What a difference a few days makes

This week I both succeeded and failed at creating lesson plans around "stations" or "rotating centers". I had budgeted 2 instruction days for centers in order to allow students time to type, but since I only have 5 working computers, I had to split up the students into groups of 5 or less. This required me to have at least 4 activities happening concurrently, each for a total of less than 20 minutes. On Wednesday and Thursday, it worked like a charm, (except in my last class, which seemed exhausted). Friday, however, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut-off, trying to make sure students completed their work and that all students had a workable final draft to turn in. I was hoping for 100% of my students to have their work completely finished and with no spelling or grammar errors. What can I say, I aimed high. This didn't actually work, but the papers (at least at first glance) seem light-years ahead of the "average" paper from last year, due mostly to my time management. I say this because the changes stem directly from what I taught the students, and I've seen all of them put my teachings into practice through the writing process.

I'm actually teaching them.

Now, if only I could teach them to take personal responsibility and meet all their deadlines.

Bad USB, Bad! ...*gives it a treat under the table*
I left my USB drive with all the student papers at school on Friday by accident. My goal was to grade half of the papers this weekend, along with the mountain of station worksheets from class this last week. When I came home on Friday, my emotions were mixed when I realized my mistake, but I figured that I could always pick it up on Saturday when one of my fellow teachers went in to grade (as a department head, she has a key to get in the main doors, while I do not). However, when I called her on Saturday morning, I found out that she was not in fact going in to school, so I would have to wait until Monday. Instead of freaking out, I quickly decided that this would free-up a good amount of my weekend time, allowing me to destress and enjoy some peace and quiet. I still had the mountain of papers to grade anyway. I can tell you right now that this week is going to be busy: 6 weeks exams, final drafts of papers, and ALL THAT GRADING. Can't I just sleep and wake up next week?