The week before 9/11, I was looking around online for lessons or activities to do with my students to teach them about the tragic event. It’s important to me that we discuss it and that they know about it. However, none of the things I was seeing on Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers felt right. I didn’t want to do a craft or make them use their reading strategies to answer questions. I just wanted them to understand all the aspects that make 9/11 so important.

So I ended up going into this past Friday (9/11) with no plan at all. I figured there would for sure be a BrainPop I could show the class and then we’d just take it from there.

Before I showed the BrainPop video, I asked the students what they knew about 9/11. They all answered with some form of, “a plane crashed into two towers.” I briefly explained the events that happened that day and then told them we would talk about it more after the video.

When I mentioned I was only 3 years old in 2001 so I didn’t remember much, one student asked, “How are you not a grandma yet?!” because to my students, it is something that happened so long ago. I can’t blame them. It was almost 10 years before they were even born!

I showed them this BrainPop video in the morning when we had a little extra free time after they finished a test. I really liked the video and thought it did a great job of explaining, not only the events of 9/11, but also the impact those events had and why they happened – all in a very appropriate way for elementary school students. Afterward, we discussed the events of 9/11 a little more and my students asked to see some real footage of the attacks. I tried to find some appropriate real footage to show them, but it was all blocked on the school’s server.

When I went into one of my team member’s room during specials, she mentioned a video she just previewed that she was going to show her students. It was about the story of the man with the red bandana. I remembered reading this story posted on Facebook last year, but didn’t realize ESPN had done a video on it. My friend said that while it made her bawl her eyes out, it was very appropriate for our 5th graders. Knowing the story and wanting to give my students a more in-depth, personal look at 9/11 that I couldn’t personally offer, I decided to show it to them.

The next chance we got, I showed my class the 13-minute Man in the Red Bandana video. I prefaced it by saying it is a sad video and it might make them sad. I told them they might cry and that’s ok because I was probably going to cry too. I assured them our emotions are not something to be embarrassed about and the class agreed if anyone cried, we wouldn’t make fun of them because it was a normal reaction to have to something sad.

The video is about a young man who worked in the World Trade Center and saved many lives by going back upstairs saving groups of people. Because he always carried a red bandana on him, survivors noted the man specifically as someone who saved them. His body was found with the red bandana in the aftermath of 9/11. My students were so engaged in this video, even at the longer length. It made me tear up a few times. When the video ended, a student asked, “Ok who cried?” and almost every student and myself raised our hands.

The students then led the discussion with questions and comments about 9/11 – why it happened, who did it, how it affected people, how it affected America, the US’ response, etc. We ended up talking for over an hour about every aspect of 9/11. If I didn’t have an answer to a question, we looked it up. I showed them pictures of the three 9/11 memorials. The questions and comments they came up with were so sincere and insightful. Even students who rarely speak in class brought up their thoughts.

I’m glad I went into today without much of a plan because the discussions we had were better than any assignment I could have planned. We talked about what the students wanted to talk about for as long as they wanted to discuss it. I gave them all the time in the world to ask their questions and express their concerns. I want them to remember today and, in turn, remember 9/11 even though they weren’t even alive when it happened. My hope is that they carry this information and these feelings with them through life so the next generation, and we as a country, will never forget what happened on September 11, 2001.