I just covered one period of class for another teacher. One student (9th grade) bit another.

I'd love to say that I'm shocked; however, I have a Senior who has regressed into biting. How do you break a 17 year old of this sort of habit? Can you imagine the phone call? "Hi, I'm your child's Drama teacher and I'm a little worried about her biting another student today." On the other hand, maybe she'll bite DD. He got slapped by a Freshman girl a week or so ago.

WHY is my cat meowing???? Please stop!

Of course my cat meowed right into the phone in the middle of my tense meeting this morning. Awesome. I actually think only the other person on the phone noticed, but still.

I just got a call about a nearby job I wouldn't mind having. Fingers are crossed.

Job~ma, ita!

All kinds of job~ma, ita!!

I just covered one period of class for another teacher. One student (9th grade) bit another.

I'd love to say that I'm shocked; however, I have a Senior who has regressed into biting.

Seriously?? I mean, seriously?? We had 1 kid bite a security guard last year, but he as some Issues. A wide variety of Issues. Dear me.

I started today off with a parent meeting about their daughter who I wrote up last week for disprespect. They wanted the meeting so she could apologize to me. Love parents like that.

Educators, Wire fans (erika!), rap fans, New Orleans fans, you should all read David Ramsey's awesome story about teaching in New Orleans after Katrina.

Especially if you're a Li'l Wayne fan, but don't limit yourself. It's like all of S4 of The Wire compressed into one article.

During the first few days of school, Darius, one of my homeroom students, kept getting in trouble for leaving classes without permission. At the end of the second day, he pulled me aside to tell me why he kept having to use the bathroom: he had been shot in the leg three times and had a colostomy bag.

When I visited him in the hospital a few weeks later—he was there for follow-up surgery—he told me about the dealers who shot him. Darius’s speaking voice is a dead ringer for Lil Wayne’s old-man rasp. “I told them, Do what you need to do, you heard me? I ain’t scared, you heard me?”

Then he leaned over and pointed, laughing, to Sponge Bob on the television.

Wish I was kidding. She is a normal kid who just started biting. I know the stress of being a Senior; however, it is a bit much. I know her home is pretty crappy and her parents don't respond well to ANY call from the school. I don't know what it going to happen with the whole thing. Tried talking to her about it and she told me she "never bit anyone who didn't deserve it."

Good luck, ita!

Lawyerly field people (Sparky, Perkins, Vortex, other people I am shamefully neglecting): I have a lawyer friend looking for a job/possible career transition. Can I send her your emails to network/brain-pick? And, uh, if you are one of the people I've forgotten, let me know.

Somehow this biting thing is reminding me of how I feel about all the people who say "buck up little camper" about depression! Because I AM bucking up! Or I would be biting people!