An English teacher always apologizes for his or her typos. A GOOD English teacher checks for typos before submitting things to be read. Therefore, I am sorry.
I was in the second grade - Mrs. Barrett's class. In the months leading up to the take-off, the school had gone classroom by classroom writing letters to McAuliffe telling her how proud we were of her being the first teacher in space. I remember our letter was written on that big brown paper used to help kids work on their penmanship with capital and lower case letters. It sat on the chalkboard ledge for weeks before they were all collected and sent out.
On the afternoon of the launch, we had an inside recess due to the weather, but they did not broadcast the Challenger on TV's or the PA system. We just sat playing and running around the classroom - oblivious to everything but toys and games. I was showing off my new Batmobile toy that I got and brought for show and tell when all of a sudden our teacher showed up and the news went around class that the shuttle had exploded. My audience of a couple of kids split and joined the others in the middle of the room - circling around Mrs. Barrett. I watched from the corner and eventually followed.
I still have this surreal image in my mind of this old solemn-faced lady standing larger than life amongst a sea of second graders all chanting and barking, 'The Challenger blew up! The Challenger blew up!'
I currently teach English at the secondary leve and prior to reading Hamlet, the curriculum had us read about the circumstances surrounding the Challenger tragedy. The point was to illustrate the process of making decisions and the factors that lend themselves to tragedy. It was quite the old man moment for me to sit their before a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds and reflect with the "I remember where I was when . . . " story were all talking about.
It makes me wonder what my kids' "where were you when . . ." will be? How tragic will it be and to what degree will it affect their lives. Will I be around to comfort them, or if I'm still around, will they have to comfort me? Anyway, I'm going off the deep end here so I'll stop.
On the afternoon of the launch, we had an inside recess due to the weather, but they did not broadcast the Challenger on TV's or the PA system. We just sat playing and running around the classroom - oblivious to everything but toys and games. I was showing off my new Batmobile toy that I got and brought for show and tell when all of a sudden our teacher showed up and the news went around class that the shuttle had exploded. My audience of a couple of kids split and joined the others in the middle of the room - circling around Mrs. Barrett. I watched from the corner and eventually followed.
I still have this surreal image in my mind of this old solemn-faced lady standing larger than life amongst a sea of second graders all chanting and barking, 'The Challenger blew up! The Challenger blew up!'
I currently teach English at the secondary leve and prior to reading Hamlet, the curriculum had us read about the circumstances surrounding the Challenger tragedy. The point was to illustrate the process of making decisions and the factors that lend themselves to tragedy. It was quite the old man moment for me to sit their before a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds and reflect with the "I remember where I was when . . . " story were all talking about.
It makes me wonder what my kids' "where were you when . . ." will be? How tragic will it be and to what degree will it affect their lives. Will I be around to comfort them, or if I'm still around, will they have to comfort me? Anyway, I'm going off the deep end here so I'll stop.
Bye