Poor attendance, poetry and Presidents' Week

I received a saddening e-mail from my assistant superintendent last week. I have very low enrollment for my summer program for creative writers. (And by low enrollment, I mean none.) I am certainly not a marketing expert, but I know this means I need to take more aggressive action. I have started lobbying in colleagues classrooms, writing announcements to be read over the PA system in the mornings, and punishing naughty seventh graders with the assignment of creating posters for the hallways advertising my course. It would be nice not to have to teach summer school this year, although I will do it. I am hoping high school students are so wrapped up in the aftermath of midterms that they haven't thought about their summer plans and once they hear some of my announcements, they will be spurred into action.
This was the first full week of my poetry unit. I am disheartened at my students' reaction. I don't remember my kids from last year being like this. It's been more difficult to prove to them they know quite a bit all ready. I think I need to re-think my approach. Each new batch of seventh graders reacts differently. Next week, I will give them a poem of the day for the warm up. This will increase the likelihood- I hope- of each kid finding at least one poem they think is "okay." As an adult who loves poetry, loves thinking about it, writing it and researching it, I am having a more difficult time thinking about what my kids will relate to. Honestly, they reference Shel Silverstein frequently, which is fine, but that seems to be the only style of poetry they are familiar with and respond to... What's a teacher to do?
Not that this is an excuse, but the kids have seemed especially out there lately. Perhaps it's the stress of midterms facilitating an unsound mind. Most teachers say they can tell when it's a full moon. Kids start acting more wild or weird than usual. As a middle school teacher, my tolerance for the strange is pretty high, but last week was completely and utterly strange.
Several examples I cannot/ will not share specific details, but they involve students making threats to do harm to themselves and others, writing sexually explicit reading log entries and biting . Oh the poetry I could write...
That brings me to my last subject... next week is a vacation week. Thank goodness for Lincoln and Washington. If they did not have birthdays in the same month, middle school would get pretty hairy. In the 1970's, during the energy crisis, state officials developed Presidents' Week as a way for schools to help conserve energy. New York and few other states have maintained the tradition. I, for one, am very grateful. A lot of non-teaching folk think it's silly to have holiday break and then not even one month later have this February break. Those people have never experienced a bite on a pinky finger from a stressed out 6th grader...