The last day of classes and since I am really into planning and micro-goal setting, I thought I’d ask my B2 level students (teenagers) to write an essay about their goals for 2016 and what they are going to do to make them happen. I thought it was a great idea. “Think of something you want to achieve and say how you are going to make it happen”. Ummmm. Nope. My students hated the idea, and me being a stubborn/bad teacher, I insisted. I said, ” You must want to achieve something! Even if it’s going to a higher level of LOL (League of Legends=video game). I want you to tell me how you will become better at playing your game!”. Their response, ” But that’s not a goal miss” Yay! There is hope. So I said, ” Write about anything! Have a little/big goal and tell me how you will make it happen”. Total distress!! Again ” but we don’t have any goals…..”

So, this made me wonder about my teaching and my kids. I mean, OK, maybe I shouldn’t have set this as homework. Maybe I could have done a bit more brainstorming. We did talk about my goals and various things someone may want to achieve in a year. Big goals vs. little goals, but maybe they neeeded more help. Maybe even, worst case scenario,my kids are not mature enough to have, say, big goals. But they must have some!! What kind of world is this where teenagers say, ” I don’t have any goals miss!”? It’s sad and scary. Actually, and this has occurred to me after publishing the post, the worst scenario is this one: It’s because they are Greek kids living in the days of recession where money is tight, there is a lot of depression, and the news are just bombarding us with everything that is not working. Do my kids have no hope, hence no goals? That’s even sadder and scarier.

Anyways, I set this as an Xmas essay. I will tell you what they came up with once I have their answers!!

Till next time…