Publishing before a vacation

I was talking with one of my former student teachers tonight. We were discussing the fact that it’s hard to get kids to publish before a big school vacation (like the one we have coming up next week). We’re both trying to cruise through the end of the personal essay unit of study, but it’s not easy since the end of the unit is where the tough stuff (i.e., the intro and concluding paragraphs) come in — not the mention all of the revision and editing work. Our goal for our students is to publish before the week is out. I’m wondering if we’re both delusional… it’s happened for me in the past, so I know I can pull it off, but is it fair to make kids publish prior to a school vacation? Hmmmm…