Thank You

Thanks for your comments, those of you who offered advice. And to those who just offered comfort. I feel almost stupid because I hardly know these girls, but again, the affect on my students has been dramatic which directly affects me. Today was the first day that I actually had my own students (I only teach English on B days) and it was very difficult. I prayed for the right words to say. I was so nervous, not knowing how to address the students in my room, some of whom were already sobbing.
Our student body officers were great and in announcements they played the girl's favorite song and then had a moment of silence. I was doing great until that point. Strong, slightly removed, but then they played Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up." Unfortunately, music has always had a major impact on my emotional status and that powerful song, a song about Heavenly Father's ability to raise us high, resulted in tears. . .just in time for me to get up and address the class. So I went up with tears streaming down my face, hardly able to speak words, and I could see almost every student in my class was crying, even the tough boys in the back. Despite how awful this is, I can see that this event will strengthen our classroom. We all have some sort of bond...something we can connect to. But oh, man...looking at those tear-stained faces, I just didn't know how to help. But then I began to speak and I don't even remember what I said, but I felt so much better, I feel so much better. And I think I might have said the right things too...something about a tragedy, how she will be missed...but I also talked about compassion for the girl driving.
It seems that now that we have addressed the grief straight on, we can go on with life, remembering both girls. But I feel dumb...how do you say, "Okay, now set aside your sadness...we have work to do?" I guess I need to find a balance. We'll see how it goes...their personal writing time is almost up...