I stumbled into something a while back – students are uncomfortable with expressing high goals or ambitions for themselves. At least in a large group setting, this isn’t even a little surprising.

I cannot do more than I can do; I can’t coach all of my students individually. But I can reframe those ambitions and goals though. What I discovered is I can share my goals for them and they can ‘try them on’ in a less scary way.

Here is the second draft of ‘Mr. Johnson’s Goals for us”

• Find out what you will be happy to create.
• Learn important tools and skills to make your creations even better.
• Do some projects or activities that let you practice what you’ve learned.
• Believe in yourself and be proud of the amazing things you can create.
• Develop a creative mindset and stay focused on tasks
• To learn how to be a better creator and to learn from our mistakes.
• To help you be more creative
• To improve a project more and more
• Apply creativity in real-life situations and inventions.
• See that you can make a collection of projects you think are awesome.

…I’m sure that I am reinventing a wheel here, but here it is!