School, Students, and a 3 Day Weekend

I am so grateful for three day weekends. Today just about kicked my tail at school. First of all, if you didn't know, I teach in a team-teaching setting. We teach English II, which is technically a tenth grade class. However, it is one of the state-tested classes, so if the kids fail the test, they have to keep taking the test until they pass it, or they don't graduate. Now, one might say, 'Well, they should pass it to graduate.' I  agree to an extent, but this test is terribly difficult. There are usually 78 questions. There are long, tedious, boring reading passages. Just, well, complicated. So, I am the special ed teacher in the room. I help the students who have learning disabilities who are on regular diploma, but I also have a few students mixed in who are senior students on what Mississippi calls an 'Occupational Diploma'. This option is VERY good, and there are even some community colleges nearby which take an OD for entrance. I have 3 students now who are senior athletes (2 football players, one baseball player). They need this class in order to be considered for scholarship to whichever CC they are going to. We spent the end of last week doing ACT applications. Then today, just absolutely did me in. Almost all of our kids failed a test yesterday, so today we let them rework some of the problems for partial credit. There was just so much going on, it was exhausting! I am just ever so grateful for Friday, especially one with a three day weekend.