Matt Sanders

Ask almost anyone where they were on September 11th, 2001 and they will be able to tell
you with remarkable clarity where and what they were doing. Psychologists call memories like
that flashbulb memories and they occur only during times of great crisis and emergency; the
last one before the 9/11 terrorist attacks that garners a similar level of lucidness in memory being
John F. Kennedys assassination. However, this year marks the first year that high school
freshmen are part of a graduating class that was collectively born after September 11 th, 2001. The
events that transpired that day and immediately after irrevocably altered the course, destiny, and
identity of the entire nation. However, since I teach 7th graders, none of them were alive for these
events and they may as well be just another chapter in their textbook.
In order to convey just how important this event was to our nation and to individuals the
students will track down primary sources, including but not limited to, interviews with
individuals who were alive during the attacks as well as newspaper and magazine articles and
video clips. The students will use video recording and editing equipment to capture any
interviews that they conduct and include any newspaper articles or videos that they find into a
digital scrapbook to showcase their efforts.
As of the moment there are approximately 350 7th grade students who attend Mountain
Trail Middle School and all of them would be completing this assignment. Over the course of the
next 2 years, provided the number of students attending remains relatively the same that is
another 700 students that will feel the impact of this assignment. All of these students will be
better equipped to handling any further terror incidents since they will have a sharp
understanding of the recent history regarding the United States relationship with terror and how

events are causally related. This project will lay the foundations that will better equip these
future leaders and thinkers to benefit the safety our country.
Matt Sanders is a first year teacher who teaches at Mountain Trail Middle School and thoroughly
believes in the usefulness of technology in the classroom. He earned his bachelors and masters
degrees in education from Arizona State University. His teaching philosophy is that of an
informationist. With the advent of the internet students have almost all of human knowledge at
their fingertips. Teaching them rote information is meaningless in such a context. Instead, it is
the job of the teacher to teach students how to find quality and peer reviewed information.