Give an inch...build a mile...

Today I went to see the Portland Thorns play their final game of the season. It was a must win in order to go to the playoffs. As you may know by now, I am a big time soccer fan. The World Cup at my house is a time of reverence...getting up early or staying late, whichever needs to be done, but soccer isn't really what this blog is about...it's about wanting something so bad you can almost taste it and fighting for it.

I am working on a new class for incoming Freshman with a group of other teachers. It is an interesting experience beginning to form a team with people I have never met. This class may become one of the most integral classes that freshman at our high school take...an opportunity to learn skills that they are lacking, study skills, coping skills, problem solving skills.

I want this class to be a foundation of something that they see in their future and work hard to achieve. Similar to the Thorns today...a goal in mind, hard work, and then success. These are skills that we encourage in students, want to exhibit as adults, and hope for those in the future.

I take my job very seriously...I am teaching those that are our future. I want a future of critical thinking, problem solving, enthusiastic life long learners, young adults who want to take charge of their future, our future. I want them to build great things, think beyond their perceived limits, invent fantastic ideas, grow incredible things...I want them to be builders of the world, rather than consumers of space. I want them to do whatever it takes to leave their world better than when they got it.

I know when I look in their eyes that they don't see themselves and powerful and knowledgeable, but I do. I see all the potential wrapped into a hormonal unit, squirrelly, confused, and sometimes frustrated, I want them to work harder than they have ever thought possible, experience success to the highest level, I want them to come back and ask for more, even when there may not be any.

I want them to be students who when we give them an inch, they build a mile!