Remembering

It was my first full week in a new classroom in a new school.  I had been online at cnn.com before I left for work and heard the first of the confused, chaotic news, but the implications never really registered.

Classes began and news continued to come in. None of my students had cell phones. No smart boards. The only computer in the room was mine, but news continued to come in. It was the first time I realized that as a classroom teacher, I was also a co-parent.

The first hour was spent comforting a few of my 13 year old girls who wanted desperately to call  home. Even here, thousands of miles and a whole country away, phone lines were overwhelmed with usage. It was spent reassuring a few of the boys, who kept looking at the skies, that we were surely safe here.

Not wanting to give more information than I felt the parents would wish, I had to explain (and who really knew much of anything at that point), and reassure and comfort. Lessons went out the window. Maps came out. Quick geography lessons. Lots of reassurance.

Even as far away as we were, we were touched, in our own way. One of our teaching colleagues (from a different school) had a grown son who was in NY for meetings in one of the towers.  His meeting was postponed for some reason, and he was across the city, safe. A hockey scout from near here,  was on one of the flights.

In no way can we understand what it was like, is like, for those who were at the heart of that day. Who saw things. Heard things. Lost people.

But even here, we remember.