I’m going to start this post with an excerpt from an Education Week article that came out shortly after the Sandy Hook shootings:

Rather than succumbing to fear and frustration, many teachers are finding inspiration in Newtown. “This is how we all believe we would react,” Ferlazzo said.

Ferlazzo added that a popular recent tweet by Jason Flom, director of learning platforms at QED Foundation, expressed a sentiment felt by many teachers: “Stories of teacher heroics in #Newtown should put to rest suggestions/accusations of teachers not putting students first.”

Flom was referring to the charge often heard in education policy debates that teachers—and particularly teachers’ unions—put their own professional interests ahead of what’s best for students.

Along a similar vein, here are some articles I’m adding to The Best Multimedia For Learning About The Midwest & Oklahoma Tornadoes:

Teachers Are Awesome: Educators as Heroes in Oklahoma Tornado is from GOOD.

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This AP photo of teachers carrying students.

Here’s a partial transcript of the video embedded below:

REPORTER: there have been some amazing stories of survival that are starting to emerge from the rubble and i have one of those, brandi klein, damien klein and bobby britain. damien you’re a fourth grader at plaza tower elementary school. do you remember anything from yesterday?

CHILD: we were in glass and all we heard was the sirens go off and we all ran to the hallway. some of us had a math book, some of us had backpacks and they went off again, then we ducked again and then it went off and then we went in the bathroom, and then they went off again and then we heard the tornado and it sounded like a train coming by, and then we all, we were all covered and a teacher took cover of us, miss crossway.

REPOTER: miss crossway threw her body right over you, didn’t she?

CHILD: yes.

REPORTER: watts she covering you and some other students?

CHILD: she was covering me and my friend, zachary, and then she, i told her that we were fine because we were holding onto something and she went over to my friend antonio and covered him, and then so she saved our lives.

REPORTER: she did save your lives. how long do you remember being under the teacher? how long did it feel like for the tornado to pass over you?

CHILD: about five minutes.

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This is from The New Yorker:

At AgapeLand Learning Center, according to the Times, teachers “hustled some 15 children into two bathrooms, draping them with a protective covering.” The roof was blown off, and some debris fell on the tarp, but the children weren’t hurt. Underneath, the teachers were leading them in singing “You Are My Sunshine.”

Backpacks, Human Shields, Above and Beyond: The Oklahoma Teacher Heroes is from The Atlantic.


Teachers Credited With Saving Students in Okla
. is from ABC.

The courage of teachers is from CNN.

‘It’s just our job’ — teacher who saved students from tornado from The Washington Post

Quote Of The Day: Respecting & Honoring The Teaching Profession

Teachers were heroic protectors is from USA Today.

Must-Read Article: “Teachers’ lessons in heroism and healing”