Happy Friday! Whew, Week 4 is done! Summer feels like such a distant memory these days…

Every Friday, I do a High Five For Friday post to celebrate 5 highlights from my week. We’ve got to focus on the positive, people!

1. Goal Maps – This week in Language Arts, we focused on setting goals. We learned about doing a cost-benefit analysis of goals while reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. For a culminating project, I had students create a metaphorical map to their goal. They had to have a start (8th grade) and finish (end goal), goal posts along the way to prove they were on the right track (ex: for a goal of going to college, goalposts might be staying in school, acquiring good grades, finishing high school, applying, being accepted, etc.) and potential road blocks along the way (ex: dropping out of school, getting in trouble with the police, failing a class, missing a deadline, etc.). They did a great job with these, as you can see!

2. Happy Happy! – My family had a party on Sunday to celebrate 3 July/August birthdays, and 2 wedding anniversaries. We had so much fabulous food, laughter, and just a wonderful relaxing time!

3. Vinylux – Well have you heard of it yet?!?! It’s great! It’s the new gel or shellac manicure without all the pain. I purchased it on Amazon for a very reasonable price. It dried completely within 8 minutes, and I have been ‘chip free’ since Sunday. I’m sold! This color is Lavishly Loved.

4. Haircuts – I got a haircut, and so did Rocket. I think we both look pretty great 😉 By the way – his haircut costs more than mine, argh!!

5. MAP Testing – My students finished MAP testing this week. They took the Reading test on Tuesday and the Language Arts test today. The MAP test is a standardized computer-based test to measure growth over the year. My students are totally wiped out, and I don’t blame them. I’m glad this week is over, but that was kind of overkill for everyone involved. I’m also glad it’s over, because the MAP test results are part of the data I am collecting for my dissertation.