Thoughts on Being Productive

I don't teach science to my students on Fridays.  I have so many things I can spend my time doing, and I don't feel like my follow-through is excellent in any area right now.  I'm not lazy, and I'm not a slacker, I just want to do a little bit of everything.  My task list right now looks like this:

1. Learn more about my students, how they learn, how they interact with the world and what they think about their futures.
2. Select a textbook for students to use this school year.  We're in January already, and I've been using a textbook from my last year teach in Virginia.  I have one copy, so I'm making copies of chapters to use in class.  The challenge is, once we have textbooks I'll only have one copy for each student to use in class, so if I want them to do homework using the book I'll be stuck making copies again.  If we order enough books for each student they'll have to carry it to and from school, which poses several challenges.
3. Create a curriculum for technology use in the middle school.  There isn't a dedicated time to teach technology right now, so the curriculum will be integrated into classes.  Some students know how to save to a flash drive and have typed a few documents for teachers this year, which is an indication of where we're starting.
4. Create a cohesive curriculum for the middle school.  Our school encompasses 5th through 7th grade, with 8th grade being added next year to complete the school.  Fifth grade has science twice a week and sixth grade has science 3 days a week right now.  I teach my 7th graders four times a week.  Next year they will have to take the eighth grade state test AND the Earth Science Regents Exam.  I've recently realized the students covered only some of the topics in earlier grades, so I need to play catch-up with the current 7th graders and also make sure there is enough background covered in earlier grades moving forward so we can build on a solid foundation in 7th and 8th grades.