So, true confessions: I am an English teacher.

This means I like to talk about feelings. It means I am religious about thesis statements. It means that when I am dead, I will come back as a ghost and haunt people who use apostrophes improperly.

It also means that I often know more about my students than I would like to know. They really open up when they write, which is important. But potentially embarrassing.

Here’s a handy hint. When a student overshares with a teacher and the teacher feels uncomfortable, try dealing with it by fixing the grammar and conventions.

For example:

“I think you want to write knees here, instead of on her knee in the shower.”

or

“Try, Then I will get wasted instead of Ima get hella wasted.”

or

“Do you mean my boy’s probation officer, as in just one boy? Or is he the probation officer of several of your friends? Because that would be boys’ probation officer.”

Another good trick? I once spent a week allowing students to swear all they wanted, as long as they could identify the part of speech they were using. So, I heard a lot of, “This is fucking (ADJECTIVE!) bullshit (NOUN!)!”