I stumbled into an idea – many students can’t/won’t make strong goals for themselves, but they will let themselves consider my goals for them. We don’t start with this one, but my overall goal is to help students become unique, confident creators. To break this into a less overwhelming goal for 5th graders, for example, we start with short term goals and goals for how they should feel at the end of class.

This idea is still half-baked but there is definitely something there.