Grant Named Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Award Recipient

GILLETTE, Wyo. (May 6, 2008) – “Teaching is not my job,” says Central High School, Cheyenne, math teacher Julie A. Grant.

“It is my lifestyle. It comes naturally and it affects all areas of my life. It is who I am as a person,” explains Grant.

Today, because Grant is a superior classroom teacher, she was one of only 10 Wyoming teachers to receive a 2008 Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Award. The awards were made at a ceremony at Campbell County High School, where Arch Coal Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steven F. Leer, Governor Dave Freudenthal, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Jim McBride, and Wyoming Education Association President Kathryn Valido honored the recipients.

“Julie Grant provides her students with a classroom atmosphere that is conducive to learning,” says Leer. “She also provides a classroom in which students know they are safe, are free to ask questions, and are encouraged to succeed.”

Grant, who has taught for 18 years, employs numerous strategies to address individual needs and learning styles, depending upon the students’ abilities. She also uses problem-solving strategies that have ‘real world’ applications.

“I want my students to know they are getting the best I have to offer,” says Grant. “The expectations in my class are high.”

“Julie Grant has raised the bar for all of us and by doing so has played a key role in our students’ improved performance on the state exam,” states Grant’s colleague DeAnn Eisenhart. “She is an amazing teacher.”

Grant believes knowledge of specific subject matter and a love of children are not enough to be a teacher. “These are essential,” she says. “But, people considering teaching as a career need to understand that hard work, organizational skills, flexibility and constant reflection are the keys to successful student achievement.”

She holds both a Bachelor of Science in education and a Master of Arts in gifted and talented education degrees from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She also is a past recipient of the Burkholder Foundation Teacher of the Year award, has served on her district Secondary Math Council and presently serves on the Central High School’s Building Leadership Team and co-chairs the school’s school improvement council.

Grant also is active in community activities, such as in her church and at the Cheyenne YMCA where she assists on youth programs. She also is active at her child’s elementary school PTO.

The award is underwritten by the Arch Coal Foundation. In addition to recognition, award recipients receive a personal, $2,500 unrestricted cash prize, a distinctive trophy and a classroom plaque. Nominations of the teachers are made by the public, and selection is made by a blue-ribbon panel of the teachers’ peers, all former recipients of the Arch Coal award.

This is the eighth year the Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Awards have been made in Wyoming. The program is supported by the Department of Education, the Wyoming Education Association, Taco John’s, Loaf ‘n Jug, and the Wyoming library community.

Arch Coal is one of the nation’s largest coal producers, and its Thunder Basin Coal Company subsidiary employs more than 1,200 people in Wyoming. Thunder Basin’s Black Thunder and Coal Creek mines sell more than 90 million tons of cleaner-burning, low-sulfur coal on an annual basis. Arch Coal is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ACI) and maintains its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Mo.