story1226.xml

story1226.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I was teaching fifth and sixth grade in a Catholic school (St. Matthew's). First, a teacher came to my room and said that Sr. Helen was watching TV while her first grade class was at their "special" and an airplane crashed into the World Trade Center. I knew this wasn't possible. What seemed like a short time later, the principal came and told me that a second plane had crashed into the second building and not to tell the students anything except to pray. I waited until time had passed, and then told the students that a bad thing had happened and we needed to pray for a lot of people. Then we had a bomb scare (a common thing in Syracuse schools at the time) and all walked over to the church, but this time it was much more frightening. Many parents came to collect their children, but we still weren't allowed to tell them anything -- instead, most found out from their school bus drivers on the way home!

Because I taught Social Studies to the two fifth and two sixth grade classes, the next day we discussed the events as much as possible, even though by the fourth class I really wanted it to be over. I had them, as a project, find ways to record and process, and these were later presented during class. Many created videotape interviews, and others created written materials, the latter of which I have copies of and may type in for this archive. Actually, I still have two "Hi8" video reports because I was never able to view them.

I put on the walls outside my classroom large pieces of construction paper with heading such as "Flight 11" and "Pentagon" and students and visitors wrote messages to the deceased. I also created a poster with a pledge on it that many people signed voluntarily, after which I took it to a local mosque (at Syracuse University).