9/11

Many, no most, of the blogs that I follow have something about the 10th anniversary of 9/11 today. It is a time to remember-those who died in sacrifice and to an unmentionable evil. I have seen many TV programs today remembering that horrible day, and the same feeling I had then floods back to me. It was such a feeling of hopelessness to see the two towers go down on TV and know there was not a thing I could do about it from my home. I remember my mom calling me that morning. I had actually been out walking with my four month old twins and had not seen or heard about the first tower until I got back and received my mom's phone call. I couldn't believe what she was telling me. I immediately turned the TV on and shortly saw the second plane hit the second tower. I actually thought it was a re-play of the first plane and tower and was shocked when I found out it wasn't. When the towers went down it was so devastating. I had previously visited NYC and had driven by the towers. One cannot imagine how massive these buildings were. To think of all of those people in an instant, dead. As everyone knows, it was beyond depressing.

And our country was sent into a tailspin that I think it is still just crawling out of. I truly believe our economic status is a result in part due to that fateful day. But we hopefully are crawling out of it. I guess my hope would be that we continue to go forward, to thrive. We will forever be different, but I hope we are not forever defeated.

My daughter recently shared a conversation with me about a couple of girls at her school who snottily had told her that she wore too much pink. This hurt my daughter and caused her to doubt herself. As a result, she has stopped wearing so much pink. I told her that if she loves pink, she needs to keep wearing, to tell those girls that it's her body, not theirs and she will wear pink if she wants to. I told her if she stops doing what she wants and being who she is, then she lets these bullies win. This is a simplistic, juvenile comparison; but one I hope we Americans can take to heart. Keep going, keep being the wonderful nation that we are. Provide for each other, care for each other, support and love each other. Stand up for each other. Don't tear each other down. Don't let the bullies win.

What a Three Weeks

School has been in session for three weeks, and I have a cold! This is almost unheard of for me. But this year we have budget cuts. So, that means because the district closed some schools that we have more kids and more teachers. So, we're sharing rooms and computers and spaces. Also, the custodians have been cut, so they don't sweep our rooms everyday (can you believe that?). It's gross. They already were not cleaning off the desks (which are filled with icky, yucky middle school germs). Not sweeping the floors is utterly disgusting. All of this equals sickness being spread. So, I have a cold, along with every other teacher in the building. I guess I'm going to have to arm myself with a constant supply of hand sanitizer.

On a brighter note, my students are great! Yay! I'm sorry, but I do feel like I deserve this this year. My 8th graders last year were my own personal nightmare, and I had them for 7th grade too. So, cheers to me.

Despite the germs and crowded halls, I think this is going to be a good year. The atmosphere is a little different, because some of the students who transferred over think that it's unfair that they have to be at this school instead of their old school. But I think after this year that will blow over. Here's hoping for a fantastic year!