Over the MOON about teaching: Moon’s passion for business inspires his students
Maggie Sheridan | Editor-in-Chief
Moon spends time on vacation at the beach with his daughter before the start of the school year. He enjoys spending some quality time with his family and taking a break from work when necessary.
Jaqua Moon has always been a business teacher. He has taught several classes such as accounting, computer classes, and personal finance in Fairfax County. This will be his second year working at Loudoun County. He enjoys teaching finance because it teaches students how to prepare for life and managing money.
Personal finance is one of several classes students will take in school that really helps them understand what they will be expected to do in the future and how to properly handle their money. Moon hopes to help his students realize that they are talking about life-changing topics that will directly affect them.
“You need this information in order to be prepared in the future,” Moon said. “If not, you will have to learn the hard way what life is like and it will have really big repercussions down the road.”.
Moon’s students also appear to be understanding these life lessons from his class. “Mr. Moon is such a great teacher,” junior Jessica Booker said. “His class has really helped me understand how important it is to manage my money wisely and I really enjoy his lessons.”
Moon expresses frustration when students fail to pay attention and understand the importance of his lessons. “It ends up costing you when you make poor decisions with your money,” Moon said. “That cost can really add up over the span of your life.”
Moon was completely lost about the basics of handling his money after graduating from college. “I personally made so many financial mistakes because my parents never talked to me about money,” Moon said. “It was a topic that they just didn’t teach me about.”
One issue Moon brought to light was how the school system impacts work. “I feel like we are lowering the ball for high school students and I think it’s hurting their motivation,” Moon said, “They will only receive a fifty percent for not doing assignments and will check in and out with their focus.”
He believes school is getting easier and easier for them and they won’t realize what life will be like. “They know they can cruise through and instead of raising the bar, which just ends up hurting them,” Moon said.
Moon also argues that schools should work on teaching more applicable content that will teach student’s lessons they will use as adults. “Whether we like it or not, each and every student is going to have the courses that they love and they don’t love,” Moon said. “I would like for students to have more options into structuring their schedule and how they spend their time in high school.”
Moon believes that if students have more choices in their courses, it could positively affect them as well as their futures. “Would having the power to decide (free of requirements, other than taking a full schedule) change how a student approaches their education, could it lead to more engagement and learning?” Moon asked. “The sooner we start making decisions that have real impact in our lives the sooner we start maturing into young adults from the trials and tribulations of those decisions.”
He stresses these important issues because he hopes his students do not make the same mistakes he did. “I was very lost and disengaged as a high school student,” Moon said. “A lightbulb eventually went off and I realized how much I could help students and hopefully make their lives better.”
Moon enjoys distance learning because he believes it is more straight to the point and a student’s grade will reflect how much work they put into it. “I think some students are getting more out of this because of the focus I have with them,” Moon said. “It feels like we’ve been more efficient with tackling everything in the curriculum.”
Although students appear to be benefitting more learning-wise, Moon believes they are negatively impacted socially. “For students to not be able to interact with each other is definitely a drawback and different from what they’re used to,” Moon said.
Right out of college, Moon tried substitute teaching before becoming a teacher full-time. It helped him work in different areas of teaching and figure out which one he wanted to focus on as a job.
His goal was to positively impact their lives in whatever way he could, and he did this through subbing, coaching baseball and softball for a short period of timing, and eventually starting to teach. He also hoped his students would learn from his mistakes and know how to manage their money more wisely.
“When you look back on your life, you will want to know you made a difference and to me, teaching was one of the few professions that I looked at and thought I would be happy knowing I helped other people and had a purpose,” Moon said.
Moon is very proud to have continued to teach and help more students. “One of the best moments in my life is when a student is truly loving what we are doing in class and wants to know more and do more. It makes me feel like everything I am doing is worth it, because I have just opened a new door for this student that could take them somewhere good,” Moon said.
One of the most important things Moon has learned from teaching relates to patience and understanding. “Teachers will make assumptions about students based on their work ethic, Moon said. “I have learned not to do this and to patiently observe without judging others.”
He has also learned how to persevere through challenging situations. Even when students are disrespectful towards him, he knows to ignore it and not let it bother him.
“As a person, I am now more patient than I have been before and I have found ways to build important bonds and relationships with students,” Moon said.