LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Most adults remember where they were on September 11th, when the airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers.
It happened 19 years ago this Friday. Nineteen years ago most of today's students were not yet born.
Now teachers and parents have a virtual option to teach about this important event in our history in an age appropriate way.
Global Game Changers Student Empowerment Program is a nonprofit based in Louisville, Kentucky. But thanks to technology their programming is available everywhere, including East Tennessee.
Board President and Co-Founder, Jan Helson, said "The mission of Global Game Changers is to empower children to discover their inner superpower to make the world a better place. Ultimatel,y we want to build social emotional learning skills in students to help them cope with situations that they encounter in life, to be stronger citizens, to be more civically engaged,v and so we do this through our empowerment program that uses service learning as the vehicle to get there."
The academic program called '911 Lesson: Celebrating Real Life Superheroes' reflects those values.
Brandon Graves is a teacher and important part of GGC. In one video, he coaches teachers on best practices for 911 classes.
"We have different lessons designed for different age groups. So, on the kindergarten, first grade level, a lot of this is about finding the helpers around you, when there is dangerous situations: your fire department your police department, these are all helpers. How do you become a hero yourself? A lot of that is knowing safety plans in your building. But then on, on the older level fifth grade and fourth grade where we do a lot of oral histories speaking to people about speaking to people who are there on that day," he said.
The 911 lessons are available online along with other GGC resources.
"Our educational lessons are very user friendly so parents can pull down the lessons and do them one on one with students or teachers can use them in the classroom setting or in today's world in a virtual classroom setting," Jan said. "They're very appropriate for great interaction and a great way for them to help them understand the events of 911."