Alpha Nu’s Teacher Grant Program
The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International encourages chapters to create supportive connections with early-career educators, especially those in the first three years of employment. The hope is that with such support, teachers would be career educators, reversing the trend of new teachers leaving the profession.
In the 2008-2009 school year, Alpha Nu Chapter began awarding a $250 grant to a woman educator who was currently a first to third year full-time teacher in the Beaverton School District. The applicant submitted a written application including a brief summary of how she would use the award to enhance the educational experience of her students. A letter of recommendation was also required. A committee selected the recipient and the grant was awarded to the teacher at a spring chapter meeting.
The grant was awarded with the same criteria and process until the 2012-2013 school year when Beaverton Schools had a hiring moratorium and laid off many new teachers because of a budget shortfall. That year, chapter members were considered as applicants.
In the 2013-2014 school year, the chapter formed a partnership with Beaverton’s Chehalem Elementary School and it was decided we would support educators in that school who applied for help with special projects and our chapter members.
Since 2014 grant money has been available to Alpha Nu members and Chehalem Elementary School teachers.
Teacher Grant Recipients
2008-2009 — A first-year, physical education teacher at Errol Hassell Elementary School bought some specific equipment to maximize her students’ learning skills and master benchmark goals.
2009-2010 — A sixth-grade math and science teacher at Cedar Park Middle School used the money to buy a hand-held motion detector which relays real-time information directly to a calculator which in turn displays a graph comparing distance with time. The real-time technology gives students instant feedback and a sense of authenticity in their learning as well as encouraging investigation and collaboration.
2010-2011 — An eighth-grade science teacher at Cedar Park Middle School used the money to buy science materials to support her students’ learning of the new science curriculum. She was especially interested in obtaining a periodic table of elements chart, chemical element sets, and atomic model sets.
2011-2012 — A 7th grade humanities teacher at Springville K-8 School used the grant money to expand her classroom library of graphic texts to reach the full range of her students’ interests and abilities.
2012-2013 — Alpha Nu’s teacher grant this year went to assist teachers in the chapter. Cathy East and Lynetta Weswig were the recipients. Cathy used the $250 grant money to buy substitute teacher time so she could assess her students.
Chapter members voted to award a additional funds to honor Lynetta’s request to attend a seminar “Special Education Law in Oregon”, which kept her current of legal guidelines when working with children diagnosed with dyslexia.
2013-2014 -- The chapter formed a partnership with Beaverton’s Chehalem Elementary School and it was decided we would support educators in that school who applied for help with special projects. We awarded the fifth grade teachers money to purchase a paperback novel for each student and awarded another grant to pay for an online reading activity.
2014-2015 — Grant money was awarded to a Chehalem Elementary teacher to purchase access to reading material on the internet.
2015-2016 — Three teachers at Chehalem Elementary School received
grant money. One teacher purchased a Kindle to be used for reading, and
two other teachers purchased a program titled “Math Racks”.
2016-2017 — No grant money was distributed.
2017-2018 — Alpha Nu members, Rachael Smith and Jenny Fipps, received grant money to purchase books for use in their classrooms. Rachael received $153 and Jenny Fipps received $115.
2018-2019 —Three members, Rachael Smith, Heidi Beaty and Jenny Fipps. applied for funds from Alpha Nu’s teacher grant money which utilized most of the budgeted $400.
Rachael writes: My project was books for a specific unit in my classroom called Reading Like a Fan. This unit was designed to build reading stamina and boost engagement after break. I ordered books by our favorite authors to help them be able to read lots of books by the same authors. Then my readers could notice things that authors do and compare and contrast and think deeply about texts. Thanks.
Jenny writes: My school participates in the an annual competition called Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB). In my fifth grade classroom my students love to read the books chosen to prepare for the competition, where students answer questions about the books with their team. The 15-20 titles of chapter books are new titles as well as some older, more well loved titles. I used the money from the teacher scholarship to purchase the 2019-2020 titles for my classroom. A few examples are: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate and Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary. Thank you for helping support reading in my classroom!
2019-2020 — The Grant Committee issued Kelly Paris $120 for books to help reluctant readers in middle school; Rachel Smith $147.10 for books to enhance her classroom library; Jenny Fipps $57.90 for classroom books; and Bethany Schroeder $150. for materials for a Social Studies Project.
Bethany's Project: Every winter/spring we do a really awesome social studies unit on the Atfalati Native Americans that lived in the Cedar Mill Area. We make big class murals with little people, realistic houses, and the animals they ate. We use many craft supplies- paint, paper, fabric, popsicle sticks, glue, plant materials, fur, feathers, shells, etc. Then we study the pioneers that moved here and started claiming the land for settlements. We make little covered wagons, people, and farm plots. This again uses many similar and additional craft supplies. We then compare the cedar mill area today to when these two groups of people lived here, and talk about how the area changed. In addition to the class mural, we do a lot of nonfiction writing about what we have learned, and make flip books to compare the information. I am requesting money to help pay for these art/craft/production supplies for this Social Studies unit. Thank you!
2020-2021 — Covid-19 Pandemic Year
No grant money was awarded.