Not again. . .

Last February the elementary school I work at experienced a terrible tragedy. One of our students' father and mother were killed in an apparent murder-suicide. We had grief counselors come in and there were a lot of tears.
This weekend I briefly heard about a plane crash on the local news but didn't really pay attention until I heard two teenagers had died and went to a school in my district. Unfortunately, it just got worse. When I went to work this morning I was hit with the news that one of the girls killed in the plane crash had a sister at our school, in the other third grade class. It was a sad day even though I didn't personally know either of the girls. I told my class about the plane crash this afternoon and it was one of those times "it" hit me-how significant my job really is. Not only do I teach my students how to write, read, and do math, but I also teach them how to treat other human beings, accept people's differences, and deal with tragedy. Wow.