My Heart Goes Out to Sandy Hook Elementary

      I was teaching back-to-back lessons to 7th grade classes all day on Friday, the same day of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.  Although I was teaching online researching skills, I was limiting students to using our subscription databases, rather than using Google or other websites (that is a different lesson). I checked my email between classes and had no real access to outside media or news. I left school around 3:30 pm, eager to pick my kids up from their school. I didn't find out about the tragedy until I got to their school parking lot and I checked my Facebook and Twitter accounts on my iPhone. I sat in the parking lot of my sons' school and read the news on my phone, while watching my smiling kindergartener play touch football on the playground with some friends. Like many parents across America, I raced into the school to pick them up and hug and kiss their sweet, innocent faces. As I entered my passcode to get into the building, I overheard tidbits from quiet conversations among other parents and the front office staff. Words like: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Movie Theater. Walking down the hall to their classrooms to get them, I heard the principal say in a sad tone, "I think a lot of parents will be picking up their kids a little early today." Imagine the feeling the victims' parents had when they went to pick their children up from school that day. Imagine the absolute terror the teachers, staff, and students must have felt when they heard the gunshots.  Imagine the gut-wrenching feeling of the people who had to deliver the news to families of the 26 victims of this horrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the entire community.

       It's now Sunday night and my heart is still heavy and my stomach is uneasy. This is going to be a long week.