Some of you know and some don't that I was away from 12/27 until 1/5. I missed reading the Chip Board everyday. So now let me tell you where I was and brag about the students at the high school where I teach.

Where was I? New Orleans!!!

Who was I with? 29 High School Seniors and 5 other teachers.

Why?

2.5 years ago a major hurricane that hit the Louisiana, and Mississippi coast doing extensive damage. That happened the first day of school here in Maryland. Later that year a group of students approached a friend of mine who teaches math and said that they wanted to go help. That year two teachers took six students down to help. The next year another group of students requested the same trip, and the same teacher took 18 students and 3 other teaches to help. This year another group of students wanted to go andthe same teacher told them to pick three teachers to go with us. I was one of the teachers they picked. I am very honored to be included. So on 12/27 at 6am we headed out to NOLA for six nights of camping and 5 days of work. 3 days with Habitat for Humanity, and 2 days with Animal Rescue New Orleans. Now this is how amazing my students are.

They left their friends and familiy during a week in which most high school seniors spend partying with friends and not doing much of anything productive. The rode in 15 passenger vans packed to the seams with stuff for 34 hours round trip. They camped in tents for six nights and endured temperatures that dropped to 21 degrees, and one night in which it rained 3". They worked in the cold, they cleand cat cages, and picked up dog poop, and washed litter boxes. They put the floor deck on a house, and put up 4 exterior walls and 5 interior walls. They cooked their own food, provided their own entertainment. The laughed, they froze, the got wet, the handled the foulest smelling dog poop ever, they barely slept, and in the end they said CAN WE STAY LONGER, THIS WAS AWESOME!!! Not one student complined about the work, the cold, the food, nothing. They just wanted to help, and that is why I have the greatest job with the greatest students in the world.