As our 2014 service trip to Paul Habans Charter School comes to a close, we all walk away knowing that the student have a wonderful library. We have scanned all of the school's books into the library check out system and placed the books on the shelves in order by Lexile reading level. This was the schools main objective for the team of 18 and 1/4 volunteers. (hopefully someone will explain the 1/4) We completed this objective on Thursday morning but the wonderful team of over achievers would not stop there. We also put tennis balls on chairs and desks (Great Job, Oliver!), organized the teacher resource room (thanks Matt and your team), and now that we are expert book levelers, we leveled another thousand or more books and placed them on the shelves. GREAT JOB TO THE WHOLE TEAM(Karen, Tyler, Eunice, Gina, Jennie, Ana, Oliver, Matt, Nina, Paul, Angela, Martin, Kate, Jessica, Yadi, Ginger, Chris and 1/4)! Thank you for making my first year as your leader such a pleasure.

Hard at work scanning books into the Paul Habans Charter School library check out system.

The end of day two and the team is already accomplishing more than the school had anticipated. The books in the library are almost all scanned into the library check out system and two small break out teams have started to scan in the classroom books into the system.

Back to NOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Around this time 2 months ago, I thought I wasn't able to go to NOLA this year, but with convincing of Karen and my boss Peggy (my boss at Goodwill) I decided to go back to NOLA.   It will be super excited because this year my roommate Jennifer Hager cannot go to NOLA due to Illness so, I get to room with Karaoke Kathrean who Jennifer and I had so much fun at the Karaoke place called Cats Meow.  Hope to get a lot of powder sugar on my black shirt again.  I'm definitely ready to work hard during day time and have fun during night time.  See you all at Orientation everyone.

Trip #3... and More to Come

Every year around this time, I am worried about where I will be teaching and what my end of year will be like. August is always full of uncertainty, but one thing is always certain. I will be back with my NOLA Family at some point in August, and I look forward to this trip every year.

This year was a bit different for me, because I was on the administrative/planning side. There were a few hiccups, but everything seemed to go as close to plan as possible. Everyone went to New Orleans with a vision and purpose, and we all returned with sad hearts that the week had to end so soon. Every minute we spend in one of our New Orleans schools humbles us and makes us wish we could do more.

For trip 2, Harriet Tubman Elementary called us back this year, and we were a bit nervous about being put back on the task of organizing the library. I personally envisioned two rooms filled with books that were just kept there and never moved since last summer. This was thankfully not the case, yet there was lots of work to be done. Once we were able to see the actual teacher resource library, we knew what needed to be accomplished There were plenty of books on the shelves and thousands that still needed to be leveled, labeled, and shelved. We delegated tasks and were able to provide a functioning teacher resource library for Harriet Tubman and felt a great sense of accomplishment.

We made friends, had laughs, ate beignets, and formed an attachment to the work we do in New Orleans. I am certainly look forward to the next trip which can't come soon enough, but has lots of work and planning to get us there.

Let the good times roll!!!!!

New Orleans Trip 2012
I wanted to say, I had such a blast. It was fun meeting Genie, Christine, Jennifer, Eunice, Caroline, Erin at Arthur Ashe, Morgan, Brenda and Mildred.  Tyler, Karen, Kathleen, and Adrienne it was good to see you again.  Helping rebuild Arthur Ashe was such an honor to do and it was fun as well. Doing the tour with Toni was fun to do even though it was sad to a good portion of the houses by the hurricane, but I am also glad I saw some Brad Pitt houses as well.  It was sure fun having some of  my favorite New Orleans food, like Gumbo, Jambalaya, Beignets at Cafe Du Monde and plenty of others.  I had such a blast having dinner with the group on most nights.  The Bienville House once again was a great place to stay at again.  Overall I had a such blast and I hope to come back next summer in 2013. 

3 Different Trips...3 Different Experiences

Greetings from New Orleans. This has been my 3rd year volunteering with this service learning experience and I must say that each time I walk away feeling more grateful and humbled by what we do. On the first day of arrival I was greeted by our veterans as well as some new PACE students eager to get started with our week long adventure. After our yearly lunch tradition, visit to museums and shops we all met to discuss our assignment. Karen mapped out our expectations but advised the group to be prepared for anything.

As we all began our first day here in NOLA myself, Angela and Tyler ventured to Arthur Ashe school which was the school group 1 had worked the previous week. Upon our arrival I was amazed to see such a beautiful new school. This school and it's surroundings were much different than any of the previous schools we've worked in. I also got a chance to meet up with the school's principal Ms. Sivi Domango whom I had the pleasure of befriending on my first trip when she was the principal of John Dibert School. Our assignment was to finish up any small tasks they had left to do. Our trio was able to assist Mrs. Atkins in completing the set-up of her new reading resource room because she was going to be the new RTI teacher. We completed new shelving units and bagged all of necessary books. Mrs. Atkins was very appreciative and rewarded our efforts by driving us home and sharing her take on New Orleans living and teaching. We had a great day.

On day 2 we joined the group to work once again at the Harriet Tubman school leveling our infamous books. Chicago's Finest (as we were named by teacher Mr. Briggs) was in the building ready to work! Our group worked on leveling, organizing and clearing books to create a functioning library for the staff and students. As we all gazed upon our mound of books once again we rolled up our sleeves ready for the challenge.

As each day has passed our mountains of books have become small organized hills and we all feel so accomplished. I've said this in previous years and I will continue to say we do this for the students and not for us. It's our selfless acts whether big or small that makes a difference in each school that we're fortunate to work in. Round of applause volunteers of P.I.E. job well done!