Tigger or Eyeore

I can't believe I haven't written about this before today....have you heard of Randy Pausch? He is the professor from Carnegie Mellon University that passed away from pancreatic cancer the end of July. He was known for his "Last Lecture" he gave last fall at CMU. When I heard of his death I watched his lecture on You Tube - I was hooked. Soon after that I was going to Kami's, so I downloaded his book, "The Last Lecture" to listen to in the car. What an inspiration he was! At first I couldn't put my finger on why I was so fascinated with this man, but as I was listening to his book and heard about his Alice Project it hit me over the head - he was a computer nerd! :) His Alice project - geared toward High School/College age students is a free download, as well as StoryBook Alice - geared toward Middle School students and written by a former student of his. As soon as I could I downloaded the programs and, of course, I was hooked! You can create 3D animation - kind of like the Incredibles. Next week, three 6th grade boys and myself are going to start working on our own Alice Project. I showed each of them an example this week and they are so excited and ready to get started. I don't know how it will go - for all I know it will take us all school year to make a 5 minute animation film! In his last lecture Randy Pausch asked this question, "Are you a Tigger or an Eyeore?" Randy Pausch was definitely a Tigger and it is my hope that when these three boys finish their project they are all Tiggers just like Randy Pausch and look forward to climbing any brick wall they may encounter.