I need to start up again because I have some entirely too cute pictures to share about what my class is up to.
Not now though. I just wanted to post about something that was tremendously important today. The 10th anniversary of 9/11. Wow, 10 years ago? Is that even possible???
This week it has hit me so hard at what a part of history we all were apart of. I truly felt significant when I had to try to explain to my kinder kiddos that a tragic, awful thing happened BEFORE THEY WERE BORN. Every bit of history we learned while WE were in school was before we were born. It is weird to share history with the young ones and basically tell them I lived it... before they were born. Gosh it was so surreal and weird, and I can't even put it into words.
Well of course for kinder kiddos we had to sugar coat it a tad so we read the book "September 12th." A first grade class wrote it and it is amazing. It lets you know that even though bad things happened, we woke up the next day and still went on with our lives. The local news did a great story about my school. You can watch it here: http://www.kvia.com/video/29133034/index.html
Yup, those are my fellow kinder teachers and they are great!!!
I wish you could have seen the faces on these children trying to process the fact that people did such horrible things. One little boy finally asked me "Ms. Surber, did people die?"
"Yes, they did," I said, "but the good thing about our country is that every one came together to help and protect one another so something like this could never happen again."
Our school had a huge ceremony with firefighters and flags and music... it was amazing. I am not going to lie, it even brought me to tears.
As soon as I get pictures, I will share them. I do have a picture of my kiddos giving the firemen a thank you card we made but I have to blur their faces before I can post it :-/
Everyone has been talking on TV about where they were when the twin towers hit and I can remember my story VIVIDLY.
I came down stairs to wait for Patty's brother to pick me up for school when my dad was there. This was so weird because my dad is ALWAYS gone by like 5am. I asked him what was wrong (because of his serious, concerned face) and he said that there had been an accident. Scrolling across the screen was "BREAKING NEWS: A plane has crashed into one of the World Trade Centers." Then something along the lines of "Details on the accident are still unknown." The reporter kept saying that it was an accident and they were waiting to see if it was because of loss of signal with the pilot or something of that nature.
I was sitting there with my huge backpack in shock because it was insane. I was weirdly obsessed with NYC (well I still am kinda) and I desperately wanted to go to those buildings because they were the tallest! And now one got hit by a plane?! Insane. So we are still sitting there and I notice Patty's brother is late. My mom was getting ready to take me so I wouldn't be too late to school and all of a sudden the reporter goes "OH MY GOD!!" I turn around, and see the second plane hit the second building. I remember my dad going "Oh sh** this is NOT an accident." I remember my mom freaking out and my dad actually getting MAD. He was so upset that people would do this.
I couldn't watch any longer, I had to get to school and Patty's brother finally got to my house in the middle of the chaos. We stayed silent the entire drive to school listening to the radio... it was scary.
In every one of my classes, a TV was on and teachers were not teaching. We all just sat and watched.
Literally 5 minutes after getting to my 2nd period Spanish class, the buildings started to fall. EVERYONE gasped and couldn't believe what we were seeing. I still can't believe it today.
We all were pretty numb and when we got to band, our instructor was SOBBING. Literally sitting at his desk just SOBBING. The drum majors got up, and we started playing. We practiced our usual songs, and then we played the national anthem... quite a few times.
That is absolutely the last thing I remember about that day. I know I went home and talked to my parents about it but I can't remember the conversation. I just remember up to the national anthem and I promised myself I would never forget any of it.
I still can't believe that it is now TEN years later... Seems like yesterday...
I will have more pictures my next post. Promise :) but for tonight, we remember.
