Shoot for the Moon

 As I stated in an earlier post I spent the last six months working at  the local high school  as a substitute teacher.  For me teaching science was a new challenge. It has been a long time since I have had to think in science terms, so I definitely needed to brush up.  I would spend my evenings doing my homework to make sure I was ready to teach the  next day. I can say it was a learning curve for me, putting lesson plans together, finding fun and educational labs and making sure they learn at least something in the class. But what I didn't expect was what they would teach me.

We have been out of school for two weeks now and I am slowly getting settled down to what I thought was a normal routine. I have found I really do miss the classes. High school kids are a challenge, some know what they want to do in life, some are just trying to figure it out and some are just trying to making it each day. I told them from the first day I was there "That you can do anything you want to do if you want to do it.". That implied to their grades as well as everything else. Shoot for the moon if you miss you are still in the stars. I wanted to challenge them to give me a little more effort than they thought possible.

At each six weeks test I would tell them that their grades would depend upon if I stayed or not. It was not the administrations rules but mine, but I didn't tell the students this. I felt if they were not learning then they needed someone else to teach them. Each six weeks they did a little better on their class averages. But it was not until school was out and I was speaking to a parent that I found out how they would come to her house to study for the test. They did not want to lose me. They said I made learning fun. This alone would make anyone feel they were doing a good job  The other thing they said was that I told them to reach for what they wanted and they would always be a success. They were.

They made me realize that I should follow my own advise. I should reach for my dreams, my hopes and do the best of my ability. I too should shoot for the moon and that it is alright to miss because I will always be in the star.

So I challenge you reach for you dreams, do the best of your ability and shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you will still be in the stars and will have tried. If you do not try where will you be?

Have a very bless day!