What does one do the days leading up to vacation?
How can you make things meaningful as well as connect to previous lessons and ideas as well as move forward?
We make manifestos! I don’t really believe in resolutions in my own personal life – I believe in focused goal setting, which we do and will do within subsequent units (i.e. the dreaded drawing unit). But I do believe in having guidelines to help structure your life and your work around. So when times get tough or you’re faced with tough decisions – you can reflect back on your manifesto and get a reality check.
So we explored a ton of manifestos – we looked at all the big ones and manifestos in general.
We also watched some videos on creativity from some of my favorites – Elizabeth Gilbert, Tim Ferris, and Austin Kleon. I shared with them from my “private stash” of books – Big Magic, Steal Like an Artist, and The Creative Habit and a few others. They loved looking through, watching the videos and exploring Manifestos in general.
Then, we created our own. They aren’t amazingly creative in terms of visuals – but they are wonderful, each student really created their own. And they’re all posted in the room to remind us where we are headed.
How do you goal set with students? Do you share your own guiding principles?
lizzie fortin 