*Before I get started on talking of his teaching techniques I just want to say that it makes me sad that he has already passed away because it seems like Dr. Pausch would be a fantastic person to befriend.* Now back to the regularly scheduled program.
The first technique Dr. Pausch discussed in the lecture was the "head fake" which he started to learn at the very early age of 9, from his football coach. The "head fake" is indirect learning while learning something else, his example for football was that while the team is learning the game they are also learning things like teamwork and leadership. This would be used in my classroom by putting the students into groups and making sure the "quiet" one was the leader so they would learn to take the lead and have their opinions heard.
Hard work was something Dr. Pausch really focused on in his classroom and I think that that was really important because people need to put their best foot forward including in the classroom. Hard work would be ingrained into my students because you should never try to coast through with an attitude of "I got a passing grade, that's good enough for me".
To Dr. Pausch, getting feedback from the students help not only him, but also his students see what needed to be worked on and make that improvement. He got feedback through bar graphs that let everyone see how easy they were to work with and so they wanted to improve where they were if there overall score was not very high. I've been learning in my Evaluations class that keeping graphs or checklists to keep some feedback or progress on each student.
The most important technique he used in the class, at least to me, would be having fun. While it doesn't really sound like a technique to me, if you really think about it for some time, you will be able to see that it is as most teachers don't care whether their students are having fun or not so they are miserable and not really doing their best in class. I aspire to be just like Ms. Honey from Matilda with making my classroom as fun and happy as I can. I want them to feel creative in my class!
Jeni,
ReplyDeleteI am Lindsay Curtis, and I am assigned to your blog this week! Wasn't this a great video? Randy seemed like a pretty cool guy. I really liked his sense of humor. I was interested in the part of your post when you said that hard work will be ingrained in your students. This is something that I will implement in my classroom as well. I can think of many students today that just want to get by with a passing grade- what a bad way to look at your education. What is really sad is when you hear people saying that in college! I want to be purposeful while I am here furthering my education. I think that you watched this video and saw the great points and life lessons as I did, Thanks for your post! Have a great week!
Lindsay Curtis
Hey Jeni,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching Dr. Pausch on this video. I think the "head fake" was a very important point he made in his lecture. I like your idea of making the "quiet" child the leader of his/her group so he/she will be able to make his/her opinion heard. I also love that you want to be like Ms. Honey in Matilda. She is the perfect teacher and I would love to be like her too. I really like the way you have explained the lecture, keep up the good work!
The reason we include this video is to inspire you to bust through those brick walls, to raise the bars, to execute effective head fakes and much more. I hope you will do these things when you are a teacher.
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