Julie Michaels

Highland Grove intervention teacher Julie Michaels was excited to receive an invitation for her school's Day of the Teacher celebration May 13.

Julie Michaels, a part-time teacher at Highland Grove Elementary School, has a son at Beattie Middle School.

"My husband and I would support it 100 percent," she said."We realize there's an increase in expenses and students and realize the challenge with construction costs rising," she said.

"He knew that we were doing some blogging and he wanted to see if we'd do this topic," intervention teacher Julie Michaels said.

Five fifth-graders were selected to practice blogging before teaching their peers and going live Thursday.

"I think that so many of our student have been exposed to a lot of technology with cellphones and e-mail," Michaels said. "They're used to chatting with each other and blogging is different. We've done some training with that as well."

A new question will appear on the school Web site for three weeks and fifth-graders can answer it at school or at home.

"Each one is going to open for comments for a week," Michaels said.
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"Depending on what the success is, I'd like to open it to other students and other topics, but this is kind of our pilot program," Michaels said.

The program was coordinated by intervention teacher Julie Michaels and Gifted and Talented Education teacher Teresa Steinbroner, as well as Redman and Sanborn.

"The French Quarter was in great shape," said alumni association president Julie Michaels, "but the second you leave that area, it's like time stood still.
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to Michaels, a handful of small private schools and only one public elementary school is operating, serving two parishes (civil parishes are judicial jurisdictions similar to counties in other states), with nearly 2,000 students.A pharmacy and a grocery store are the only retail outlets for miles.

"Walking down some of those neighborhoods was sometimes kind of eerie, like you were walking through a ghost town," said Michaels, a 1992 graduate of the University of Redlands School of Business.
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I wasn't exactly expecting the area to still be in such great need," Michaels said.

Michaels, an intervention teacher and librarian at Highland Grove Elementary School in Highland, said that her school is collaborating with the University of Redlands Alumni Association to adopt Andrew Jackson Elementary School to provide sweatshirts and school uniforms.

While Michaels helped build staircases and poured concrete in Musicians' Village and East Village, assistant director of Alumni Relations Coco Haupt hung siding, caulked windows and beams, and helped paint a house on Dale Street in New Orleans East.
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Michaels said that the Alumni Association has made a pact: They will return on an annual basis to help in New Orleans.