Monday, February 04, 2008

Day 100

I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but it's pretty fab in B'more today. The sun has come out after a gloomy, wet, and chilly morn, and it feels like early April out of doors. The next couple of days promise to be Al Gore "I-told-you-so!" type days, with highs near 70.

I spent this morning being harrassed and hassled and hustled by 8th graders. It's tough enough managing a City School classroom on a typical day, but give the kids a long weekend and they're nightmarish when they come back. Fuck'n a! I had great difficulty remembering "It's the behavior, not the child" today. First period was a zoo. It got to the point where I started laughing hysterically because there was nothing else to do. I feel for the poor four or five kids who were trying to learn.

I'm spending this gorgeous afternoon reading Supreme Court decisions for my law class. New Jersey v. T.L.O., Gebser v. Lago Vista, Bethel School District v. Fraser, and Davis v. Monroe County are ruining my day. I have to write a legal brief for each case, gag.

Thanks to Chuckles for turning me on to some friends of his from Michigan. I'm listening to their take on Mingus' "A Night in Tunisia" right now. New music always makes homework less of a drag.

Read a rather facile article in the current NYRB about bloggers and blogging and books about such stuff. Realized while reading it that I've been at this for in excess of six years (though two years' worth of archives were lost long ago). We near one of those "hang it up or re-invent" moments hereabouts...

5 comments:

Silenus said...

Key to impressing all law professors:

I
R
A
C

Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion....IN THAT ORDER.

A professor once said to me, "your goal in this class, on the final, in all of your legal writing, and perhaps in life itself, is to identify as many issues as possible a write a relevant IRAC for each issue."

Silenus said...

Oh, and for briefing cases, there is only 1 NARROW issue. When taking essay exams there are more issues than you can ever hope to spot.

Geoff said...

Once I wade through the Court decisions, the briefs are actually pretty simple to write. He only wants:

Bacground/Context
I
Decision/Justification

Later we invade IRAC with a ten-page Court decision brief PLUS analysis PLUS concurring or dissenting opinion.

Silenus said...

Yeah...I do that everyday but I don't have to babysit 30 sociopaths.

Geoff said...

You'll soon be representing them in court, however.