February 5, 2009
Iditarod in the Classroom
In the midst of a busy school year, an incredible teaching adventure is before you! It is Iditarod season! Dust of your old unit. Plug in new ideas. Join our projects and get ready to take your studens on an educational journey along the Iditarod Trail!
Cathy Walters, Target® 2009 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™--- has incredible teaching ideas for you to use with your students. These lessons are located on her section of the website. Cathy is a teacher from North Carolina. This fall, she began a difficult journey to conquer cancer. Cathy has come a long way on that journey and continues to gain strength each day. Cathy has faced these challenges courageously. We know that Cathy's continued health improvment will soon find her on another journey--- a journey to Alaska. Once the race begins, she'll be visiting checkpoints along the Iditarod Trail and sharing her observations with classrooms. You will be able to follow her journey by reading Cathy's journal. Listen to Cathy's songs. View her lessons. Read her project ideas. Click here.
To email Cathy, click here!
Join us in Alaska for an exciting 2009 Iditarod!
The 2009 Winter Teacher's Conference, March 2 – 6, will be held in Anchorage, Alaska. Don't miss the opportunity to attend this conference and gain first hand information about Iditarod amd gain skills to better connect your Iditarod unit to the standards. On our fieldtrips you'll visit musher kennels and Iditarod Headquarters. Our conference sessions and our speakers will provide you with the information you need to bring the race back to your students in a manner sure to result in academic success. Seeing the start and the restart of the race will provide you with firsthand knowledge and experiences of a lifetime. The best experience is gained by attending the full conference, however if you can only attend a day or two, we can accommodate. University Credit will be available for attending this conference.
Click here to view our conference materials. Don't delay, email questions or register today! Email
If you can't join us for the start of the race, join us at our 2009 Summer Camp for Teachers. Learn more by clicking here or email your questions today.
Iditarod Insider brings to race to within the walls of your classroom!
If you can't join us in Alaska for the start of the race, make sure you are subscribed to Iditarod Insider. This pay for use section of our site provides better than 'TV coverage' of the race. Each day during the race, video segments are added to the site. Click here to learn more about Iditarod Insider.
View samples of Iditarod Insider video by clicking here.
Classroom subscription rate: $39.95, School wide subscription rate: $99.95. If you are a current subscriber, renewing your subscription before it expires is important so you don't miss out on any of the adventure!
If you teacher living in Alaska and teaching students in Alaska, CLICK HERE for additional information.
Watch the website for special information about this year's Iditarod Tracker.
Finalsts Chosen: Target® Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™
Nikki Allen, Florida, Herb Brambley, Pennsylvania, and Linda Kal Sander, Florida all have one very important thing in common. They are packing their suitcase and heading to Alaska for the start of the 2009 Iditarod. Nikki, Herb, and Linda have been chosen as this year's finalists for the Target® 2010Iditarod Teacher on the Trail.™ Why were these teachers selected as finalists? What are their lesson ideas? What projects will they be involved in during the selection process? Who will be chosen as the next Target® Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™? Follow the selection process over the next several weeks by reading articles that will appear on the 'For Teachers News' section of the Iditarod website. Are you interested in being a Teacher on the Trail? Click here to read all about it!
Books to the Trail
Get involved in a service learning project that brings new books to schools in Alaska. Hold a fund raiser in your community to purchase books. Help students recognize that through projects such as these, they can play a role in helping others. Learn more by clicking here. (PDF document) Send an email to join the project or get additional information. Click here.
Zuma's Paw Prints
Zuma's Paw Prints is your place on the website for your readers and your writers. FOUR K-9 journalists, Zuma, Gypsy, Libby, and Sanka W. Dog write articles to provide you with news and information that your students can use. Each journalist writes in a different style and for a different age reader, making it possible for you to focus on the writing of one journalist--- or all of them, depending on the needs and abilities of your students. Students can comment back to the journalists at the blog site.
Read more about Zuma's Paw Prints.
Visit the website by clicking here.
Trail Mail Classroom Project: Deadline Approaches
How close can you get your class to the Iditarod Trail? Join this year's Trail Mail project and put a letter from your classroom in the sled of a musher. ACT QUICKLY. Read this article for more information and use the template we provide to 'travel the trail' in Trail Mail style. Read more by clicking here.
Are You Looking For...
Materials you can purchase for your classroom, click here!
Information on what you can purchase at an Iditarod Auction, click here!
Information on how to be an Iditarod member, click here! (Being a member gets you a merchandise discount!)
A tracking form that students can fill in while following mushers during the race, click here! (Scroll to the tracking form!)
Resources for teaching science and weather or other projects, click here!
A list of this year's mushers, click here!
We want to hear from you!
Send us an email sharing your teaching ideas, your successes, digital images of projects, or your questions. We want to hear from you. We enjoy sharing about the exciting things going on in classrooms around the world!
Did You Know?
Iditarod is a theme that is integrated into tens of thousands of classrooms all around the world. Iditarod is a theme used in public schools, private schools, and home schools. Teachers in preschool through university level have participated with us and used the race in their teaching. Iditarod is a theme also used in after school programs, summer camps, retirement communities, businesses wishing to empower employees to meet goals, and in hospitals as an inspiration for patients to achieve their recovery goals.
Iditarod lessons are taught in science and math classes as well as other core curriculum areas including fine arts, technology, and physical education. Problem solving, respect, responsibility, team work, and self reliance skills are incorporated and reinforced through the curriculum. School counselors and teachers use the theme of the race to build assets or skills in character education classes. The standards aligned lessons support achieving NCLB criteria. Iditarod lessons are taught in each of the 50 states, in many foreign countries, and on most continents.
The Iditarod Education Department strives to help teachers be better educators by providing professional development opportunites in Alaska and other regions of the United States.
As a result of the Iditarod thematic lessons, students achieve academic success and build skills towards making positive choices that lead to healthy living and good citizenship.
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