story1777.xml

story1777.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-05

I was teaching my 6th grade gifted and talented social studies class when the math teacher on my team came in and whispered to me that I "might want to turn on my radio". The look on her face told me something bad had happened, but I waited til I had the kids involved in rather noisy group work to turn it on. My GT kids saw the look on my face and asked what had happened. Since they were the GT group, we sat and listened to the radio for the rest of that class period. After the class ended I went to the library where the tv was on and watched the news coverage with many other teachers. Shortly after that when I went back out in the hall there were parents lined up at the office doors waiting to take their kids home. We couldn't really teach the rest of the afternoon due to the intercom announcing long lists of students being told that their parents were there to take them home. My final class of the day was with my 7th graders. Normally there were 29 in that class but on that day I had only 6 left. I live about 20 min from the Pentagon and many parents were afraid that an attack in our area would be next. I recall the look on peoples faces in their cars as I drove home. Hubby and I watched the news the rest of the night. One of our teacher's sisters worked in the Pentagon and died in the attack. I live about 10 min from Baltimore/Washington International Airport and planes constantly fly overhead. I will never forget that strange silence over the next few days as airlines were grounded. The only thing I heard and saw in the sky were the fighter jets doing their patrol over our area. It was many months before I didnt feel a small twinge of fear everytime a plane flew over our house.