Why Do You Ask?: Back To The Drawing Board

I hate it when I forget what worked in past years. I have struggled this week to get the Land & Water Features into the brains of the students.

But a student did something after a class that reminded me what I did last year.

I used the Marker feature in PowerPoint to draw the Land Features on a map I had projected on the wall. The students watched what I did, then they did it on the maps at their seats. How could I forget something so easy!?

Thanks to Araceli for "playing" with my computer after class. Now we can move forward much quicker.

Tomorrow will be an emotional day for our school family. One of the teachers I started with 14 years ago had a brother on the 104th floor on the North Tower during the 9/11 attacks. I remember vividly where I was, who I was with, and watching the 2nd plane crash into the South Tower, then watching the towers plummet to the ground...on live TV.

It was like a movie, unreal, not surreal.

Another teacher was called that afternoon and told to report for duty; he was an Marine Reservist. Our School Resource Officer was called into active duty to train Military Policemen in Kentucky. Three people in our school were directly affected by the events of that day. Because they were, so were the rest of us. Never before or since has our faculty, staff, and school been so supportive of one another. In that sense, I miss those days.

Our students rallied, and gave of themselves. I'll tell you about it this weekend.

As I return from my stroll down memory lane, I look forward to tomorrow.

I was reminded last year that my students were protected from the horrors, and rightfully so, due to their age. I am one of the first people to tell them the story, to pass on a major turning point in American history. What an honor, and yet what a responsibility.

There are very few people who personally remember Pearl Harbor. How important is it that the older generation pass on to the children the circumstances, tragedies, and the national pride that followed? I think it is one of the greatest thing we do for our children.

Remember this one?