Volunteer Work New Orleans MERLOT Conf Aug 6 2007

The annual MERLOT conference last week in New Orleans was even more useful and enjoyable than previous ones. Thanks to Diane Didier from the Louisiana Board of Regents. With the support of the MERLOT Conference Program Committee, she organized a volunteer work day on August 6.

So Sally [Gilbert] and I had the privilege of joining about 30 others last Monday for a half-day of "recovery" painting on the third floor of the John Dibert Elementary School in New Orleans - which had been under water for 28 days following Hurricane Katrina.

We learned a lot about what has been happening in the public schools and other parts of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.

The people who are have returned to New Orleans and stayed are still working hard. They face extraordinary challenges. They are truly inspiring.

It is truly shameful that so much more remains to be done to repair and reclaim this historically important and culturally unique American city.

[I've talked with many of you about the worsening "Support Service Crisis" about educational uses of information technology for years, but post-Katrina New Orleans has a REAL "Support Service Crisis" beyond anything we have ever feared.]

This volunteer activity was available to all registrants the day before the conference opened.
For more about this school, See: http://ed.uno.edu/Faculty/rspeaker/
Dibert/DibertNet/About.html.

Our excellent, amusing and conscientious leader was Troy Peloquin, a New Orleans 9th grade science teacher.

Some stalwarts did a full day, and the most stalwart of all worked outdoors scraping and sanding in the extreme heat and humidity. [ANYONE HAVE MORE PHOTOS WE CAN SHOW?]

Has anyone already produced an eClip or BHW [Brief Hybrid Workshop] about this? A BHW is an eClip + other resources. The included eClip is less than 5 minutes and the total BHW is less than 15 minutes. More about eClips & BHWs

Seems like a wonderful idea to offer volunteer options the day before or after ANY conference in any city! Great way to learn more about the city and to develop constructive relations between visitors and locals.

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THANKS, BEE!
Additional photos BELOW were selected from postings by Barbara "Bee" Dieu in Technorati posts and Flickr posts with the tag "merlot2007onlap" [with her "Warm regards from Brazil"]

For more about MERLOT Int'l Conf 2007, see D. W. Proctor's blog: "ProEd Portal"