am going to try to complain less and show love more. I am going to remember that those brick walls are there to stop OTHER people not those of us who want to get things done! All of this of course will take place after we get things moved and packed in the media center!
I mentioned to Paula afterward, class on the 14th was a weird one. It was the one-year anniversary of my father's death, and Greg reads one of my favorite poems in which the speaker is ultimately telling his father to "rage, rage against the dying of the light," and then, well, there was Randy Pausch.
I suppose the moments, aside from the last head-fake at the end ("this is for my kids"), that stood out to me the most have already been mentioned by Maria and Lendy: "If you're mad at somebody then you just haven't given them enough time," and "brick walls are there to stop people who don't really want it" (really rough quotes). The first quote speaks to me on so many levels, as a teacher, as a husband, a father, a self-critical person. All of us need more time to be who we really are, to grow--and our children, our own and our students, need the most, yet we often forget that because they usually make us the angriest. So hard to hold to the truth that we have all been there, as MSW points out in her blog, that we have sat through classes that bored the stuffing out of us simply because we didn't share or even see the teacher's passion. As Lendy mentioned after class, we can't always make every subject fun...definitely true, but we shouldn't let that truth stop us from trying. It's sort of like Pausch's anecdote about when his children wanted to ride at the front of the train at Disney World: we never know unless we ask...we never know until we try. Yet, just like we've all had those boring classes, we've all had those wonderful teachers. My loves of writing and drawing would have both died in high school if it weren't for wonderful teachers like Mrs. Loadholt and Mrs. Caldwell, and Mr. Helms, and if it weren't for my friends who were willing to read and view my stuff and to give supportive feedback. My parents, doing only what they thought was best, tolerated my "hobbies," but didn't support them as having any practical value. I still remember the day I tore down all of my drawings I had hung on my walls after an argument with my stepfather. But, to their credit, because of my own commitment and passion, my own ability to ride my writing to graduate school, they came around. My father made it a point to ask me when I was going to publish something. Made it a point to tell me to send my stuff out. "If you never send it out," he said, "you'll never get published." So true. Perhaps I am my own brick wall.
Also, to my mother's credit, I would not be a teacher if my mother hadn't seen something in me in high school that I would have never seen in myself, and though I told her that I could never be a teacher, she successfully planted the idea in the back of my head and here I am. And thanks to all the supportive professionals who surround me, I am happy to be here.
Anyway, my apologies...I didn't mean to type so much when I sat down.
Post a Comment