Plains classroom receives grant

The One Class At A Time grant from Allegiance Benefit Plan Management and KPAX-TV News Station of Missoula presented a $250 grant check to Nichole Cockrell on Wednesday.

“I actually ran to everybody and called people on the phone,” Cockrell, who didn’t know she had won until Tuesday, said. “We’re very, very excited about it. It’s a chance to spend a little bit more money.”

Cockrell, who teaches second grade, applied for the weekly grant about a year ago, and thought her application had been looked at and passed over.

“I thought there was very little chance we were gong to get it. I thought we were just too far away from Missoula,” she added.

The money will go towards science discovery boxes, which will allow students a hands-on learning experience will also allow Cockrell to ‘kill two birds with one stone.’

The discovery boxes can be used across the curriculum to cover both science and Indian Education for All, which has been required in Montana’s public schools since 2004. Cockrell and her students will use scientific means to look at Native American artifacts and cover both the subjects with the grant money.

“That speaks of how clever of an educator that she is that she can take a grant that’s designed for basically science, and allow it to transfer almost into a history lesson,” Plains School’s Superintendent Thom Chisholm said. “I thought that was very, very clever on her part. I would give her kudos just for being able to think of that.”

Chisholm was in attendance to show his support of the initiative taken by Cockrell to apply for the grant. He stated that Cockrell is one of many highly qualified educators that ‘go above and beyond’ for their students benefit.

“She did that on her own time, above and beyond to provide a better quality education for her students here,” he said. “Those small things like that add up to a great big picture for us.”

Cockrell described the lack of materials, which prompted her to apply for the grant.

“We have a science program now and it’s actually very good, but there are few materials,” Cockrell, who currently only has enough materials for six of her 15 students, explained. “Some things have been used and you can tell they’ve been used, and some of the materials are not as rich or in depth as I would like them to be.”

Cockrell hopes the money will allow her students to delve more deeply into Science and IEFA believes they will enjoy having something they can touch as well, even if they didn’t appreciate the distraction of having TV cameras, and newspaper reporters in their classroom.

“I think it’s more exciting when they see it. They don’t really understand what’s going on today other than they’re going to be on TV,” she said. “I think once they have the materials in their hands they’ll realize where they got it from, and that they might not have got this if it hadn’t been for the money.”

“I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be able to do it,” added Cockrell. “I hope that we can spend it and make it work and make it stretch.”