Randy Pausch Last Lecture

I have watched Randy Pausch Last Lecture many times and it inspires and motivates me more each time. Randy was a wonderful, brilliant man who gave so much to others in numerous ways. He taught at MIT and Carnegie Mellon and challenged his students to be the best that they could be. He went beyond achieving his childhood dreams and even enabled others in fulfilling their dreams.
Having worked hard to achieve his childhood dreams, Randy used his experiences in motivating his students to work just as hard. He believed in his students and their dreams. His pioneer course, Building Virtual Worlds, gave his students the opportunity to show Pausch how gifted and excited they were about their projects. He was "blown away" by their work and challenged them to go farther. Putting his students into groups, Pausch's course was all about bonding.
When Pausch moved to Carnegie Mellon he was part of The Dream Fulfillment Factory. This course consisted of artists and technologists working together making things. Through the hard work of Pausch and his colleague, ETC became a global phenomenon. They invented a novel way of teaching computer programming called "Alice". Pausch used peer feedback to help his students take critism and use it to their advantage.
Randy Pausch was an inspiration. His thought on life and education was, "Brick walls are there for a reason; they let us prove how badly we want things". He ran into many walls and still fulfilled his childhood dreams. His respect for his family, friends and students inspired him to enable the dreams of others. My favorite bit of knowledge he shared was," Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". What a awesome thought and man!

The next classroom blog I visited was the Jakarta, Indonesia class that corresponds with the fifth graders from New Zealand. Mrs. Jane's fifth grade class blog has an unusually, modern campus. Sinarmas World Academy is extraordinary. Each student has an inquiry site and their own blog site. The curriculum is outlined with helpful information. The teacher has very detailed assignments posted. The students even added a video game to their blog. They have words of wisdom and Bible verses like their peers in New Zealand. It was extremely interesting to view both classrooms' blogs.http://www.gr5swa.blogspot.com/

International Classroom Blogs

The first blog I found was a group of fifth grade students from Tauranga, New Zealand. These Kiwi students have posted books they have written and poems they have composed. They have pictures of field trips they have taken. The students post a word of the day and a verse. One of the classrooms they correspond with is in Indonesia. The teacher has a link with information for parents. They offer a list of useful site for help in all subjects. What an interesting site, to see what students are doing on the other side of the world!http://e3eclat.blogspot.com/

Class of Ambrose

The fifth grade classes of Ambrose http://classofambrose.blogspot.com in Detroit , Michigan have an incredibly informational blog for students and parents. This blog has a detailed class calendar, public pictures and a class podcast. It contains many recommended links for parents and students. The Class Wiki link is a shared online whiteboard so students can do group research. The Wiki notebooks are; Math, Social Studies, Science, and Writing. Students have the availability of free typing games and help with studying for tests. Students can communicate with other students and share information that can be used in discussions in the classroom.

Mrs. Veldman's Classroom Blog

Mrs. Veldman's First Grade Classroom Blog, bveldman.edublogs.org, has day to day information for parents to be more involved in their childrens' education. Mrs. Veldman has an indepth weekly news blog that includes, Language Arts, Math, Science, a Writer's Workshop, an Events Calendar, and a Happy Birthday section. The teacher has included many pictures of the children and their work. Parents may leave comments for the teacher and other parents to read. This is an excellent way to communicate to the families and share daily experiences.