On Monday Lahuerte gathered her students to start a discussion, beginning each class with one simple question: “What happened this weekend?” With each group of students, their first answer was the same: “Paris.”

According to Laheurte, the students had the expected reactions to the attacks. “The most common one-word shares were: horrible, shocked, upset, speechless, sad, angry, scared,” she said.

Laheurte and Robinson provided their students with opportunities to express their feelings, and led conversations surrounding global awareness. Lahuerte said it was important for her to explain to her students that terrorism is a worldwide issue, and that Lebanon, Baghdad, and Syria were also impacted.

After their discussion, the students were allowed to use any material to respond to the following prompt: “If you could share or express anything with those who were directly affected by any of these tragedies, what might you say, or show?” Read more…