Ms. Billie J. Smith, chairman of the English department at McKinley High School, has been awarded a $2,000 grant from the College Board for the teaching of writing.  Ms. Smith plans to use the grant to help her students interview Hurricane Katrina survivors, visit and photograph New Orleans, and create an anthology of writing to document what she describes as "the loss and renewal, the past and the future of our lives and our region." She and the other grant recipients were recognized Feb. 9 at the College Board's Southern Regional Forum in Orlando, Fla. (The Advocate January 31, 2006)