I have been a classroom teacher for nine years now. Within that time, I can only remember two moments in recent history that I have gotten to share with my students. Today was the second one, the shuttle Discovery taking its last flight. I teach just three to four miles away from Dulles International Airport. My school's playground serves as a flight path for numerous flights. Many teachers decided to take our classes outside and watch the skies for the shuttle. The cool fifth grade teacher who goes on the roof to recover lost kickballs and frisbees was our lookout. He would call me, I'd relay information to all the other teachers via walkie talkie and then we would update our kids. We debated if the front of the school or the back of the school on the hill was the best spot to view the flight path. The first time we saw the shuttle was brief. We got a three second glimpse and then it went behind the tree line. After that, we scurried back inside to watch the plane on the news.
When the plane was making its way back to our area, we hurried back outside. We got a longer viewer, but it was hard to get a good picture. See if you can spot it in my picture.
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| It's very close to the center of the picture |
Not being able to view the plane clearly or up close was not a big deal, just seeing it was very exciting. Watching my kids glued to the television and fielding their questions afterwards was an amazing feeling. It's what teaching
SHOULD be all about. I'm hoping my students will remember this day for a long time.
