9/11 was a day of terror in American history. 3 planes struck important landmarks in our country: the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, our military headquarters. A fourth plane was brought down by the passengers and crew in a field in Pennsylvania. These attacks sparked decades of war in Afghanistan, but they also showed how, in times of need, Americans would help their neighbors. 

In honor of the event's twenty-fourth anniversary, we interviewed Mrs. Seifer, 8th-grade math teacher, about her experience on that fateful day.

Q: What were you doing on 9/11/2001?

A: I was teaching 8th-grade math in what used to be Room 205, but is now 218. Literally at that moment, I was in study hall, because we used to have study hall period 2, before block scheduling, and nobody in this school building knew anything that was happening outside in the world. And my husband, who had just gotten off the PATH train, and had walked outside the World Trade Center, called the school, and told the secretary what was happening. There were no smartphones, teachers did not have laptops, there were no smartboards, but there was a TV in the faculty room. It was all a blur. There's always a piece of me that feels like it was just yesterday. We were just trying to keep everybody calm. We knew that we had so many students whose parents worked in NYC, just like today. We had so many teachers who had family members who worked in the city, and I guess the hardest thing was just not knowing. Our technology now is just so in our faces every second. We just didn’t know. We lost a bunch of community members that day. We had children in our building who lost parents. We had faculty members who lost loved ones. 

Q: What was your first reaction when you first heard about the events?

A: Just disbelief. And I think so many people's first reaction was that it was an accident and that it was one little small plane that had a bad day. And then it just turned into this day of terror.

Q: How did the students you were teaching respond when they learned of the events?

A: We really sheltered them. They didn’t know. We didn’t know enough about it to be able to tell them.

Q: How have the events impacted you or any loved ones?

A: Each day is a gift. Don’t sweat the small stuff.