Monday Morning Meeting in the MYP - Our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals

Be an Olympic swimmer and an architect
To make a world famous film company
To be a successful basketball player
Improve humanity's understanding of the workings of the universe, and assist in space exploration

In the middle school each Monday, we hold our Monday Morning Meeting. For 30 minutes, we meet as a community to share announcements about the week, reflect on what lies ahead, and share our thoughts. Because each month has a Learner Profile  trait as its theme, we try to thematically align our meetings with each month's trait. February was "Inquirers," and in the language of the IB this means that  students "learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life."

Create a giant robot
To create technology to allow the blind to see and the deaf to hear
To be a good doctor
Be able to enjoy the little things in life

To me, the personification of the lifelong learner is Elon Musk. I shared with the students about Musk's early life living in South Africa, his teenage foray into video game development, and his eventual sale of PayPal which gave him the capital to found Solar City, Tesla, and SpaceX. Musk is an eminent autodidact, consuming, digesting, and applying information at an astounding rate.

To be a TV actress
To build something
To open my own bakery and be a chef
To solve global warming the the issues with landfills

After listing the various commercial and scientific achievements driven by Musk over the course of his life, I revealed to the students that Musk's overall goal was never to make money, but instead to achieve goals such as solving global warming or achieving multi-planetary life. In this vein, I had the students write out their own BHAG's - Big Hairy Audacious Goals.

To write scripts for movies
To write a novel
To go to college

The instructions for the students were to write something they'd want to accomplish in, at minimum, the next 15-20 years of their lives. As you can see, their goals ranged widely in scope and specificity. We shared our goals with each other, and in each one resides the endless potential and ambition of our students.

Work for Microsoft
Join the USW Soccer Team
Be a professional volleyball player

To be an artist