Sept 11, 2001

I was teaching Social Studies to 6th graders. Well, really, I was on prep at the time I was in the office and they had the TV on to see what was going on in New york. (Someone had called the school and told them something was up.)

I have always changed my lesson plans to go with anything that is happeneing in the world . . whether standards included it or not. There are not that many teachable moments where you can really connect the classroom and the world.

I turned on my classroom TV . . thank you Channel One for wiring our school and putting the TV's in each room. You helped me teach my students aboutthe world and you came in handy for national events . . and this was one of them.

When the kids got out of Expressive Arts (Art, PE, Music, FACS, etc) I told them what had happened and gave them the choice to watch what was going on on TV, work on homework for another class or silent read their library books.

Some watched, some worked and some read. But, as the day wore on, more and more watched the TV. Being on the cusp of adolescence, they were interested in the changes that were going on . . . they all knew something was really up in the world . . just didn't know how bad yet.

Several days later I got a call from a local newspaper reporter. She wanted to interview myself and my students about the changes that had happened. She did a great job interviewing the students. Some weere worried about what was going on in New York and some were worried aabout what might happen to the rest of the country

I quickly wrapped up what they had been studying and went immediately to a unit on Islam. I am wondering how many of them remember that day in front of the TV and how many remember learning that Muslims are like Christians in more ways than not. We each have our good points and people, and we each have our radicals . . .