Iditarod in the Classroom

The Iditarod Teaching Season is before us!  Join us for a full year of educational opportunities!

Learn about our Educational Sponsor, Exxon Mobil, by visiting their website to learn about their support of education.

To date, 69 mushers have signed up for the 2010 Iditarod.  While they train, your students are in the midst of their 'training'. 

The Idita- Rider Auction bidding has begun!

The Iditarod will start in downtown Anchorage on Saturday, March 6, 2010.  Make your plans to be at the start of the race and to attend the 2010 Winter Teacher's Conference, March 2 - 5 in Anchorage. 

If you can't be with us for the start of the race, join us virtually, at www.iditarod.com and at the Teachers and Students section of the website.  Consider joining us June 21 - 28 at our Summer Camp for Teachers.  Watch the website for information about workshops in the lower 48.  If you are interested in helping to host a workshop, let us know!

Iditarod is an incredible teaching tool.  Don't miss a moment of the race and teaching action!

Iditarod is a tool to enrich the curriculum and impact academic success.

SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS:  Help students recognize the importance of volunteerism and community service. Join our projects. 

• BOOKS TO THE TRAIL:  Hold a fundraiser to purchase new books and classroom materials for schools in need.  Learn more here! 
  
• TABLE DECORATING CONTEST:  Be a part of the Last Great Race from your location.  Create a design and submit the design by Nov.15.  Winning designs will create table decorations for the Musher Banquet that is held in Anchorage prior to the start of the Iditarod.  Learn more here!

CURRICULUM CHALLENGE:  ATTENTION TEACHERS!  Win prizes!  Submit a lesson plan that connects the Iditarod to your curriculum.  Learn more here!

Support the Iditarod

• Support your favorite musher by purchasing a 'good luck' card to be published in the 2010 Iditarod Race Guide.
• Become a member of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Committee.
• Donate to the race by being a sponsor or advertiser. 
• Purchase items from our on line store.
• Attend our workshops.

Herb Brambley is the Target® 2010 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™.  Over the next several months, Herb will be placing his lessons, activities, and observations on the website.   Discover unique ways to integrate the content standards into your curriculum.  During the race, Herb will be traveling from checkpoint to checkpoint observing behind the scenes action.  He'll be reporting from the Iditarod Trail providing an on line journal of his experiences.  Follow Herb's journey.  Learn more.

Target is the sponsor for Teacher on the Trail.  You can show appreciation to Target for their sponsorship by clicking here to learn about Target's Tools for Learning and Field Trip Grants.  Next time you visit a Target store, thank them for the support they show towards education.

Are you interested in applying for this unique teaching opportunity?  Are you ready to expand the walls of your classroom and bring your students, your community, and the world with you on a journey of a life time?  Learn more about the program by viewing a Power Point presentation and reading about the past teachers who have trekked on the Iditarod Trail. The deadline for application submission for the 2011 Teacher on the Trail is December 1, 2009.   Three finalists will be selected to continue the interview process by joining us in Alaska for the 2010 Winter Teacher Conference and the start of the race.  Download the application and learn more!

We strive to bring the best educational opportunities to you!  We know that your main goal is academic success for your students. 

Iditarod works as a teaching tool because it brings academic success. 

• Iditarod is a topic that students find interesting and motivational.  The students become highly engaged in learning through our Iditarod based science, math, social studies, language arts, and other content and skill areas. 
• Students are at their best when doing hands on projects, using technology as a learning tool, relating to the learning in some way, and when having 'fun' as they discover a 'trail' of knowledge that goes beyond the text book.  When involved in Iditarod projects, students explore, imagine, read, write, solve problems, perform scientific experiments, and use a good for the brain activities. 
• Students involved in our activities relate to the content on personal and emotional levels.   What they discover is applicable to their daily lives and 'speaks' to their goals and ambitions.
• Our lessons and activities are all about connecting core curriculum and empowering students to succeed.  Activities are teacher created, brain based, involve the use of multiple intelligences, and a real time learning adventure.

On the front page of For Teachers, you will always find important and timely articles about using the race as a theme as well as Iditarod race news.   Take a look at the For Teachers section of the website .  Notice that the menu bar on the right side of the page provides you with a better organized list of options to help you find what you need. You'll find lessons in all content areas, bits of news, and links to sections of the website that will help you and your students.  At the bottom of the menu bar, you'll find a search box to help you locate an educational topic.  Our future plans include a system of identifying lessons according to specific standards. 

Under the menu category "Resources', you'll find many items. Here's What's Happening contains Power Point presentations summarizing our projects and provides you with insight to options for you and your students.  A packet of race data can be found at the Teacher's Resources menu item. This packet has been designed to develop mathematical problem solving activities. Towards the bottom of the menu bar, you'll find a search bar. Type in an educational topic to help you find more information.  Notice our Virtual Field Trips, Pod Casts, a For Students section, and our recently updated 'Books' section of the website. Learn about specific projects such as Zuma's Paw Prints, our Traveling Quilts, and the Stay on Track program to help kids make healthy choices that lead to successful living. 

Under the menu category 'Curriculum Connections', you can click on specific topics and find information that relates to those topics.  This area has been designed to help you find lessons by category, contests, news , tips and tools for teachers , and items that help you meet the standards and objectives of the curriculum.  This year, a dozen Educational Journalists are bringing the race to your classroom through interviews with rookie and veteran mushers.  Zuma and the K9 Journalists will be bringing you news articles and introducing you to authors.  Learn how to get involved in our Idita- Reads and Races or how to hold an I Kid A Rod in your community.  Discover guest speaker opportunities and find out about web cameras in Alaska.  Watch for information on Trail Mail, GPS Tracker lesson ideas, articles on the Iditarod dogs and mushers, and other projects that we are developing. Before you can read everything on this section of the site, additional information will be added so check back often!  We are your RESOURCE and OFFICIAL website for all things Iditarod.

Under the menu category, Website Links, we'll help guide you along the information highway to the best ever teaching and learning opportunities!

No matter what area you teach or the grade level of your students, you'll be able to find information to enhance your unit of instruction. We believe our website is greatly improved from last year but we aren't stopping yet!   We are constantly adding information to our site and we are dedicated to making this website YOUR website.  You can be a part of our ever changing, Iditarod teaching tool, by sending us your comments and ideas.  Be a contributor and part of the team.  I want to hear from you!  Send an email today!

Teacher workshops held in Alaska:  If you live in Alaska or if you want to visit, don't miss the opportunity to attend an Iditarod workshop!  Learn about our workshops!  Email for additional information or conference registration materials.

• 2010 Winter Workshop:  March 2 - 5, 2010, Anchorage, Alaska.  University Credit will be available
• 2010 Summer Camp for Teachers:  June 21 - 28, 2010, Wasilla, Alaska

        Our conferences are teacher training opportunities designed to help teachers be better teachers and to guide teachers to impact academic success through the use of Iditarod as a teaching tool. Meeting mushers, seeing a dog team in action, visiting the people and places that are Iditarod---  are essential elements to our conferences.  Introducing tried and true teaching tools and helping educators integration technology into instruction leads students to 21 Century success.  Our conferences impacts the teacher's style of teaching and results teaching energy that impacts academics in a powerful way!  Our 'Iditarod Teachers' are highly qualified educators who make a difference with the students that are in their classrooms or home school environments.  Lean more about last year's summer camp!

Iditarod Traveling Quilt Project:  This year, 4 Iditarod Traveling Quilts are on a journey to classrooms around the United States.  Follow each journey by reading the on line journal.  Find out how your class can become a part of the Virtual Quilt project or create a quilt squar e to be included in a future quilt.

Coming soon to the website:

• How to Succeed Iditarod Style!  A project to help students build traits for successful living
• NEW math and science curriculum!  (January)
• Get to know the mushers!  Rookie and Veteran Musher Articles from our Educational Journalists

We want to hear from you!  Send an email to Iditarod's Education Department.

We know that a teacher's work day is long and filled with many tasks.  We want to help you do your job better by helping you meet the educational needs of the students.  Creating successful 21st century citizens who help make the world a better place is your goal and a national concern.  No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, standards, objectives and now, International Standards of Learning are before all of us.  

Using a tool such as Iditarod is a way to enrich your curriculum.  YOU KNOW that this tool works with kids.  You know that kids read more, write more, think scientifically and mathematically, and dig deep into content past the pages of the text book, when you facilitate students through the Iditarod lessons.  Students WANT to be in school.  They are engaged, thinking, and learning beyond their basics.  Help us share the success you see and help other educators to be more successful.  Share your stories of success or your moments of frustration so that TOGETHER, just as a musher and a team journeys from Anchorage to Nome, we can journey with our students on the trail of academic success. 

The race is your tool.  You are the facilitator of learning. Success for our students is the goal.  Thanks for all you do!

At Iditarod.com

• News for Teachers
• Teacher on the Trail
• Insider for Educators
• Iditarod Books
• Zuma’s Paw Prints
• Educator Conferences
• Curriculum Challenge
• The Traveling Quilt
• Teaching Resources