Thank God for deadlines

When I started my attempt at a paperless classroom and had my students submit all work online, I got really sloppy about deadlines. I hate deadlines myself, and I couldn't see the point in penalising a student just because I got their e-mail a little later than the rest. This was a big mistake which led to my correcting drafts on the night before the end of the semester.

This time round, I'm specifying deadlines to the minute. Saturday 23:59 good, Sunday 00:00 bad. I still accept late drafts; I just don't correct them. This means that instead of spending tomorrow correcting drafts, I will spend an hour correcting four drafts, and write a few comments off the top of my head on the remaining 25, if they arrive at all.