MISSOULA — This week's One Class at a Time grant winner is Meadow Hill Middle School’s Charlie Struna who has taught math at the school for 20 years.
She finds that teaching numbers and figures is very rewarding. "Math is very difficult for some students. So, if you can show them ways that they are able to find some success in mathematics, and begin to like it instead of dread it, it's much more helpful."
Struna is excited about the $250 One Class at a Time grant. She says she's never won anything during her 24 years as a teacher. Charlie – who teaches sixth-grade students -- will buy calculators for her students so they can check their work and do faster calculations.
"I plan to purchase some calculators because after 20 years most of them are missing, or damaged, or a little bit out of date,” Struna said. “So, new calculators would be wonderful. Right now, my students are actually testing so I had to get calculators from other teachers so I had enough for the kids so they could check their answers."