The students watched in silence as people flung themselves off 20th story windows, and they listened as observers screamed when the airplane hit a second building, sending debris and billowing smoke into the air.

“Anybody have any idea what’s falling out of those windows?” teacher Tom Compton asked. “Those are people.

“This was a very scary day,” he told his class.

For his ninth grade social studies class Friday, Compton showed a brief video taken by an amateur videographer as planes struck the Twin Towers on Sept. 11.

The video is the beginning of continuing class time the teacher will spend on the terrorist attacks.

“We’re going to get into more of the personal accounts … have some student discussion,” he said.

A second year teacher at Austin High School, Compton believes that classes should be about more than textbooks.

“It’s social studies, so you’ve got to be social,” he said. Student discussion is important to him, and even gives him ideas for future lessons.

“They make my job a lot easier when they bring forth ideas,” he said. “I hope what they get out of it is education. They’re at the age now where school’s starting to really, really matter to them.”

For the second part of class Friday, students watched a recording of President Obama’s speech to students from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. on Tuesday.

“I just figured it was important,” Compton said.

Students could choose not to watch the speech and sit outside in the hallway to work on other assignments. About a dozen students opted to sit out the speech.

Compton asked students to take notes on specific aspects of the speech, and they answered questions at the end of the video. He told students that Obama’s message was that students must set goals to achieve what they want in life.

“No matter what you want to do with your life, I can guarantee you’ll need an education to do it,” Compton said. “If you quit school, you’re not just quitting on yourself — you’re quitting on your country.”

Compton asked his class if it is OK to fail.

“Yes,” senior Jamie Corvin, 17, said, “because failure helps you learn.”

Compton referenced Obama’s comments about former basketball star Michael Jordan, who was cut from his high school basketball team.

“His father got murdered, so he quit basketball for a couple years,” Nathan Robbins, 15, added.

Students were asked what goals they had for the year.

“I want to pass all my classes this year,” Laney Doe, 14, said.

“That’s a great goal,” Compton said.

Fifteen-year-old Jesica Alfaro considered sitting in the hall during the speech, but was glad she chose to stay.

“I thought it was interesting,” she said. “He really makes us think about what we should do in the future.”