March 7 (Week 8)

Randy Pausch in Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams displayed such a positive attitude. It was simply amazing that his enthusiasm was just overflowing despite the fact that he was faced with a very difficult time in his life, the reality that he was dying. Randy Pausch was/is truly an inspiration to all of us who are trying to be have a positive influence on the world. We, as teachers, should learn from him about the power of a positive attitude.

According to Mr. Pausch, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." As a teacher, this is so profound! Every lesson that we teach can be a learning experience for our students and ourselves. Even a perfectly planned lesson, can take an unexpected turn...positive or negative. We cannot predict what our children might say or interpret in the things that we present to them during a lesson. One thing we should remember is that we learn from our experiences. "Most of what we learn, we learn indirectly." Think about it! How true it this statement by Randy Pausch? "We do learn from our students." It is so true!

Mr. Pausch states,"Brick walls are there for a reason- not to keep us out, but to let us prove how badly we want something." Are these brick walls our challenging students? Teachers strive to reach every child, but sometimes there are obstacles (learning abilities, behavior issues, family issues) that are difficult to overcome. Do we give up or do we try to tear down that brick wall? I hope that as teachers, we can honestly say that we tried our best to jump over that wall and keep on going because seeing our students learn is worth the hard work we put into our jobs every day.

Mr. Pausch asked, "How can I enable the childhood dreams of others?" I can honestly say that being a teacher gives me the opportunity to help my students achieve their dreams (or at least give them a foundation on which they can build for the future). I teach Kindergarten so I feel it is my job to give my students a strong foundation on which to build their future (hopefully in education, as well as how to work with others). Mr. Pausch asked, "What let's you get to achieve your goals?" Wouldn't it be great if our students could say, "Mr./Mrs. ? helped me achieve my goal." That would be one of the greatest compliments for a teacher. I hope that everyday I can encourage my students to think of learning as fun and as Mr. Pausch said, "never lose the child-like wonder".

Comments 4 Kids (Week 8)
This week I got to read about all the happenings in Mrs. Voigt and Mrs. Farrington's Kindergarten class. It was Day 109 of their school year. Boy, were they busy! It had snowed and the children were very excited. I asked the children about how they celebrated the 100th day of school. I am anxious to hear back from them.