An Attainable Boyfriend

In class today, we talked about making SMART goals: goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. When we were talking about attainable goals, I had my students think of one goal that was attainable and one that was not. Then I called on a few students who shared one of their goals and we showed (with thumbs up or down) whether that goal was attainable or not. Here were some of their responses:

"Breaking the sun in one second!" (Unattainable)

"Reading 200 books that are 20 pages each in one month!" (Mixed reviews)

"Do a front flip on a snowboard!" (Attainable for some of my students, but not others)


"My sister made a goal to make out - I mean, uh, sorry. Not make - anyway. She made a goal that she was going to get a boyfriend and then she was going to make a cloth out of all of her clothes for him. But then she didn't get a boyfriend so she could do it. So I guess her goal was unattainable?" (I was confused by this one. I don't even think we voted, I just kind of said "Uhhhh, haha, that's funny...." and then moved on.)


"Ride a mile on my bike!" (Attainable)

"Break the moon in ten seconds!" (Unattainable)

"Get Miss Connor a boyfriend!"

"Now hold on," I said. "We're not making goals for me, we're making goals for you. These are goals that YOU are going to work on, not that someone else is going to work on."

"Yeah but Miss Connor!" my students protested. "I am going to work on it! We can work on that!"

"How are you going to work on it?" I asked, a little afraid.

"Set you up on blind dates, tell you if a boy is a good one, or like, if you shouldn't have one be your boyfriend, find a boy you will like and bring him to class one day...." The ideas just kept coming.

"Okay," I said, trying to get back to the lesson. "Fine. Is this an attainable goal? Show me with your thumb what you think."

The thumbs shot up. Well....most of them did. Thanks, cuties.

My class is a little one-track-minded, I think.

But at least they are looking out for me, right?