Sarah Clayville of Carlisle High School, Carlisle, PA, was the final recipient of the NEHS Chapter Advisor Grant. The Chapter Advisor Grant has been replaced, and superseded, by the new NEHS Professional Support Grants, which look to provide more wide-ranging financial support to Chapter Advisors looking to to broaden and deepen their knowledge and skills on topics related to the teaching of the English Language Arts and other fields that will have a positive impact on their students and NEHS Chapter.
I consider myself fairly tech savvy for a veteran teacher. With the arrival of new social media mediums and educational programs daily, I have modified my instruction and assessments to allow students to keep up with the times. But the recent onslaught of artificial intelligence has felt different. Rather than a new tool in education, AI has left me with many more questions than answers. How do I ensure students aren’t cheating? How do I get my students to value their own thinking over a computer program that works faster and sometimes better than they do? How do I not let AI radically harm the quality of assessment in my classroom?
Thanks to a generous grant from the NEHS, attending the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) summer education answered many of these questions and more while also opening new doors of service for our local NEHS chapter. In the upcoming year we now plan to digitize many of our resources, to assist teachers, students, and local organizations who don’t necessarily have the workforce to offer literacy resources. While we still advocate for person-to-person interaction, this new layer of support will be a vital way for NEHS to multiply its impact on our community.
In my own classroom, attending ISTE assuaged many of my fears about the impending flood of AI interruption in our writing assessments. Digital storytelling and mind mapping are just two of the strategies I learned to shift focus from solely the final project to assessing the process through visual and digital strategies. Not only does this help to make sure students are using their work, not AI, but I will be able to provide more support along the way.
In a time when technology feels like it is shifting the ground beneath us, this opportunity helped me glean a variety of new programs, meet with colleagues in a digital setting, and bring back a renewed excitement on how to approach technology both with the Carlisle Chapter and my classrooms, not to mention resources I can share with my peers.
(General info about my debut novel: Delilah and the Cracked Cauldron is a middle grade fantasy tale for fans of magic, family ties, and the enduring power of friendship. It just broke the 1,000-book sales mark and has reached five countries outside of the US. I’ve been able to do book chats with kids in England, Israel, and I’m available to virtually chat with classes about how to write a book or any other creative writing needs.)
Sarah Clayville
NEHS Advisor Grant Recipient, 2023
Carlisle High School Chapter, Advisor
Carlisle High School, Carlisle, PA
Professional Support Grant
NEHS values its Chapter Advisors’ dedication to constantly working to improve their teaching practice. To this end, new Professional Support Grants are available to provide financial support for teachers looking to broaden and deepen their knowledge and skills on topics related to the teaching of the English Language Arts and other fields that will have a positive impact on their students and NEHS Chapter.
Awards
Awards of between $25 and $350 are granted twice per year.
- Proposals for implementation during summer/fall 2024: April 15 – 29, 2024
Eligibility
- Applications can only come from a current NEHS Chapter Advisor at a school in good standing with NEHS.
- Applicants cannot have received an Advisor Grant in the previous calendar year.
- Applications cannot be made less than one month prior to the event/purchase.
Example Grant Requests
- Registration to a local, state, or national conference or convention focused either on the English language arts or other issue of importance to the Advisor’s work as an educator
- Fees for educational courses, seminars, speakers, or presentations related to some aspect of the English language arts or other issue of importance to the Advisor’s work as an educator
- Professional, pedagogical texts selected to enhance teaching skills or a set of texts to be used within English department at the Advisor’s school*
- Pedagogical resources (including, but not limited to, posters, bulletin board materials, identity/heritage month celebration materials) which will promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the Advisor’s classroom
* Advisors should not use this grant to request books for student use. Applications should be made, instead, to the Classroom Library Grant.
