This is a video of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. This was a truly remarkable event that took place. In this video we learn a lot about Randy dating all the way back to his childhood dreams. How he accomplished nearly all of them except for playing professional football, which he sees as an even greater thing and learn a lot of life lessons from his first football coach.
The teaching method that sticks out most to me is his "head fake" method. He finds this to be the most important tool that can be used in teaching. Randy used this method in every environment he taught in. There were even "head fakes" in his last lecture. By getting students to participate in something fun and entertaining, he lays underlining skills and techniques that they are learning and do not even realize they are.Another method that I saw Dr. Pausch use was letting students do what they want. That is a very loose way of saying it, but it is basically what he did. In a virtual reality class he taught, he let the students make any world they wanted to with only two rules of no shooting violence or pornography. This gives students incredible freedom to be expressive. Students are not restricted with rules or obligations to follow precise instructions. This method also lets them be creative and use their ideas, which a majority of students want to do.
These two previous mentioned teaching techniques and methods are by far my favorite. I want to involve my students in activities involving history that make it fun for them and yet deliver a educational message. I have an idea of letting my students act out plays of historical events. Maybe even letting them rewrite how they would had it happen if they had been there. All this being inspired by the marvelous words spoken by Dr. Randy Pausch.
Hi Joseph,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree with you on letting kids use their ideas in learning. You are right, this is exactly what Dr. Pausch incorporated in his classrooms. I think your idea of letting your future students act out history plays, would be quite interesting, since you are a History major. I, myself honestly hates history. Sorry! I can say that with you wanting to let the kids act out plays, this will make it more interesting , since some students find it hard to pay attention in History classes.
" By getting students to participate in something fun and entertaining, he lays underlining skills and techniques that they are learning and do not even realize they are." Awkward. Try breaking this into two separate sentences, each with a specific point that you want to make.
ReplyDeleteYou kept it short. More detail on the specifics of Dr. Pausch's views on teaching would have greatly improved your post.