Carrie:

Yes, I think you might be able to get a very positive response from teachers and certainly from students about their reaction, feelings, impact, and concerns about this monumental event in history.And yes, I think they would take time to provide you with feedback.   Getting a cross-section of discipines, and grade-levels would be advantageous, and maybe because of the enormity of the mandate, you might want to run the panel discussions via Conference call or Webinars.  Additionally, I would schedule several so you can get more accurate data with a lower margin of error for the aggregate data.

Just a thought.

Carrie, how exciting to be able to work with the National Museum of American History! All of these comments are great, and I would like to add that for a good introduction to the 9/11 disaster, or other important events, I always start my high school students with Google Earth. We go to the site as it is in the present, and everyone loves to explore, especially at the street level, or with 3-D buildings.  Currently you can see the construction area, and there are plenty of pictures of what happened, and Wikipedia sites you can click on to learn more. By having students "see" what it looks like now, it helps them visualize the experience, and it opens it up for discussion. (by the way, do not search for "9/11" or you end up in the middle of Africa). Several teachers do not trust Wikipedia for accuracy, and it would be great if the National Museum of American History were to place a hotspot on the Google Earth map for students to learn more.

What an exciting discussion we are witnessing on how to approach this sensitive subject. As we all have agreed, the way in which the topic of 9/11 is addressed will vary with the ages of the students we are teaching.  Perhaps, the interactive hub or wheel idea where each grade level can be brought to life with the appropriate suggestions on how to address the topic would be a option for all of us.

Remembering the sense of outrage, disbelief, and violation that the people of the United States felt, and how cars and homes throughout the land began exhibiting the American Flag is part of the way we communicate our thoughts about this event That sense of what it is like to be an American is the linchpin to discussing the actual event. This event, like a few others in our American History cannot be lectured about.  The discussions about what patriotism is, what heros are, what does it mean to have freedom and live in a country that protects it, are the kinds of discussions from middle school up that should be fostered. Perhaps something as simple as on the anniversary of the disaster, students could engage in a random act of kindness toward their fellow students, neighbors, friends, etc  This act of kindness could be just simply telling another person thank you for a deed or thought.  This could be much like those of us who travel and meet some of our troops as they are moving in an out of assignments, and we merely say thank you to them for their service.  Generating this kind of positive attitude among felllow beings might be a way to provide a common strength for our republic.

I used the local newspaper to teach and review the incidents of 9/11.  Although, unfortunately, the book burning took center stage, it did generate many aritcles and opinions in the newspaper. My students analyzed and wrote their own editorials in response to these articles.