I've been teaching now going on 13

years and in all honesty there is only one day that stands out for me.

There were a lot of

little moments here and there

that I felt particularly proud or sad,

but...

...one day that I can

isolate as my best day is also probably my worst

day was within my first week in a

half of teaching.

I had my own classroom. I

had 35 kids in my freshman English

class.

It was a beautiful sunny morning.

September 11, 2001.

Mary's Best Day

I was teaching at

Kellenberg Memorial High

School, which is a catholic prepratory

high school in Long Island.

On a clear day, if

you are standing on the roof of the building, you can

see a little bit of the New York City skyline.

It was a hot day and our

principal was very strict about the kids not taking off

their blazers.

So when the bell for the intercom had rung...

...the kids automaticallly

thought that brother Ken, our principal was going to tell us that

we could take our blazers off.

And I said, "Wait! Wait! We don't know what

the announcement is yet.

Brother Ken came on and I

could tell that he was struggling

to think for himself about what to say.

And the announcement

was: "two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center.

We don't have any other information

at this time."

And that was the

announcement

And immediately I thought if it was just

one plane I could see how maybe it was an accident.

Maybe some guy in a Cessna went off course and made a grave

error.

But two planes?...That

sounded strange.

And the

students in my room had facial

expressions similar to the one

I have now--just

confusion.

Sheer confusion.

And there was a moment of silence...

And then a couple of kids shouted out:

"Two planes? How is that possible?"

And the

class broke out

in a

cacophony..

.

One girl--I don't

remember her name, but she had brown

curly hair and was sitting toward

the back of the class said: "Wait! My dad works in

the World Trade

Center!"

I don't know what happened to me, but in the snap of a finger

I was on.

I said, "Okay,

everybody, sit down, calm

down..."

I have a radio...

And if you are quiet and if

you listen and you don't panic, we'll listen to the radio and find out what

is going on.

So I turned on the

radio and turned to an AM

radio station that I knew

broadcasted news.

And we listened to a reporter for about

three minutes.

And suddenly

he said: "For all intents

we do believe this is a

terrorist attack."

We are under

attack.

And at that moment I

thought it was a good idea to shut off the

radio

I didn't have permission to turn on the radio. I din't know if it was a good idea.

I'd only been

teaching for a week.

This was not

something my teacher preparation program had

set me up for.

It was all...Instinct.

And so I shut the

radio off. The kids were sitting...

And because it

was a catholic

school....

and it seemed

appropriate at the time...

I said, "All Right,

guys, let's...let's

pray. Let's say Hail Mary.

Let's hope for the best.

And we said a hail mary.

And I went

through the rest of my

lesson until the end of

the period.

I don't know if that

was the right thing to

do...

but I felt like I had to keep going.

So after the period was over

there was 4 minutes of

passing time in the hallway.

I stepped outside and met with my colleagues, and we all had the same confused look on

our faces.

I mean, this was 2001.

We all had cellphones, but

nobody was sending text messages, nobody

was on the Intenet. Nobody had looked

at a television.

2nd period came in and we talked briefly about what had happened 1st

period.

There had been no other announcements at that point.

So I proceeded

with my lesson for

second period.

Almost like

autopilot, if you will.

It was like I knew what I had to do in my head and I

just kept going.

3rd period I had free and that

was the first time I saw what was really going

on.

Images of smoke rising

from the tops of the trade

center--both buildings.

Fire....People falling from the

windows...

...Just leaping out of the windows to

their death.

It was all on

camera right in front of

us.

Confused newscasters

narrating through it.

It was during that

period that the first tower

fell.

And I think we were all still really in shock about what was

going on.

While that faculty room is

usually bustling and noisy and

everyone is having coffee, chit-

chatting, working on lesson plans,

grading papers...

Everybody was just

glued to this tiny TV that we

had in the corner.

I didn;t have anybody in the city at that time.

Except a few friends from college and I

had a feeling that they would have been okay.

Nobody worked in the Wrld Trade Center that

I knew of

But During the period I

was summoned down to the main office.

Apparantly, a student who

was in my homeroom had

his mom come up to school to come pick him

up.

He had left his soccer gear in my classroom,

which was not unusual. I often

let them do that.

His name was Connor Gergahty.

Connor was one of my favorite 9th

graders.

Just bubbly and

energetic and cute with freckles.

You can tell

that he was going to be a,

like, a popular

kid.

Everybody liked him.

Mrs. Gergahty needed to

get into the classroom

to get connor's things.

It wasn't

unusual. People were coming to the

school to take the kids out.

In fact I

spent the rest of my

prep periods that day running passes.

Just hanging out at the main office, getting passes for kids whose

parents had come to school to pick them up, getting them out of class and getting thm out of the

building.

Mrs. Gergahty came to my home-room with me and she

picked up Connor's soccer gear

and ... she said : "Connor, go

to your locker and get your things, we're going to go

home."

And she turned to me and I

could tell she was also trying

to hold it together...

And she said,

"My husband is FDNY. Battalion Chief...."

Sorry. This part

always gets me...I'll be

okay.

"My husband is a battalion chief and he works down

there..."

"And his firehouse was the first to respond."

And she said, "I heard from him

when he was on his way,

but I haven't heard from him since."

And her face was a little red, and she was

trying to hold back

tears.

And I could

tell that she was

trying not to cry in front

of her son.

And she said, "I don't

know what to tell

connor."

So I told her

that I would pray for her and for her

husband.

And hoped

that as the day went on

things would get

better.

At this point we had heard about the pentagon being hit.

And we really had

no idea what was going

on.

It was just so frightening.

Mrs. Gergahty Left with connor.

He didn't come back to school for quite

some time.

His father did die on that

day.

They had never

heard from him after that initial phone

call.

And when connor did come back to school later on in the school year--i think he came back in october--he wasn't the same kid.

The best way I can explain

it. It's almost as if he came

back from war.

He wasn't the

same bubbly,

energetic kid that he was at the beginning

of the school year.

And he didn't stick around for

much longer.

He did eventually

leave Kellenberg

.

I think he

finished his freshman

year in public school

Through the beauty of

facebook I've been able to keep in touch with some

of my former students

And I have since

learned that connor has

become

fdny.

I'm proud of him

for that.

I've seen pictures. I know that he's involved with the 5K race called Tunnels

to Towers race.

And they do it for

the memorial fund for

firfighters and their families.

He ran with a

friend with some of his

father's gear.

I think that is really cool.

But that was the

interaction that stood out for me that day.

At one point the principal broke in again

over the loudspeaker

during class.

And he advised us to turn on the television the kids could

watch the news.

And I think the

rational behind that was that he wanted actual

news to come to the kids rather

than just rumors.

So we did that.

We had televisions because of channel one And we

turned on the newsand it was basically

the image of the plane crashing into the tower on repeat over and over again.

We're watching this.

And suddenly it's like...

"maybe this isn't such a good idea.

Maybe we shouldn't be watching the

news."

So then another

announcement came over the

speaker to turn it

off.

Finally, when we were

dismissed for the day, the faculty

congregated in the big room again and

we were watching tv.

And nobody was in a hurry to

get out of there that day. Sports and after school

activities had been

cancelled.

One of my

colleagues left early

because her husband was in the trade

center.

And he was able to call her and say: "I'm not going to be

able to make it out of here."

And I didn't see this happen...

But other teachers had, and they were

incredibly emotional as a

result.

I remember about a week or so later, school was cancelled so

we could go to his funeral.

And that was a tough moment for

me.

It was standing room

only at that church and the

whole faculty had gone, and it was

only just another reason that I felt

part of that family at

Kellenberg.

I didn't cry all day.

I think I was in

some kind of state of

shock, for the most

part.

I felt like I was in control

all the time.

And when I had a chance to reflect on this later

on...

That's why I

thought that this was my best day

so far.

And it's 2013 and I can still look back on that day from 2001 and say

that that was my best day so

far.

That was when instinct kicked in.

That was when I had

those 35 face in the room who

were accountable

to me.

And I had to do the best I could for

them.

I had to keep them

calm.

I had to give

them the information

that they needed

without giving them so much

that they were

afraid.

I don't know if I did the right

thing, but looking back I think I did

the best I possible could

have.

I can't tell you

what happened the

next day or the day after that or any other

day in the following

weeks.

With the

exception of my

colleague's husband's funeral.

but that day vividly stands out as

my best day

Because that was the day I knew I had

made the right decision--not

necessarily teaching--but working with kids.

I knew I could do it.