At my school, one of the faculty members -- a social studies teacher who has been around since the conception of the school some two, three years ago -- has been battling cancer since June, 2010. He's been in the school since that date, and even talked in some of my classes about specific events that occurred in History, or about AP Human Geography -- the student newspaper, the one I work on, dedicated an entire issue to him (first issue) due to his condition and there were many, many, many students at some of the events done for this teacher. This particular teacher was always very outgoing, very friendly and very considerate of others -- he had a huge reputation with the students, a positive one, and many people who were in his classes absolutely loved having him as an instructor.

This morning, this teacher passed away.

The entire day at school was mostly quiet, many, many students needing to leave classes in order to see one of the available counselors provided by the district. By the end of the day, more than half of the students in my regular class were not present.

Over 100 students left the building to go home in grief, each one crying as if he or she had lost a parent -- I figure many of them knew this teacher like a parent, so the event probably brought on that level of pain.

Even though he had never taught a class of mine, I learned quite a bit from him just on the times he'd randomly come into the class room to debate history with another social studies teacher. He always seemed very joyful, happy to be alive and happy to be able to work, and happy to help create a community at the school. He was always very light hearted, and rarely blew things out of proportion like some teachers.

In short, I'm incredibly sad that this teacher will no longer be able to work at the school. I would have loved to have had a class with him, as he is regarded as the best social studies teacher in the building and one of the best in the district -- he has the awards to prove it.

I just wanted to type my thoughts on this.

As another note, if I come off rather distant or cold in IM, or in any messages, sorry -- it's not you, it's just what transpired today.