Target®2012 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ Blynne Froke

Adventure and personal challenge have always been at the top of Blynne Froke’s to do list.  It seems like she has been on the go her whole life. Blynne was born in Canada and immigrated to California with her family.  When he father was sent to Venezuela for work, Blynne went along to start high school.  It took seventeen years and three states to complete her college education, but she never gave up, finally starting her teaching career at 35.  Summer 2007 found her back in South America working with her brother in Bolivia and spring 2011 she explored China with her oldest daughter.  For the last thirty years though Blynne has called rural northern California home where she raised two beautiful daughters with husband, Mike, and an ever-growing menagerie of dogs, cats, goats, chicken and ponies.  An active 4H leader, Blynne and her daughter raised a guide dog, which was a very rewarding experience.

After teaching English at the junior high level for almost 12 years, Blynne decided she was up for a real challenge and as is common in her life, an opportunity presented itself.  Community Day School (CDS) is a contained “last chance” classroom for high school students that have been expelled.  For nine years she taught everything from P.E. to Physics to British Lit. to reluctant teenagers and found it to be one of the most rewarding experiences of he teaching life.

Challenge and Blynne’s new students seemed to go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Her special mix of patience and passion seemed to work for many, but something more intense was needed to draw in these very needy students and she was on the search again.  By chance, Blynne read a book about the Iditarod and shared it with her students.  They shared her excitement.  That was four years ago.  What started as a half an hour read aloud turned into a cross-curricular thematic program around which the essential themes of goal-setting, planning, personal responsibility, problem solving and stewardship revolved. The mushers came alive as “Real life heroes,” in a struggle every bit as inspiring and challenging as their own struggle to graduate high school.  It has found such fertile ground, that it graduated twice as many students from CDS than in previous years.

Blynne has embraced challenge not only in her professional life, but in her personal life as well.  What started as a whim, “a couch to 5K running club,” turned into another great passion.  Four years and a hundred pounds later, she has completed two half marathons and continues to train for distance events.

Last year saw more reductions in California’s education budget and following the “go where you are needed” call, Blynne returned to the high school to teach freshman and sophomore English.  Maybe not so surprisingly, these classes also found an expanded curriculum using the Iditarod as students wrote up research papers on various aspects of competitive dog mushing and created cross-age teaching experiences for elementary students.  These “Trail Buddies” were real heroes and are currently looking for other ways to engage elementary students in the Iditarod experience.

The adventure just keeps going as Blynne looks forward to a year as Target’s® Teacher on the Iditarod Trail™ and sharing the experience of the race and the remote villages of Alaska with students and teachers across the globe.

Blynne’s motto as always is “Challenge yourself and NEVER give up!”

Target® is the Official Sponsor of the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ program.

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I Just Can’t Wait !!!

This month I have extended some of my previous themes.  As we get closer to the start of the Iditarod and get more excited I keep thinking about the amazing sled dog!    I have included this month another of my favorite Math Vignette for January, along with a lesson on   that is informative Gait Patterns for young and old alike.  I have also included an activity in nutrition, something that the sled dog is the absolute master of.  Universities all over the world study the sled dogs metabolism as a link to an amazing secret.

A sled dog is a “back to back” marathon runner.  His metabolism and diet has to be extremely efficient and obviously plentiful to allow him to do his job to the best of his ability.  A human marathoner must consume 3500 to 5000 calories a day while training or actually running the marathon and up to 25%, preferably 15% fat and 60% carbohydrates with plenty of water to maintain good hydration, which is also important for sled dogs.

A sled dog running the Iditarod needs to consume around 12,000 calories a day through multiple feedings high in protein and fat, in fact, about 60% fat.  They are the ultimate marathoners.

In Comparison – What do you consume?  For the duration of the race track your own food intake.  Track total calories and percentages of carbohydrates, protein and fat.  Feel free to use the chart below.

Another project that is just plain fun – is to imagine that a person consumed 12,000 calories in a day at a rate of 60% fat, what would they have to eat. Look at fast food menus and the like to compare.  Obviously there are several answers and those answers will demonstrate the differences in metabolism between sled dogs and the average American.  It may also provide quite a laugh if you imagine yourself eating ALL that in one day.

By the time I post for you the next time, I will be in Alaska preparing for the greatest adventure of a lifetime.  Come with me and stay connected as I follow those amazing athletes.  If you have a skype account, let me know and send me your information.  If you keep your skype on during the day you just might get a surprise call.  It will all depend on when I can connect and who is available at the time, but I would love to talk to you and share images with your students so stay connected and you never know what we can do!

Rookie and I are ready to hit the trail!

Blynne

Date                Calories          Carbohydrates%                   Protein%                    Fat%

Forget the Oak Tree

 I have set the Oak tree aside this month.  Why?  Is that just a nice way of saying that I have given up?  No . . . yes . . . let me explain. . .

The Oak trees, as I have shown you are leafless this time of year and though that might seem easier, it actually presents new problems.  The amazing texture of bark and branches stands out even more and as they do I get more and more intimidated.  I quit drawing them altogether last month.  That is until last week, when I watched a pair of my students work on a rather large painting of two trees at sunset. . . . the paint strokes on the trunks of the trees were really heavy and I was thinking that it didn’t look very good, but thank goodness I was keeping my mouth shut as one of them began to crush tea leaves over the trunks and allow it to fall over the thick brown paint which grabbed it easily.  The effect, of course, was bark – dry, rough bark.

I asked her how she had thought of it and she just hummed a moment and said I thought it needed something.

Well, I thought it did too, but that’s where I stopped.  I just gave up.  She had not only not given up, but by simply reaching for a possible solution close at hand tried something that worked beautifully.  I know, because I have been watching her for months, that if that hadn’t worked, she would have painted over it and tried another effect or asked me for some advice (like I had a lot to give).  I know that because she is just that kind of industrious student, the kind that doesn’t give up.  I had.

I was a little frustrated with myself because I also know that when I run into a problem, my students usually have an answer and one that will work.  Whether that problem is how to help them understand a concept or how to create a more real experience in the classroom, they are in the trenches and see things so much more simply.   I had forgotten my first rule of teaching, when in doubt – ask the students.  And Esme reminded me.  Thanks.

Anyway – my brief respite from the Oak tree led me back to my beloved huskies and I have one to share with you tonight that I hope you will like and think you will recognize as the season moves on.

Are you getting excited?  I sure am!!!

Still on the trail with Rookie,

Blynne

Time to Pick a Musher

Hope your holidays are revving up smoothly for what, in my house, is a joyous energy explosion.

The starting line up of mushers is pretty much set by now.  There are 70 this year!  It is definitely time to start checking them out, picking our favorites, checking percentages – male/female, rookie/veteran and so on.  Many of the mushers have web sites where you can check out their kennels and learn about their experiences.  It is great fun to follow a few favorite mushers through the whole experience.

Now -

Food for thought – When I was teaching junior high, our Math teacher was also the basketball coach and loved to do all sorts of Math projects (pie charts, graphs, statistics, etc.) associated with “March Madness,” the NCAA championships.  One year we decided to work together so as the English teacher I helped students write news stories and practice oral delivery.  We set up a realistic “Sports Desk” and filmed the daily reports.  We had costume and make up jobs, camera operators . . . the whole nine yards.  It was an enormous project, but still one of my favorite DVDs and the kids loved it.  It seems like a similar project could be mounted around the Iditarod.  Anyway that is a whole project of its own and I was just brainstorming so I thought I would share.  I’ll see what else I can remember from that experience and imagine how it could be converted Iditarod style.  Check back and see what I come up with or maybe you have some ideas you would like to share.

Lessons

This month I do have for you three new lessons.  We start with another Math Vignette for December with questions and answers attached, then I have a writing project that taps into Character Education in a Form Poem.  Finally a great geography and math project that I call “It’s All About the Map”and to make your project even more fun I have added a recipe for a salt and flour map to make your projects extra special.  I hope you enjoy looking forward to them while you are on holiday, but be sure to take that precious time with family now – the lessons will still be here when you have finished cleaning up.

I am looking forward to pulling lots of warm socks out of my Christmas stocking this year to keep my feet warm on the trail and Rookie needs a bright new harness.

Still on an amazing trail with Rookie,

Blynne

The Holidays are Upon Us

The holidays always bring back memories of family times and moments of passage in our own lives.  The core of the Iditarod for me has always been the life stories, struggles and triumphs of the mushers’ experiences.  My students read about the journeys and learn from them that life, for all of us is metaphorically a trail that we follow and a series of choices we make when the trail forks.  My first lesson this month is just that Life is a Trail  Students learn the concept of metaphors and apply it to their own lives as they choose how to express the experience they have had and the choices they have made.  It also gives them the chance to anticipate choices to come and how they will answer those.  They may see their lives as a river following its carved out course or a ferris wheel constantly following the same circle.  Whatever it is . . . it will be enlightening both for you and the student.  This is, of course, one of those experiences that I embark upon after reading and sharing the life journeys of everyone from Norman Vaughn to Lisa Frederik.  Refer to the reading list that I posted last month for ideas.

The next lesson I have to offer is a challenge into Math Vignettes  I have written one and attached it for you, but challenge yourself and (if old enough) your students to write some of their own.  I have always been impressed by how much more students learn when looking for and forming the questions themselves.  The learning experience is deeper and longer lasting than simply responding to the questions we ask.  (one facet of experiential learning)  It seems to be 4^th through 6^th grade that the turning point really begins to drive their learning.

I noticed, while putting together the lessons for this month that, for the most part, they address older students so I have included a Rookie Dot to Dot  by the number for the younger set.  It is not so simple as it seems to get it right as I approach my easel each morning, but if your students work on it, they may be re-creating Rookie as well, or even better, than I am by the time I get to Alaska for the race.

I hope you enjoy the challenges this month and as always – I am on the trail, with Rookie as my guide,

Blynne

Pencil Point . . . Again

November Oak

I am finding the oak tree to be very illusive.  It is such an icon of strength and steadfastness that drawing it is like trying to draw a feeling or a dream.  It is like a child that changes day to day with the currents of their lives.

I imagine a musher when he or she finally decides, “I’m going to do it!”  She sees the Iditarod as so many things at once.  Where do you start?  What do you master first? Or can you even approach it that way?  Isn’t it a truly magnificent whole and isn’t that why you want to do it?  It is the feeling, the dream of the oak tree that takes one hundred years to become what it is.

I start by looking at it, trying to really see it.  And I look at it again and again, each time trying to see something that I didn’t notice before.  Then I do it again.

I have an Art student this year that took the class, because he thought it would be an easy A, not because he thought he would draw, no background whatsoever and no belief he could do anything at all.  We started with a circle, just a circle, trying to makeit as perfect as possible and I employed Mrs. Van Zyle’s  approach – that’s good, “do it again.”  I have included here the product of three weeks of circles.  If only my oak tree would improve this way.  But practice makes perfect and I have patience.

Alex's orange

And I always start with the trunk, because that is what everything depends upon.  A musher’s trunk is his team and the relationship they share.  If each member doesn’t look at every other member with the same trust, everything will fall down.

As teachers we know that before the paper and books and rulers and chalk there is the relationship of mutual trust that must be born between teacher and student, and student and teacher.  It is that intangible thing that holds everything together.  It is the reason I look at the oak tree again and again, more carefully each time.  It is the reason we study those faces each morning.

The valley I live in is literally full of oak trees and there are days I don’t see even one.  Those are bad days – the days that never quite get off the ground.  So make a promise to me, yourselves and your students to have no more bad days and I will take another look at that oak tree out back.

With Rookie as my Guide,

Blynne

Community

Working together is one of the most outstanding qualities of the Iditarod.  All these people, from all over the world working for one amazing race, one outstanding experience.  That is one thing that all of October’s lessons have in common.  We all work more productively when we work together and the results can be something to be very proud of.

The race is getting closer and my excitement is mounting.  It is never too soon to start planning the educational experience of the year!  It is still in the 80’s here in California, but I can  still dream.

This month I think I have some real treats for you.  At least these are a couple of my all time favorites.  I started doing a Living Wax Museum many years ago when I taught Junior High School History and when my assignment changed and my interest in the Iditarod grew I realized it was a perfect fit and a crowd pleaser to boot.  Check this idea out for your next Open House and you will have parents and family from the entire school lined up at your door for the fun of Heroes of the Iditarod – Wax Museum . I have included a suggested reading List for background knowledge, fact checking and just plain great reading.

My next adventure for you this month also gets the whole school involved as we experience cross-age tutoring with Trail Buddies.  Primary students just love the older students and don’t you find that you always learn things best when you teach about them?  Well this one hits both ends of the equation and can as hands on as you like.

The last offering I have for you this month is the research report.  So many skills come together when students write research reports.  Some of the skills we used to encourage like letter writing and interviewing for information are easily overlooked in our electronic information age, but last year I had one student create a very close bond with a docent at the Palmer House Museum during the course of her research.  Photos, gifts and letters were exchanged and my student, Katie, set in motion even more interest by other teachers in the history of the Palmer Colony.  I have included a student brainstormed topic list topics list for this project to get you started.

Still following the trail with Rookie,

Blynne

Pencil Point, the next step

I have been working with Jon and Jona Van Zyle in my quest to be a better artist.  As such, I have been sending sketches of what I have planned for this year’s T shirt.  Jona had some great suggestions for me, but my immediate reaction was “I can’t do that.” I was scared to try it because I thought I might not be able to pull it off very well.  I was sunk before I started.

My motto was creeping up the back of my neck ready to give me a good whack when I remembered what this journey is all about.  “Challenge Yourself,” Blynne!  The suggestions were indeed good ones.  She encouraged me into a more complex expression of my idea, and made me reach a bit further or dig a bit deeper into myself to accomplish it.

Challenging yourself is a little scary sometimes, but it is only by taking another step out onto that limb that you are able to reach the fruit that is so satisfying.

Look below to see what kind of progress I’m making with my oak tree and a sneak peak at my ideas for the Winter Conference T shirt.

A big thanks to all those people that expect more from me!

Blynne

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Step by Step

 Imagining and accepting a challenge is admirable, inspiring and exciting, but making it actually happen is another challenge.  Making it happen takes work.  The bigger the challenge, the harder the work, and to make the work manageable; to really get it done, you need a plan.  Four-time Iditarod Champion, Martin Buser, reminds us that “the harder we work, the luckier we get.”

He also reminds us that planning is everything.

You know the old adage – If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  After you make your plan, you have to take the first step. There is a lot of glory and fanfare that comes with taking the first step, but that second step is where real grit is needed.  The hardest thing you do is take the second step.

Iditarod mushers, obviously, take far more than the second step, but before the race begins there is a ton of planning to be done.  All those steps.  Martin Buser is a meticulous planner.  His drop bags are packed precisely according to plan.  Every bag of supplies is packed with its use in mind.  It must open in a particular way and land in his frozen hand a particular way in order to reduce the problems of frozen hands and sleep-deprived brains.

Helping our students anticipate what they will need when they arrive in a variety of situations is one of the most useful things we do.  They won’t be surprised by the struggles they encounter because they knew what to expect.

The next few months’ lessons will be about what it takes to make and implement the plans an Iditarod musher needs to be successful.  Our dearest hope is that our students will transfer this knowledge and experience to the challenges they face in their own lives and be ready to be successful.

This month’s lessons include an inspirational piece for which students will write Found Poetry. To help with this lesson, I have included a piece that I wrote as a sample – in the words of Howard Farley.  The next lesson joins health awareness, community service and one of the most inspiring mushers I know, Mike Williams.  Appropriately, I call this lesson make a pledge.  For the final lesson this month we will get down to one of the many exercises in the math of planning the race in a lesson I call Pound for Pound .

The very best example that we can give our students is to challenge ourselves everyday and share those experiences with them.  Everyday there is a new challenge.

My latest challenge was finding the best fit in cold weather gear while it was over 100 degrees here.

Still on the trail with Rookie,

Blynne

Pencil Point

An exciting and productive life demands both short and long term goals.  Two pieces of advice I received recently have helped form a new short term goal for me that I would like to share with you. After reading maybe you will share yours with me.

Jon Van Zyle shared an experience from his childhood, when he was already an artist, with me.  He would proudly show his mother a drawing he had made and she would look and simply say “good, do it again.”  Then, during in-service this year we watched a youtube video by TED that talked about the fact that you can do almost anything for 30 days and when those 30 days are over you often find that you have attained an accomplishment that will have lasting results.

As I have shared with you, I have been drawing Rookie at my easel in the kitchen every morning and he is really taking on better form.  The other day my husband actually left a stickie on it that said – “the best one so far.”  Likewise I have been having my drawing students draw a freehand circle at the beginning of each class (a more difficult feat than you might imagine) and some of these circles are really taking shape, pun intended.

Is there something that you would really like to do?  Something maybe you thought was too big to really do?  Our students feel that way every day.  Break yours down to one of the simple things you will need to master to attain your goal and do it every day for the next 30.  Send me emails and let me know what you are working on, particularly if it has anything to do with drawing or the Iditarod.  I would love to share your challenge.

I have two new goals that I am working on – 1. I want to draw a realistic oak tree as I live in a valley where they grow abundantly and 2. I want to run 250 miles before I leave for the Iditarod.  So, my short term goals will be to draw one oak tree a day for the next 30 and to run, just run (fast/slow, long/short) every day.  Right now I am doing a little over a mile and a half when I do run and well – I have shared my oak tree with you below.  OK, so it is a little fairy tale like and looked a bit like an octopus, but I have 30 days.

Check in with me in 30 days to see where we have come.

Staying on the trail with Rookie,

Blynne

It All Starts as a Rookie

The champions of the Iditarod are true icons.  They embody the enormous accomplishment that we aspire to within our own individual passions.  We look at them and we see success.  Although these amazing examples inspire us, we often feel very small around them, as though we could never do what they do because, after all, we are only human, right?

It is for that reason that I find the rookies so very interesting.  Iditarod rookies are mushers that have not yet completed the Iditarod and crossed under the arch in Nome.  I find I can relate to them more easily.  I watch carefully each step they take toward their successes and think to myself – that’s doable, not easy, but doable.

There are 12 rookies signed up so far this year and as the school term progresses you will be able to learn about them and their hopes and dreams by going to http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/category/news-for-classrooms/rookie-mushers/

I have a new inspirational partner of my own this year.  His name, oddly enough, is Rookie and he is a sled dog that appears on my easel every morning.  My job is to work with him until I can draw him quickly and easily (under a minute) to introduce him to the students I meet along my trail.  Rookie helps me see things with an accurate and positive perspective. He reminds me every morning that there isn’t much I can’t do if I put my mind to it.  So far he has gotten me back out on the pre-dawn running road four out of five mornings this week.

We are all really rookies at something.  This month I offer you the beginning of Rookie’s development, (please feel free to offer suggestions).  I also offer three lessons you may wish to include this year.  They all involve imagining a goal and planning for it, which is where all rookies start on the road to success.

The first lesson is “Safety First” and can be adjusted to any grade level.  We begin with a reading of Rivers, Diary of a Blind Alaska Sled Dog by Mike Dillingham showing us how his musher prepares a place and life for him that helps to keep him safe and on the trail. safety first

The second lesson is “Tracking the Musher.”  This activity may seem a little premature in the heat of late summer, but some video of the race itself may inform the students about the enormous complexity and overall scope of information generated by the race and is a slightly less overwhelming planning exercise than the planning of volunteer placement and supply drops that we will look at later.  It is never too soon to start planning how we will keep track of the grand movement that is the Iditarod.Tracking the musher

The third lesson I call “Imagine the Possibilities.”  Norman Vaughn, explorer and WWII hero was an Iditarod rookie at 83 years of age.  His story is in Iditarod Classics by Lew Freedman (available on line from Iditarod.com).  Many of the stories would be great jumping off places for a discussion of dreaming big and making the choices necessary to achieve a goal but Norman’s is my favorite. Imagine the possibilities – lesson plan

I hope you find one of my lessons this month that works for you and as always feel free to email me with reactions, suggestions and new ideas.

Staying on the trail with Rookie,

Blynne

What Can You Expect?

Hello all and welcome back -

It is that time of year when we plan, plan, plan, but often lose sight of the real first step, which is imagining the goal.  A favorite quote of mine is by Albert Einstein – “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  If you cannot imagine something, you cannot accomplish it.  If a rookie musher expects to cross the finish line in Nome, he has to first imagine himself finishing. Oddly, this means that he needs to plan backwards.  So too, with your students, if you want them to be reading at a particular level by the end of the year you will need to plan backwards, scaffolding experiences for them along the way by feeding their interests, sort of like sending out drop bags to the trail.  You need to anticipate what you will need to get there.  This is where I come in.  I will be offering you ideas and plans that will build on their skills by involving their curiosity and imaginations.

So, I guess this is the perfect time for me to get into your schedule.  Here is my plan – log onto my blog on the 20^th of each month starting August 20 and I will have a menu of opportunities to include the Iditarod into your lessons. You know that building on a common theme is crucial for keeping skills in context so I will have a minimum of three different lesson ideas revolving around the Iditarod.  Many of my lessons could be used in a number of different contexts, but a clear focus on the Iditarod will build a knowledge base and context that will allow your students to truly deepen the skills and understanding they will experience as we approach race time.  So, as always, build your contexts before starting a lesson with video clips from the Insider or fun stories from our trail reporters from last year like Zuma.  Your students will think they are getting a treat.  These resources are all available at Iditarod.com in the teacher’s section.  Ready-made introductions, it couldn’t be easier or quicker.

My favorite successes with Iditarod inspired education have been with my at-risk kids and character education, so I will start there.  It may even be something we can all learn from since we are all lifetime learners. Teacher on the Trail sponsor, Target®, emphasizes and supports literacy.  In support of their efforts, I’ll share monthly reading activities.  Education sponsor Exxon-Mobil supports many science and math teacher academies so I will be sure to include a science/math inspired lesson.  I will try to vary the targeted grade level through the year, but also offer some ideas for adjusting the delivery up or down as you may need.

I picked up a great idea from someone this summer for my career exploration class.  Take the map of the Iditarod Trail with checkpoints and have a sub goal to be accomplished at each checkpoint. That, in itself, is a tremendous life skill.  My planning challenge for this one is to identify what those sub goals will be, what I will need at each checkpoint. Planning backwards will keep my class and me on track.  I will let you know how it goes.

SO – log in on August 20 for some lessons to get you started.  I will probably be visiting with you between now and then so bookmark me and visit often.

Staying on the trail,

Blynne

Perspective is a funny thing

Perspective is a funny thing.  It is both a physical and mental location.  It is one of my constant challenges as a beginning artist and the more time I spend with it the more I realize how big a part it plays in our daily and professional lives.  Our point of view on any subject, from how we see this particular day to our expectations regarding a student’s progress, to how we see our own successes and failures (only a small sampling) can manage our actions and reactions in any situation.

Our success or failure, even our emotional health depends on our perspective.  Psychologists refer to this as “framing” a situation and it literally is.  Depending on where we actually place the frame, it may appear that we are viewing the object from afar or very close up; from above or to the side.

Teachers and mushers have a very similar task in many ways.  Our goal is to get our team across the line healthy, strong and having overcome the obstacles along the way.

Being aware of our own perspective manages our expectations and consequently our successes.  Being able to adjust our perspective, reframing as we move down the trail with a specific goal in mind requires flexibility, but also strengthens the possibility of success.  Flexibility and reframing allow us to see our teams and our goals in the most clear and useful manner.

So our first step this year is to imagine our goal, put a frame around it and examine carefully what we included and how we arranged it.  Is the most important thing the biggest? In the center? Or small and off to one side?

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Now that I have made your planning more complex (no need to thank me) . . . enjoy the experience . . . and my stumbling attempts to get it right.

Staying on the trail,

Blynne

A Challenge

Up until a year ago I couldn’t draw.  It was not for lack of wanting and wishing.  I just couldn’t.  I did the standard stick people or a flower now and then, but even those were deformed.  I remember always being thrilled to go to a friend’s house when I was a kid and find coloring books because we didn’t have those at my house.  My friends always produced better pictures than I did since they got more practice.

Well, a year ago, when school let out I decided I was going to change that.  I know what you’re thinking . . . an old lady worried about coloring books?  Seriously?  But I wanted to draw so I decided to pick one thing everyday and attempt to draw it correctly . . . to really see the details.

You can imagine that it started off pretty sadly, but I was determined.  I was looking more closely at things, they just didn’t look the same on paper.  Thank goodness for erasers.

Long story short, I didn’t give up and things began to change.  I drew something everyday and I started to improve.  I found that I am not too bad at drawing animals and since they have a special place in my heart, I was happy with that development.

I started by trying to copy artists I really liked.  One of my all time favorites is Jon Van Zyle, artist of the Iditarod poster every year.  I started learning technique that way because I was examining the pictures so carefully.

Alaska is full of amazing wildlife and my visit here is almost over so I thought I would share some of my bird sketches with you.  All of these birds live here in Alaska.

The lesson here is that if you want something badly enough –  you accept the challenge, commit to a plan and carry it out and all along the way observe carefully those that do what you want to do well and notice exactly what they do.

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Challenge yourself everyday – the work and the product will make you proud of your accomplishments.

Blynne

Books to the Trail

 The Iditarod Books the Trail program has been running for several years now.  Schools in the lower 48 and others team up with sister schools along the race trail to deliver much needed books to these remote schools.  Recently the Anchorage Public Library has joined our efforts so that even more books can be enjoyed by school children without convenient access to such a broad spectrum of reading material.

On Monday, after camp, Diane Johnson and I visited the Anchorage Library to thank them for their efforts and learn more about a program they have developed called Ready to Read.  This program targets preschool children with the motto “The foundation for reading begins at birth!”

Ready to Read is based on the six basic skills needed to begin reading:  print awareness, print motivation, narrative skills, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and vocabulary.  To encourage the development of these skills the Anchorage Library has created hundreds of tubs of books containing 30-50 board and paperback picture books, a resource guide for the adult childcare provider on a six-week renewable loan.  In addition the program provides bags in which the children can take the books home to share with their families and “lapsit” bags that are thematically created including a music CD and a puppet.  That sounds like a perfect experience all ready to be delivered.

I was understandably excited when I arrived to see shelves and shelves filled with these tubs and tables covered with stacks of books being arranged in themes and it brought back wonderful memories when I spotted some of my favorites.

It will be my job this year on the trail to connect the Books on the Trail with the teachers they have been created for and get the word out there about the Ready to Read program.  Being an English teacher myself I am very excited to be a part of the connection.

If you and your school would like to part of this effort, contact Diane Johnson, Director of the Iditarod Education Department.

Read On,

Blynne

Editor’s Note: Attention Teachers who are located in Alaska, you can get involved with the Ready to Read program. The Anchorage Public Library has a “Ready to Read Resource Center”at the Z.J. Loussac Public Library.  This is a statewide resource for anyone who works with infants and toddlers anywhere in Alaska. For additional information and to find out how to get a free reading tub to your community, click here.

Visit the Anchorage Public Library website at this link.

http://www.muni.org

Bears, Bears, Bears

Though in MOST situations you should think about your actions before you do them, sometimes the most important thing is NOT to think about it – just DO IT.  I had one of those experiences yesterday and it taught me a great deal.

I have never flown in a bush plane, or anything that small and was concerned how that was going to go for me during the race.  So I scheduled a bear viewing trip for my husband and me that required flying in a bush plane from Homer to the Alaskan Peninsula, about an hour and a half.

Several times I started to think (read that WORRY) about the plane ride and then I forcefully pushed the thought out of my mind because I knew that would lead to panic and me bailing out of the opportunity. Well, I did manage to NOT THINK and just DO IT, and I am so glad I did.  I would have missed one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

With the knowledge and special understanding of our experienced bear guides we hiked for roughly three hours through a preserve where Grizzly Bear roam free and share a mutual respect of humans.  We were able to get very close to photograph bears interacting with each other and pretty much ignoring us.

There were ten of us and two guides.  We had to adhere to very strict rules and patterns of behavior, but the understanding we gained of these amazing creatures is invaluable.  The picture I have included is literally of a bear dance – a very slow, affectionate play.

You see what I would have missed!  Sometimes don’t think too much, just DO IT.

By the way, the plane ride was AWESOME!!!

Challenge yourself every day – the rewards are worth it.

Blynne

The Last Day

Our last day at camp was bitter sweet.  We all went Shannon Keene’s house to experience first hand authentic artifacts of the Inupiaq people.  Shannon taught for many years in Kotzebue and had collected many special items.  She also has a keen eye for the authentic versus the “for tourist items.”  Everything from clothing, to weapons to hunt seal, to the tiniest of baskets with real working lids were examined.  We learned about the materials, age and function of these items and many traditions still practiced were explained.  We also learned the rules about the possession versus sale of these artifacts that are strictly adhered to.

Then the teachers shared their favorite lesson plans and projects that they used based on the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  Everything from simple art projects, to Physical Education theme programs to inclusive program units drawing in statistics, reading, writing, simple math computations, physical and life science, geography and history was shared. These units were impressive to say the least.

Then it was time to say goodbye and that was hard.  This has been an amazing group of teachers from all over the country, from a wide variety of experience and discipline and yet they bonded as a unit to explore, learn and experience an event and way of life for which they all had a passion.  I feel very strongly that it is that very passion that bonds teachers and ignites students to become involved in their learning experiences.  And we all know that a student engaged in his learning is a student that is truly LEARNING.

Then we tried to say goodbye again and it was much like Diane Johnson (Iditarod’s Education Director) commented – a Minnesota goodbye where you hug and say goodbye, then stand around for another hour chatting.  Many of these teachers are planning to come up for Winter Conference at race time or back to Summer Camp next year, because there is so much more to learn.  I hope some of you will join us.

And by the way, you haven’t heard the rest from me.  I will be posting regularly so check back here often for new updates, lesson ideas and hopefully just inspirational thoughts the kind that keeps us going throughout the year.   But for the moment I am still exploring Alaska so I will be in and out of internet.  Will try to share whenever I can.

The more the merrier.

Blynne

What’s With All Those Roots?

 Taking puppies for a walk at Dream a Dream Dog Farm was one of the highlights of this trip.  It was worth noting though, so you don’t trip and fall, that the roots of the trees are rise and fall at the surface of the ground making for a beautiful, though sometimes treacherous, sojourn.

tree roots

 When I asked about this phenomena, I was told that it was due to permafrost and the silt layers left over from glaciers that were here more recent than where I am from.  This started a little study on my part.  Permafrost is soil or silt that remains below 0° degrees Centigrade or 32° degrees Fahrenheit for at least two consecutive years.  Many areas have experienced permafrost for over 10,000 years.  Therefore trees in these areas must spread their root systems across the thin layers of top soil that there is and since the trees do grow so closely together the mass of roots gnarl and bulge about the surface frequently.  Though quaintly beautiful, this causes the trees to be shorter in stature than others of their species.

more tree roots

This situation does cause some concern for the eco system in that when there is a warming system causing something called thermokarst, a ground slump caused by melting permafrost undermines the shallow root system causing the trees to lean or tilt the “drunken tree” effect seen in many spruce forests.

 There is the concern by some people that global warming may melt the permafrost enough that the trees lose ground exposed to erosion therefore affecting the content of streams due to run off. The change in the chemical content of the streams could affect fish populations which could potentially affect the subsistence lifestyle still practiced in many areas of Alaska.

Birch or black spruce in bottomlands usually indicates permafrost within four to five feet of the surface and white spruce, poplar and aspen indicates the likelihood that permafrost is within two feet of the soil surface.  An activity for your students may be to study topographical/vegetation maps to determine the depth of permafrost in certain areas.

 Hope this starts some conversations,

Blynne

The Picnic

Today was the day for mushers to come to Iditarod Headquarters to sign up for the 2012 race.  Not all of the contestants come to the Musher Picnic to sign up, some sign up on line, but if they do each has a chance to win one of two free registrations for the race.  That is a $3,000.o00 value.

That can buy quite a bit of dog food!!!

The picnic is also an opportunity for volunteers and fans alike to get to know many of their favorite mushers.  Autographs were free and abundant and so were well wishes.  It seems like a year since we have seen everyone, but it has only been a few months.

The “surprise” of the day was the return to the race of Jeff King who had announced his retirement in 2010.

Lance Mackey pulled 13th to pull his bib number at the Musher’s Banquet in March.  That number has always seemed to play a big part in the Mackey family.

Kelly Griffin and Martin Buser won the refunds of their entry fees.

Quite literally, a wonderful time was had by all.  A long, tiring and wonderful day!

Blynne

This Was a Full Day !!!

It was a day of presentations and learning not to be matched.  The day started off with a presentation from Martha Dobson, Target’s Teacher on the Trail 2011.  She recounted her journey before, during and after her experience on the Iditarod Trail.  It was clear that this was a journey whose experience would affect a lifetime, not only for Martha, but everyone she touches.  There were exquisite moments of revelation and pride, not only for the steadfastness of mushers, but the strength of all those with whom she came in contact including volunteers, residents of the villages, but also teachers in these remote schools.

Then we listened to Pam Flowers tell about her trip across the arctic and met Ellie of Ellie’s Long Walk.    Some of the distances Pam covered in her trip across the arctic were almost 400 miles between communities.  She also pointed out to us that the arctic is a desert and that hydration for her dogs was of extreme importance.  Pam named all of her female dogs on that team after suffragettes, a very cool fact for me.

Pam was followed by Katie Mangelsdorf who is writing a book about the life of Joe Redington Sr. called Champion of Alaskan Huskies.  It is written at about the 6th grade level so it is very accessible for our students with 145 pictures to keep those reluctant readers of ours engaged.  Katie’s book is full of inspiring quotations for our students like – “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you are right.” by Henry Ford or the clear “You learn by your mistakes,” by Joe Redington.  Katie’s book sets straight, for the record, some of the stories about the beginning of the Iditarod.

Our next presenter was Stu Nelson, head veterinarian for the Iditarod.  Stu stressed the concern that all of us have for these amazing canine athletes.  He pointed out that thousands of hours of study and thousands upon thousands of dollars are spent every year to ensure the health and well being of sled dogs.  Roughly 50 veterinarians from around the globe travel to Alaska every year at their own expense to volunteer for the Iditarod because of the adoration they have for these dogs.

Then we were off to the Van Zyle’s studio where we ran into Dee Dee Jonrowe who is fostering a litter of puppies in their kennel.    The respect for the tradition of the sled dog is apparent at every turn when you visit them and their artwork pays homage to the precious quality of life here in Alaska.  I have to admit that I am in awe of their work and try at every turn to learn from the best example of creativity I have known.

Another amazing day here in Alaska and tomorrow the Musher’s Picnic!!!  I can’t wait . . .

Blynne

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Native Cultural Center Today

Today the campers journeyed to the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage.  This is an amazing place not only to view artifacts and see traditional housing for the various peoples of Alaska, but to witness young people demonstrating their native games for us.

Native Games

►

They explained that the games are designed to keep the people fit in the winter time for the physical challenges of hunting which many communities still do for subsistance.   One of the competitions is a long jump that combines a hop, two foot jump and a leap.  They compete for distance and it is designed to mimic the experience of jumping from ice flow to ice flow while hunting seal.

The video you viewed was of the straight leg kick which requires the contestant to kick the ball while holding their body completely off the ground and maintain balance and control.  Much easier said than done.

We also took in John Baker’s new exhibit and visited with him listening to strategies during the race and the belief in oneself that it takes to complete such an enormous task.  When asked who he considered his role model or mentor in this pursuit, he said “My mother.”  That was a satisfying moment for all us moms.

After the Native Heritage Center experience the campers were off on adventures of their own choosing.  I can’t wait to hear the stories.  A very full day.

Blynne

Living a Dream

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It was with a great deal of sadness that the campers packed up and left Dream a Dream Dog Farm today.  We really had the time of our lives.  We went from beginners to advanced beginners at harnessing and booting dogs sled dogs and they (the dogs) were so patient with us.

We shared lessons and carrot cake and late night discussions.  We really bonded as a group.  We saw and tried to experience the day to day work of a kennel.  We listened to amazing stories from the trail and tried to understand all the plans a musher has to make on the trail to bring the dogs to Nome safely and happily.

We named a litter of five two-week-old puppies after tools of the classroom, so we can all wait for those youngsters to show up on an Iditarod team.  We learned about checkpoints and brought home many awesome souvenirs.  Most of all we will miss Vern Halter who treated each of us like we were special and shared with us his passion.

What Can I Say?

stuck in the mud

So . . . we rode on the Ranger behind the dog team again today and what a blast! Ducking branches, gasping in awe of these dogs’ power and enthusiasm, snapping pictures as quickly as I could and then . . . WE GET STUCK.

I have to admit I was very surprised we never got stuck before as we rode through the mud bogs and what looked like small lakes on the trail, but this time we were stuck.  Vern tried reverse, then forward a couple times then just turned to us and said, “Get out,” which we all did on command.  We are well trained and not afraid to get dirty.

Vern put it in reverse, we pulled.  He put it in drive, we pushed.  Three of us on the high side, I was in the middle.  We went through this routine two or three times and we were still stuck.  We tried once more and not expecting to be successful this time and I pushed with all my might.  This time it took, and as the Ranger moved forward I lost all the support I had and slowly fell into foot deep mud.  It was soft and cool and very, very messy!  Oh well, sometimes you land softly and are grateful.

The Ranger Savers

Another wonderful day – Blynne

Dream a Dream

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There is so much to talk about today as it was so jam packed with information, inspiration and just plain fun, but right now my mind is resting so peacefully on our morning walk that I want to share that with you now.

What a way to start a day.  We took the 8 month old litter named for boats, everything from Barge to Kayak, for a morning walk.  They were just as different as their names.  We walked about a mile with them, but I’m sure they did three or four times the distance we did.  The joy in their play was utterly contagious.  The beauty of Alaska was all around us.

Far from being hardened athletes these dogs possess the joy of life and the power of their young bodies.  They ran around and around us, teasing each other, exploring their beautiful surroundings, but never far away.  It was as though they were playing tag with each other and us at the same time.  At times they played tug of war with a treasure found in the forest and other times they rounded us up to make sure we all stayed together.  When we got back to the dog yard, the pups found their houses and were easily hooked up again.

What a life and what a way to start a day.

I have more observations and teachery things to share with you from this morning, but they will have to wait til we have breathed in this beautiful moment.

Blynne

Puppies, Puppies, Puppies

What a day it was!

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A great group of campers met at Iditarod Headquarters at two P.M. this afternoon and we had eyes for nothing, but puppies at first.  It was so tempting to smuggle one inside my jacket, but I knew he would be missed.  Then it was on to the museum and shop!

We all took a ride with Ray Redington’s dogs and visited with 2011 Rookie of the Year, Nicholas Petit.  Then we were off to Dream a Dream Dog Farm. We really got to know each other over for a great meal of lasagna and lively conversation.  We watched the new 2011 race video.  But it is off to bed now for a big day tomorrow which I know includes more puppies.

Blynne

A Motto is a Good Thing

My motto this year is “Challenge Yourself.”  A challenge is when you push yourself out of your comfort zone to improve or extend the quality of your life.  It can be as simple as refusing pie after dinner or as awesome as running a marathon, which I still haven’t done.  It is through challenge that we grow and grow we should throughout our entire lives.

We challenge our students daily to try new things, to improve skills and ask questions and we should do the same.  I just wanted to drop this seed in to start germinating.

This weekend I intend to challenge myself both technologically and socially.  I’m an old dog learning new tricks in the tech field, but I am going to just keep experimenting and see if I can get past this fear of making a mess of things and socially, I tend to be a bit shy and you don’t make new friends or learn more about old ones sitting outside the circle looking in.

I offer you this picture of a fledgling eagle on one of its first flights that I watched out at Potters Marsh yesterday.  Its mom flew underneath and pushed it up a couple of times til it got the hang of it and then it just took off on its own.  If you look closely you will notice it is looking back over its shoulder at mom as it flies away.

Happy Camping to All,  Blynne

Well, here I am . . . back in Alaska

I feel like I never left except it’s warmer now and the sun won’t go down. Alaska has a special feel to me like just being happy and independent and strong. And that’s how I started my first day.

I couldn’t wait to get outside, so I grabbed my camera and headed across the highway to a turnout on the Turnagain Arm. One trail led to another, each getting smaller, but each getting me closer to the creek and then I spotted him.

I spent the next forty-five minutes capturing or trying to capture the antics of an American Dipper. He’s a puffy little bird that loves the fast running water, jumping in and out, submerging himself and at one point flying straight out of the creek into the air. Time had ceased to exist. I was in the moment and having the time of my life and that is why I love Alaska. So glad I am back.

By the way this is Blynne Froke, Target® 2012 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™.

Thanking Martha Dobson, Target® Iditarod 2011 Teacher on the Trail™

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A big thanks  to Martha Dobson, the Target® Iditarod 2011 Teacher on the Trail™ for her energy, creativity, photography, expertise in literacy, and dedication throughout the 2010 – 2011 school year.

Congratulations, Martha!

The Target® Iditarod Teacher on the Trail program was created in 1998 by Finney, (Andrea Auf der Hyde, Indiana.)  Thus began the journey of a lifetime for educators who followed  Finney’s lead, and through example, took the trail to helping educators around the world guide students to academic success.

The 2011 Iditarod in Review

Without Target, this article would not be possible, so, first, a thanks to Target® as the sponsor of the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ position. Its sponsorship is the reason I am writing for this E-runner. From assistance with cold weather gear to transportation to lodging to the opportunity to experience the Iditarod firsthand so I can authentically bring the race to teachers and students around the world, Target has made it possible. Target’s commitment to literacy and its connection with the Iditarod show that this corporation is “right on target” with education.

So many memories come jumping out at me when I think about writing about the race and the experience. Chronological order is the best way to organize them.

The Junior Iditarod

The Junior Iditarod, teams coming off the Yentna River arriving at the roadhouse for their layover. Teens setting and pulling snowhooks with the ease of much practice and foretelling their futures in the mushing world. Early morning at 3 a.m., so cold that moving was essential to warmth, teenagers up at that hour, feeding dogs, hooking up harnesses, packing up gear, teams dashing down the cut trail to the Yentna River, starting the homeward leg of their race. At dawn, the curve of the new moon hanging over the trees on the riverbank, its pale light contrasting with lightening dawn. Anticipating Jeremiah Klejka’s surprise when he realizes what we all know what he does not know—that he is first to finish.

The Iditarod in Skwentna

Fast-paced Skwentna—the teams are still bunched together at this point, so many volunteers direct mushers to food, to straw, to water, to their parking place, and all this starts in the dark, continuing through the night. By late morning, all the teams but three are gone, a fishbone skeleton outline of straw beds on the river.

Nikolai

Nikolai for a few hours- a visit with Ms. B’s class who is excited about the mushers coming to Nikolai. Their autograph books hang in the gym where mushers and visitors can buy moose stew or mushers stretch out on the gym floor pads to sleep, despite noise and light. Martin Buser hooking up his team, game face on, intent on leaving Nikolai to be first into McGrath. The volunteer veterinarians working their way through each team, with exams, scratches, and rubs for each dog.

Flying out of Nikolai with five dogs, including a canine co-pilot in the right seat, for company and warmth. The dogs look out the window to see where their pilot is taking them, then lie on my legs and feet for a short snooze on the way to McGrath.

Busy McGrath

McGrath, a busy hub, with logistics organizing the Iditarod Air Force planes and volunteer pilots, the backbone of the race’s transportation of volunteers. I get there early enough to see the trailbreakers come through, putting in the trail ahead of the first teams, and I’m early enough to see the first musher, Martin Buser, pull in and out of McGrath on his way to 24 in Takotna.

Takotna

Takotna to meet more teachers, more students, more villagers. Norwegian students in reflective parking vests valet park teams as they arrive throughout the village between homes, the community center and post office, along the road into Takotna edging the river bank. Kristy Berington and her leaders with dawn’s early light touching their faces. Fourseater planes landing and taking off on the river with cut evergreen branches sprouting from the snow to form the landing strip outline. In a hurry to get back to the river for an outbound flight, sprawled in the snowmachine sled on top of gear and Iditarod Insider camera equipment bags, HANG ON and ZOOM! Down the river bank.

Anvik and a Five Course Breakfast

Anvik where Hugh Neff reaches us first to take the First to the Yukon award, $3500 of cash in a goldminer’s pan and a five-course meal cooked on hotplates. His GPS tracker showed an early morning arrival time, and we all rolled out to greet him, then John Baker, then Lance Mackey. The time spent waiting for Hugh was passed with listening to Ken Chase, an Anvik elder who ran in the very first Iditarod, his voice betraying his passion for the event, even now.

More teachers and students in Anvik, a young boy studying Lance closely as Lance booties up his team, the apprentice watching the master. Children caring for the pup who thought she should run from Shageluk to Anvik because she saw Aliy Zirkle’s team running on the river.

Shageluk, Grayling, Eagle Island, Kaltag, & Unalakleet

Squashed in the back of Dave Looney’s plane, on top of gear with gear on top of me for quick trips to Shageluk, Grayling, Eagle Island, an outpost of nothing but what volunteers set up for camp, Kaltag and the nearly straight-up climb from the river to the village, to Unalakleet for the first shower in about four days. Another hub of logistics and people crossing paths. By now, I am greeting people I met earlier on the trail as we all move to our next villages and checkpoints, just ahead of the first mushers.

Koyuk

Koyuk, where I pitch in moving HEET to the Dodge Lodge, wash the spaghetti with caribou meat sauce dishes, and greet the first five mushers from late evening to 3 a.m. John Baker arrives first, and the villagers crowd into the checkpoint for his arrival (they are following the GPS trackers on their home computers) and stay, to be near John. Speculation begins—Will he be the first Eskimo to win the Iditarod? The Koyuk hillside cemetery painted pink in the rising sun’s light, simple crosses moving me more than eloquent marble. Young boys footracing Mike Williams, Jr. and his team as he comes off the ice.

Running into White Mountain

White Mountain, flying over John and arriving just before he does for the mandatory 8 hour layover. Now, unless something unusual happens, John will win, although Ramey Smyth is second and literally has a track record of making the fastest times between here and Nome. Will it be a foot race?

Nome, Mile 1049

Nome, where it all finishes, but not until all are finished. Not a contest that ends with the first contestant to get there, but one that ends when the last athlete arrives, under the burled arch. A contest recognizing the work, the time, the effort, the perseverance to complete the thousand mile Iditarod. From John Baker to Ellen Halverson, now the race is complete.

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Iditarod in the Spring

Spring is bursting out all over here, and classes are enjoying hearing about the 2011 Iditarod. Patriot Elementary students saw cold weather gear and asked questions about the race and the dogs. This school held two Idita-Reads, one for kindergarten through second grade and one for grades three through five. I Skyped with the Red Lantern classes, the classes who kept reading, persevering to finish their school’s Idita-Read.

A first grade at Mt Pleasant Elementary School enjoyed following this blog, the videos, and the pictures, especially the one taken from the air. These students compared the temperatures in Alaska to their temperatures and charted the temperatures. They followed the progress of the mushers during the race, too.

I followed up their activities with a classroom visit, bringing my cold weather gear, showing pictures of the race, answering questions, and, their most favorite, showing a dog bootie to pass around and fit their little hands inside.

Mount Pleasant Middle School students followed the race, moving their mushers along a gigantic race map in the school’s display case, reading blog updates, and measuring the temperature on a thermometer made by the school’s art teacher. They compared temperatures, discussed the weather patterns of their state and Alaska, and how the seasons change. This school participated in an Idita-Read with students reading a book per mile and earning prizes like Iditarod shirts and books.

Hands fit in booties, too.

Comparing temperatures

Cold weather gear swallows up a first grader.

Illustrated thank you card depicting the Target 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail riding in the sled.

A First-Grader’s Alaska Story

Alaska

Alaska is very very cold.

My grandma has ben there lots of times.

There are husky dogs there in Alaska.

You have to race on sleds.

The dogs pul the sleds so you can go.

There are 62 people on the sleds.

There are 992 dogs puling you.

Written by a 1^st grader, typed here as written

This first grader took herself to the computer at home and wrote this story. She asked questions about the number of dogs and people and how to spell people. That’s it. I discovered the story in the printer tray. Engaged in the topic of the Iditarod and Alaska, this young writer produced the basis of a seven page picture book.

"You have to race on sleds."

Where could you take this story? Illustrate each sentence, publish the work, and now you have a published author. A thermometer showing cold temperatures on page one, sleds on page 4, and it would be fun to see how young authors illustrate 992 dogs pulling. Hold an authors’ reception complete with ice cream sandwiches, sno-cones, or milkshakes.

What national standards (NCTE) would this meet?

NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills

Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies

Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

NL-ENG.K-12.6 Applying Knowledge

Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

Communication–How It Happens on the Trail

Comms volunteer, Nancy, uses a walkie talkie to receive and confirm information from the race checker upon a team's arrival in Eagle Island.

How many forms of communication did you use today? Generate a list. Were all of the forms on your list electronic, or did you include forms like sign language, writing, or speaking? Make a chronological list or timeline of the development of all the forms of communciation you used in one day.

Now, think about how quickly or slowly these forms of communication worked. Did you have to repeat any of them in order for the person receiving them to get the communication?

During the Iditarod, a group of volunteers works a job called Comms, for Communications. Comms volunteers work at every checkpoint and send information such as musher arrival or departure dates and times and the number of dogs they arrive or leave with to the Comms department in Anchorage. This process is how the race standings are updated by the Anchorage Comms volunteers. Comms also communicates messages from people at the checkpoints to others elsewhere.

In Alaska, Comms is challenging. The Iditarod runs through remote Alaska, and after leaving Willow at the start, the race is off the road system, as they say in Alaska. That means there is no road connecting the villages and checkpoints; flying, snowmachine, or dogteam are the only ways to reach them.

The remoteness affects communciations–race checkers and checkpoint Comms volunteers may use walkie talkies to communicate arrival and departure information to each other. Using cell phones to transmit race details to Anchorage Comms is not reliable because there isn’t cell service in all areas; Internet service may be available via ethernet cable connection or wireless, but usually it isn’t wireless.  Sometimes the Internet is only accessible by satellite, and sometimes a sat phone (satellite phone) is all there is to use, like in Iditarod checkpoint. In Eagle Island, information is sent by data sat–that means a satellite phone is attached to the laptop and an antenna outside the Comms tent gets satellite signal to transmit the communication. In a day and age when people are accustomed to almost instantaneous communication, this could seem to be a delayed process.

And, all of us who use email or text messaging have experienced sending a message which disappears into who knows where, and the intended recipient doesn’t receive it.

My phone was off and packed after Skwentna because it didn’t get service; no phone for me for about 3 weeks. I used ethernet cable and wireless at other places, and in a couple of places, there was no Internet for me to use because it was more important for Comms to access it than me. And, I got down to basic communication as well, just asking and talking, instead of calling or emailing.

In the photograph, notice the heater and laptop in the tent. Clothing is hanging in order to dry–wearing sweat-soaked clothes in cold weather chills the body, something to be avoided. Find out why this should be avoided and explain it to someone else.

Back in Anchorage 3.22.11

Last night the last group of volunteers, except those working in the dog lot in Nome where teams rested awaiting their flights home, returned to Anchorage. The group included cooks, dog handlers, vets, trail sweeps (people who follow the end of the race on snowmachines), Iditarod Insider crew, ITC employees, and me.

On Sunday, an enormous number of volunteers set up the Nome Recreation Center for the finishers banquet. Staff from the Millennium Hotel in Anchorage came in to help prepare the Alaskan king crab legs, halibut, beef, vegetables, salads, and strawberries which were arranged in dog sleds on the buffet tables. 800 tickets were available for the event, and I didn’t notice empty seats, or empty stomachs after that meal! Someone from Little Diomede kindly showed me how to crack the crab legs and get that delicious, sweet meat to dip in butter. (Check the map to find out where Little Diomede is and what is on that island now.)

Monday found me at Nome Elementary School and the Head Start program presenting to all the grade levels. The school is a beautiful building and is filled with student projects including hatching salmon and bulletin boards of newspaper clippings about the Iditarod.

Monday was a windy day with snow falling. By recess, though, the snowfall had stopped. Students played outside on the playground equipment and pushed snow around into piles with their hands, as if in a sandbox making sandpiles. Compare and contrast your recess time with the description and photos of the Nome Elementary recess time.

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After being interviewed by a high school student and visiting with a high school English and journalism teacher in Nome, I was dropped off at the church where I’ve been staying and I packed my gear bag, readying it and me for the flight to Anchorage.

This isn’t my last post, though, so return to the blog to read new posts.

Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights 3.19.11

Nome, cloudy skies, some snow, perhaps drizzle falling today

Northern Lights, McGrath, AK

 

In Takotna a week ago, the Northern Lights appeared brightly, shimmering green. A friend sent me photos he took of them that night; to photograph these, a tripod is necessary because it’s difficult to hold a camera still enough.

This site, http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/auroraforecast/, gives aurora borealis forecasts as to how “good” the night’s show will be. The night I saw them, the forecast was a 4. These lights are a natural light display in the sky, caused by the collision of charged particles directed by earth’s magnetic field. They are especially easy to see in the polar regions.

The Northern Lights were named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas.

The science of these lights involves photon emissions from ionized nitrogen atoms which regain an electron and oxygen and nitrogen atoms changing from an excited state to a ground state. Solar wind particles excite, or ionize, these atoms when they collide. Oxygen emissions produce green or brownish-red lights and nitrogen emissions produce blue or red lights.

Chemistry classes—research this light phenomena, illustrate the process by which it happens, visit the site above for information on the Northern Lights. 

Northern Lights, McGrath, AK

Wattie McDonald’s Finish in Nome

View the previous post for a video of Wattie’s team in Anchorage. The photos in this gallery show were shot with the sport setting of the camera, capturing Wattie’s arrival in the chute in Nome.

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Wattie McDonald’s Team & Handlers

Wattie (pronounce the a in his name like “ah”) is back again for his second Iditarod. He’s from Scotland. Notice the flags being carries, the kilts, and the dogs’ coats.

Wattie McDonald at 2011 Iditarod Race Start, Anchorage

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St. Patrick’s Day in Nome 3.17.11

Temperature 16 degrees F, feels like 2 degrees F

People sported green for St. Patrick’s Day in Nome, attended their parade, and took their pictures under the burled arch finish line attired in green. Kelly Maixner finished his race today in a St Patrick’s Day top hat.

Kelly Maixner, DDS finishes his first Iditarod.

 Did you figure out what the four people in yesterday’s post had in common? Besides running the Iditarod, all four are native Alaskans.

An event at the mini-convention center was a reading of Robert Service poems by Richard Beneville, including The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee. These poems’ inspiration came from Service’s time spent in the Yukon Territory in the early 1900s. The Cremation of Sam McGee has a surprise ending. Study it with your students and discuss their different interpretations of the ending.

Photos 3.16.11

What do these mushers have in common?

Another use for duct tape–immobilize a dislocated shoulder that’s just been relocated.

Paul Johnson booties his dogs in Shageluk.

Mike Williams, Jr. off the ice into Koyuk.

Ramey Smyth spreads straw for his dogs in Koyuk.

Close Finishes and Broken Records 3.16.11

Temperature in Nome 0°F, winds 3 mph

Aliy Zirkle into Nome

Checking DeeDee’s sled bag for the mandatory items.

Pride showing in White Mountain for John Baker

Ken Anderson in 9th place by 3 inches of dog nose.

Jessie Royer in 10th

Last night there were some CLOSE finishes which is very unusual in a sled dog race. Ken Anderson and Jessie Royer raced into the chute at the same time, Ken’s team taking 9^th position by 3 inches of dog nose. In close finishes like this, it’s the dog that gets under the arch first that is the winning team, and sometimes a team wins by a nose, just like in horseracing.

Shortly afterwards, we thought we were standing at the chute waiting for DeeDee Jonrowe to come in, and were surprised to see Aliy Zirkle come in ahead of DeeDee. Aliy takes 11^th place and DeeDee is in 12^th. Read these 2 paragraphs again to figure out what position Jessie Royer is in.

The fastest race time record held by Martin Buser was broken by John Baker this year. Calculate how much faster John’s time is than Martin’s.

2002 Martin’s record–8 days 22 hrs 46 min. 2 seconds

2011 John’s record—8 days 18 hrs 46 min. 39 seconds

John Baker holds the distinction of being the first western native Alaskan to win the Iditarod, a fact that fills Kotzebue, his hometown, and native Alaskans with pride, a recognition of running dogs as a traditional way of life for these people.

Other native Alaskans in this year’s race include Paul Johnson, Mike Williams, Jr., Robert Nelson, and Ramey Smyth. Please note this list may not be complete.

What are you proud of in your family or town?

Photos to Enjoy

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Koyuk to White Mountain to Nome 3.15.11

Children in Koyuk check the GPS tracker with race volunteer, Troy.

Koyuk is a beautiful, peaceful village. Under bright sunshine, the river ice sparkles. During the night, we stood outside and spotted headlamps coming across the ice. During the day, we spotted the teams, dark caterpillars moving along the trail. Children played near the checkpoint and people visited inside. When John Baker was there late at night, people quietly visited so as not to disturb his, or other mushers’, sleep.

Sunday I left Koyuk ($18 for a 22 quart container of Tang at the Native Store) for White Mountain. Flying into White Mountain, I got this aerial photo of John Baker coming to White Mountain.

John Baker and team shadows running into White Mountain

White Mountain is where all mushers take an 8 hour layover. As they do every time they rest the dogs, mushers spread straw, removed booties, and fed them before coming into the White Mountain checkpoint. Faces red from wind and sunburn, the sleep-deprived mushers slept for part of their layover, leaving wakeup calls with the volunteers working Comms (communications). Crowded with mushers, volunteers, and vets, people slept all over the floor in the library, the gathering room, and in chairs.

Native Alaskans are very proud of John Baker’s win, a native Alaskan. At the finish under the burled arch, drummers wearing native dress celebrated with songs of their culture.

The burled arch on Front Street in Nome.

Price a 22 quart container of Tang where you live. What is the difference in price of it and the Tang in Koyuk? Is it twice as expensive, or more than that? How many containers of Tang can you buy where you live for $18?

Dropping In

3.12.11 Anvik temperature 8 a.m., 8 degrees F

3.13.11 Unalakleet 10 a.m., 5 degrees F, winds 5 mph 

Shageluk, Grayling, and Eagle Island—I dropped in on these three checkpoints briefly over one day. The principal/teacher’s daughters were bestowing rubs on Justin Savidis’ and Paul Johnson’s teams as they rested, in Justin’s case, or bootied up, in Paul’s case. Paul, who ran the Iditarod in 1986, headed for Anvik as we prepared to fly to Grayling. Paul is Middy Johnson’s brother and is running the team Middy ran last year. Ed Stielstra’s team came off the approximately mile-wide Yukon River into Grayling, past St. Paul’s Church, to rest for a while. Vets from New York and Maryland examined the dogs while Ed took off their booties and fed them. Eagle Island is not a village, but set up at a fish camp. The race volunteers here set up heated tents, a restroom (unheated), a checker’s tent, and the drop bags and straw for mushers. On the banks of the Yukon, also, this checkpoint is definitely a camping experience.

Shageluk School

Paul Johnson leaves Shageluk

Eagle Island heated tents

GPS Tracker, Hugh Neff First to the Yukon 3.11.11

Bullseye with the money Hugh Neff won.

Hugh invited Larry, the race judge at Anvik, to dine with him.

The GPS tracker carried in my backpack.

Temperature in Anvik 3.11.11, 21°F, winds 5 mph. Search for the formula to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius to calculate the temperature.

All the mushers have a GPS tracker strapped to the front of their sled or inside their sled bag. Slightly angled on the sled, these trackers update automatically every fifteen minutes or so. When you follow the mushers on the Iditarod Tracker, you can see their location by latitude and longitude and where they are on the trail. Miles per hour is given, too.

The tracker I carry is exactly like the one the mushers have on their sleds. It weighs about 2 pounds, and I’ve wedged it in my backpack’s side pocket. When I’m flying, you can compare the miles per hour I’m traveling to the miles per hour of the teams. You can locate my latitude and longitude on a map. At different checkpoints, people tell me they use my tracker position as a point of reference to make it quick to read the list of mushers and their positions. My nickname is “the TOT” or “the teacher”. So, people look at the tracker list and say, “Here’s the TOT. Where’s Hugh Neff right now?”

Can you compare the latitude and longitude of Anchorage and Grayling?

Hugh Neff earned his first race award today when he arrived in Anvik first. The First Musher to the Yukon award is presented by the Millennium hotel. The chef from the hotel flew to Anvik and cooked a fancy meal for Hugh to eat. Hugh also won $3500 in cash. After taking his 8 hour layover (mushers have to take an 8 hour layover somewhere on the Yukon River), Hugh left for Grayling, the next checkpoint. Look at the GPS tracker to see where Hugh is now.

Out of Takotna 3.10.11

 Temperature in Takotna, 8 a.m., -12°F, no wind 

Mushers left last night beginning at 2200 (can you convert that to a 12 hour clock?) with Martin Buser. A few mushers who had taken their 24 hour layover in McGrath blew through Takotna and headed to Ophir. All the mushers have to declare a 24 hour layover during the race and McGrath and Takotna are popular places to “24” as they say in race lingo. Trent Herbst, a 4th grade teacher, reached Iditarod, the halfway point of the race first and won $3000 in gold nuggets. See the video at Iditarod Insider—Trent has a big grin under that beard! I bet his class and family are proud of him. I’ve had lots of “firsts” on this trip—landing on frozen rivers, flying with race dogs in the plane, collecting urine specimens from dogs, seeing the Northern Lights, eating blueberry pie in Takotna, riding in the snowmachine sled packed in with bags of Iditarod Insider gear.

Jeff Schultz, the official race photographer, has super photos on www.iditarod.com under Images (right side of the page and scroll). He caught me walking a dog during specimen collection time. Check it out.

Before I flew out of Takotna this morning, I saw Kristy Berington and Justin Savidis leave for Ophir. Enjoy the shots.

Buser leaving Takotna; departure times on clipboard

Kristy Berington with her leaders before departing Takotna.

Justin Savidis signing the clipboard before leaving Takotna.

A Hodge-podge of Checkpoints, Ambling & Alacrity 3.9.11

What’s a hodge-podge? Can you figure out what it means by looking at these different photos? You’ll see photos of students, teachers, mushers, dogs, and sleds. When you think you’ve made a good guess at what hodge-podge means, ascertain its meaning by checking a dictionary.

Think about this: You know I have a GPS tracker in my backpack like the 2 pound trackers that are strapped to the front of the sleds. Like them, you can see where I am and when I am moving on the Iditarod Tracker on www.iditarod.com. A vet told me this afternoon they knew when I started walking from McGrath checkpoint to logistics based at the airport because my speed was 2.9 miles per hour, a walking speed. She told me that I was ambling to logistics, and I agreed with her, because if I walk with alacrity, I get hot and sweaty. Getting hot and sweaty in cold weather is not good, because then the sweat cools and your body gets cold. What do ambling and alacrity mean?

2nd & 3rd graders Top of the Kuskokwim School, Nikolai

Mushers who started earlier in the race stay more than 24 hours to make their race time equal to the ones who had higher bib numbers.

Sebastian massaging dogs and tucking them under their blankets.

Martin Buser & Rick Swenson, Takotna on their 24s.

with Takotna teacher, Jolene

Lachlan Clarke’s dog rests while Clarke changes to another sled.

Mushers often change their sleds after the Happy Steps to a sled better suited for the Interior of Alaska.

These Norwegian students in the vests, in their early 20′s, are taking a 5 month course in coldweather and outdoor survival techniques.

Juxtaposition and Iditarod 3.9.11

Describe the juxtaposition of the car and the snowpile.

Describe what is juxtaposed in this photo.

This Arizona chef is volunteering at McGrath checkpoint.

Plane on final approach to Nikolai, above resting teams.

Temperature in McGrath 3.9.11, 20 ° F, winds 9 mph. That means it feels like 9°F.

Clicking on a photo will enlarge it.

In literature, juxtaposition means to contrast two objects or texts that oppose each other. Describe the juxtaposition seen in the pictures here. How deep can you think about juxtaposition with the airplane and dog sled photo? How about the chef from Arizona flipping a Denver omelet in McGrath checkpoint? Another idea, write about the car with flames from the car’s point of view.

Zooming GPS Tracker & Logistics

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Temperature Nikolai 3.8.11, -2 degrees F according to the round thermometer on Schnuelle’s sled

Follow me using my GPS tracker and when I’m flying, I’ll be zooming. You can see what checkpoint I’m staying in, too. Compare my speed to racers’ speeds. I carry my tracker in my backpack. It weighs about 2 pounds, and is the shape of a brick, or close to that size. I don’t have to reset it, and it transmits every 15 minutes. I’ve had emails from schools and on the Iditarod Trail Committee Facebook page about how interesting it is to “see” where I’m going. Today I flew to Nikolai and back–the return trip was with a few dropped dogs. They slept on my feet and legs, and one was sitting where the right seat (copilot seat) would have been–the seat was removed to make room for dogs.

I’ve followed the race for a few years, now, but it is another experience entirely to be here watching it unfold. The logistics of getting volunteers, supplies, vets, and so on are incredible. Penair caravans (cross between cargo and passenger planes) and small planes are scheduled almost constantly during the day to organize flights to checkpoints further along the trail, and a few earlier checkpoints, too. Cargo includes rakes, generators, food, people, awards, shovels, and more. Flights aren’t scheduled after dark as the pilots only fly in daylight hours. The weather has been great for flying, and great for aerial photos.

I had moose stew for lunch in Nikolai today–it tastes like beef stew. Think about it–why would the village make moose stew instead of beef stew for mushers and visitors?

Martin Buser arrived first in McGrath, winnng the Penair Spirit of Alaska award. He was there only for a couple of minutes before heading on to Takotna. Mackey, Schnuelle, Neff, Redington,Jr., Seavey, and Bundtzen did the same.

Airplane Travelogue

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Official Start & Skwentna 3.7.11

Temperature 3.6.11 in Skwentna, 25 degrees F, calm wind

Temperature at 7 a.m. 0 degrees F, calm wind

On a gorgeous day, the 39^th Iditarod got off yesterday and mushers went through Yentna and Skwenta during the night and early morning. The Iditarod Air Force busily flew volunteers to Skwentna and points further along the trail. Iditarod Insider film crew members loaded gear to capture the race for you.

The Skwentna Sweeties are at Skwnenta as they traditionally are, cooking and welcoming volunteers and mushers. They arrived on Friday to begin preparations in the checkpoint building. Mushers can even get hot towels to refresh faces and hands here.

It’s a small world, too. Within 15 minutes of my arrival yesterday, I met 2 vets from North Carolina, one from the town my parents live in. I toured the post office in Skwentna; Joe Delia has been the postmaster for years and, this morning, was connecting sleds behind his snowmachine to pick up mail from the plane.

DeeDee Jonrowe arrived first in Skwentna last night, followed by numerous other teams in quick succession. This early in the race, the mushers have not had time to spread out yet, so a lot of volunteers work at Skwentna to handle the arrivals. The “river crew” parks teams at bales of hay, explains where to get hot water, HEET and to leave their supplies they want to mail back home.

Next stop for me, back to Anchorage to catch a flight to McGrath, AK.

Iditarod Insider crew loading camera

Bullseye and food drop bag line

team leaving Skwentna

early morning dog

A Skwentna Sweetie serving up breakfast

Part Two of Women Mushing On!

Jessie Royer

Jodi Bailey

Kelley Griffin

Melissa Owens

Karin Hendrickson

Michelle Phillips

Zoya Denure

Women Mushing On!

Here’s Part One of Women Mushing On. Use these photos of the 2011 women mushers, plus Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod, to create a memory game. Research the women, find an important fact or bit of info about each one and write it on a card. Put the picture on another card. Turn over cards and match the photos to the info. Or, match the photo to the musher’s name written on another card. Let your students do the computer research and create the game for others to play.

Aliy Zirkle

Libby Riddles, first woman to win the Iditarod

Kristy Berington

DeeDee Jonrowe

Heather Sirtola

Jessica Hendricks

Ceremonial Start!

Matt Hayashida and me, ceremonial start, 2011

Temperature about 20 degrees F, calm wind

Snow is dumped on 4th Ave. in Anchorage, teams start leaving at 10 a.m. at 2 minute intervals, and I rode with Matt Hayashida, bib #61. Beautiful day for a sled ride!

Mushers Banquet and Start Positions

Hobo Jim & Iditarod fans singing "I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail"

Temperature 3.3.11 average 20°F, wind speed 13 mph

Temperature 3.4.11 20°F, wind gusting 15-23 mph  Feels like 6°F

Last night the mushers drew their starting positions for the race. Unlike a horse race, all the mushers don’t begin at the same time—the teams leave the start line every 2 minutes, and the start position, or bib number, determines the order in which they leave. Drawn out of a mukluk (search mukluk to find out what it is), the positions are announced and mushers briefly thank their sponsors and so forth.

Race fans had ample opportunity to get memorabilia autographed by mushers as they left the stage area. Hobo Jim, Alaska’s balladeer, and Mr. Whitekeys provided musical and humorous entertainment.

You’ll find the race positions on www.iditarod.com on the home page. The bib  number is the starting position, and as the race gets underway, the race standings include the current race position and the bib number, which will be different from each other. Students may find it easier to locate the musher they are following by looking for the bib number, since this doesn’t change.

Newton Marshall of Jamaica, running his 2nd Iditarod this year

Dr. Seuss and Volunteers 3.2.11

Temperature in Anchorage at 7 a.m. 4° F, calm wind

School presentation group

After two days of ferocious (one of my favorite words) wind, it died down in the Anchorage area. My day started with a couple of Skype calls to East Coast schools, followed by presentations to Chinook Elementary and Willow Crest Elementary. These capped 11 or 12 presentations I’ve given since arriving in Alaska, sometimes to a couple of classes in a grade level, and sometimes to 200 students at once. Willow Crest celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday today. The author would have been 107 years old. Mr. Bryan Bearss, a kindergarten teacher at this school and an Iditarod race veteran, invited me to speak to the school. The teachers wore Cat in the Hat hats, and students dressed as book characters. I remember seeing one girl dressed as Thing Two.

At the Millennium Hotel, the Iditarod Race Headquarters, race activity is picking up. Volunteers from around the world are checking in, including from Tennessee and South Africa. Trainings for Comms (communications) volunteers train them in expectations at the checkpoints, the media which covers the race attended a press meeting, and on Thursday, the musher meeting commences in the morning. Only a few people are actually employed by the Iditarod Race—the majority of the people who work with the race are volunteers, like me, who love the race and come from all over to work, whether in Anchorage or out in the villages at race checkpoints.

The mushers’ banquet is Thursday night and they will draw their starting positions from a mukluk. If students aren’t familiar with the term mukluk, ask your students to track down what a mukluk is. The ceremonial race start begins Saturday, 10 a.m. in Anchorage. Lucky Idita-Riders, people who bid on a chance to ride with a musher, ride in the sled for this race start. I get to ride, also, in Matt Hayashida’s sled.

Wow, Is It Windy!

Siberian looking at you

Temperature 22 °F, wind speed 10 mph (which makes the wind chill temperature 11°F)

Did you calculate the wind chill factor and temperature for yesterday? It’s still windy in Anchorage today, giving us the 11 degree temperature stated above. This is two straight days of wind whistling at cracks of windows, rippling flags straight out, and sneaking inside unzipped jackets or up long sleeves. Ask your students what is personified in the italicized sentence.

This afternoon the teacher conference visited Jon and Jona Van Zyle’s home and kennel of well-behaved Siberian huskies. Both of them are talented artists, and Jon creates the official Iditarod poster each year for the race. The dogs played in the dog yard with us, exercised on their exercise wheel, which they jump on and off as they wish, ate at their “buffet” table, and gobbled down fish snacks.

Before the visit to the Van Zyle’s, I gave a program at Denali Elementary School which is a Montessori School. The school is about 8 years old, and was designed to let in as much light as possible with skylights and small windows tucked in everywhere. Light is important in a part of the world that has so much darkness in the winter time. Research the scientific reasons why Alaska is “in the dark” in the winter. An aquarium held salmon eggs which, when hatched, would be returned to the fish hatchery that the eggs came from.

When I left the school, I had to help hold the doors open for students and adults returning from a cross country ski field trip to a nearby park. The school owns these skis for students to use as well as the special boots worn with these skis. In physical education classes, they had learned about cross country skiing, and judging from their faces, they all had a great time on their field trip today. What’s your favorite physical education activity? Is it an unusual activity, or a common activity?

Siberian looking at you

Time to run!

Dog dining at the buffet

Siberian snuffing my ear

cross country skis

Jon Van Zyle, artist

Math, Language Arts, Art, and the Junior Iditarod 2.28.11

Temperature in Anchorage, 27°F, wind speed 12 mph

Calculate wind chill using this formula.

Wind chill temperature = 35.74 + 0.6215T – 35.75V (**0.16) + 0.4275TV(**0.16)

In the formula, V is in the wind speed in statute miles per hour, and T is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit

In downtown Anchorage I see the Chugach Mountains in the distance. Last night the wind increased so that snow scoured the roads in serpentine patterns, s’s in the snow. Have your students use context clues to figure out what serpentine means. Read the italicized sentence aloud to have them notice alliteration. Illustrate the snow scouring the roads under clear, starry skies, birch trees and snow edging the road from Willow to Wasilla.

Yesterday the Junior Iditarod champion realized he was in first place when he didn’t see sled tracks crossing the lake, the final approach to the finish, in front of him. What a surprise for him, and his family met him at the banner, the crowd yelling ecstatically for Jeremiah Klejka (say clay-kuh). Jeremiah won a sled, snowshoes, equipment, and a college scholarship. I had met his family the night before at Yentna, and it was fun to see them greet the second Iditarod winner in their family. His sister, Jessica, won in 2008. His brother, Jesse, competed this year also, finishing sixth.

Enjoy the photos of the Junior and “like” the Iditarod’s Facebook page for more information.

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Photos for Your Sled 2.27.11

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Fill Your Sled with Transportation 2.27.11

Yentna Station Roadhouse 2.27.11, 4 degrees

Iditarod Air Force plane

 Temperature Updates Wasilla 2.26.11, 12 degrees, windchill -1 degree

The Junior Iditarod started yesterday at Knik Lake, (say ka-nick) near the homestead of Joe Redington, Sr., Father of the Iditarod. The 14 -17 year old mushers, 14 total, raced to Yentna Station Roadhouse to spend their 10 hour layover around the traditional bonfire. Race volunteers (timers, HAM radio operators, vet, race marshal, and support volunteers) traveled to the roadhouse on the frozen Yentna River by plane and snowmachine to provide race support. I flew in with an Iditarod Air Force pilot, Phil Morgan, the musher with whom I rode as an Idita-Rider in 2005. People traveling on the Yentna can get a meal or a place to sleep at the roadhouse, buy gas and oil, or get their snowmachine repaired.

The photos today are of different transportation modes that I used at Yentna yesterday. Some ideas to use these photos: order them in chronological order from oldest mode to most recent mode of transportation; use a photo for a writing prompt; write a story from the snowmachine’s point of view; describe the musher’s trip to get to Yentna Station; research gas mileage of snowmachines and calculate how much gas is needed for a 75 mile trip; research airplane history.

Iditarod Air Force plane

snowmachine & sled at Yentna Station

Junior Iditarod volunteer

Team arrives at Yentna Station

2011 Junior Iditarod Start 2.26.11

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Junior Iditarod Race Weekend 2.25.11

The thirty-fourth running of the Junior Iditarod race start is Saturday, February 26. The field of 14 mushers, ages 14-17 years old, departs Knik Lake at 10 a.m. with mushers leaving every 2 minutes. This 150 mile race from Knik Lake to Yentna and then to Willow is a qualifying race for the Iditarod, ending Sunday, Feb. 27.

Mushers take a 10 hour rest at Yentna, and were warned to expect temperatures of  minus 25°F. I’ll be at the race start and then will fly to Yentna to view the race, spend the night, and  head back for their finishers’ banquet.

Like the Iditarod mushers, these young mushers will have GPS trackers on their sleds. You can track their race progress on www.iditarod.com by clicking on Iditarod Tracker on the right side of the home page.

Lynden is a major sponsor of the race, providing scholarships to the top five winners. Other awards recognize the Red Lantern winner, the Rookie of the Year, and the Sportsmanship trophy recipient.

Local businesses provide items for the mushers and the race as well.

Mushers and their parents met late Friday afternoon for the mandatory musher meeting. Paperwork was completed, the trail and its markers described, and the mushers drew their starting positions.

Visit http://www.jriditarod.com/ to find out more about this race and to follow it this weekend. Don’t miss it!

More than a Building for Education 2.25.11

Temperature in Wasilla, high 32°F, winds 5 mph

During my school visits the past two days, I’ve noticed that the schools are more than the place young people attend to learn. These buildings serve as community centers, a place for families and students to gather and take part in activities outside of school hours.

At Willow Elementary, the roller skates in the storage room roll once a month when the Lions Club sponsors a skate night in the school gym. The ice skates get use on the hockey rink at the school, and there is a school cross country ski club which meets after school hours. Driving into Larson Elementary, the school sign announces the school’s progress in their Idita-Math Trail competition and that movie night is coming up soon.

Of course, the schools serve as institutions of learning, too. Willow Elementary students also complete an Idita-Math Trail. First graders explained that their class’s progress along the Idita-Math Trail, which goes down one side of a hall and up the other side, is based on the students doing their math homework every night. And, if someone doesn’t do the math homework, it slows the team’s progress. Sounds like a fun way to encourage students to practice their math skills!

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Finding What Works in the Classroom 2.24.11

Temperature in Wasilla, late morning, 20°F, little wind

Teachers want to know what works in the classroom to facilitate student learning and to achieve growth in their learning. The research-based document,What Works in Classroom Instruction by Robert Marzano, Barbara Gaddy, and Ceri Dean (http://www.leigh.cuhsd.org/teachers/pdf/Marzano_Strategies.pdf),  is a good resource which explains the research behind classroom strategies and their effect. The effect sizes of various strategies range from .59 to 1.61. An effect size of 1.0 is roughly equivalent to one year’s growth in achievement. Please refer to the above article for a table of strategies and effect sizes.

Strategies that were found to strongly affect student achievement include homework and practice, setting goals and providing feedback, non-linguistic representation, summarizing and note-taking, identifying similarities and differences, cooperative learning, reinforcing effort and providing recognition, generating and testing hypotheses, and activating prior knowledge. The two highest effect sizes fell in the strategies of summarizing and note-taking and identifying similarities and differences. This site has helpful information about using these strategies.

http://www.tltguide.ccsd.k12.co.us/instructional_tools/Strategies/Strategies.html

Part of my job as the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ is giving presentations to students in Alaska schools. I started those today.  The presentation gives students a chance to learn aboutsome  similarities and differences of Alaska and North Carolina. Letting students use a Venn diagram, Thinking Maps (double bubble or bubble maps) or write about the differences and similarities of the two states would be methods to carry out a strategy with a high effect size.

The Iditarod Race is a tool to use to create a lesson on note-taking and summarizing or on identifying similarities and differences. Perhaps your area has a sport or race which could be compared and contrasted with the Iditarod, or watch Iditarod Insider video clips to practice taking notes and then organizing those notes into categories. Maybe those categories could be more easily remembered by using non-linguistic representation, another strategy which can positively affect student learning.     

Eagle, Moose, and Mountains

Temperature in Wasilla, high of 22, light winds

Bald eagle near Lake Hood

Surrounded by the Chugach Mountains, we drove to Anchorage from Wasilla. I kept my eyes open for moose and eagles. A moose was spotted far off the road, as well as an eagle perched in a tree near Lake Hood in Anchorage. The eagle reminded me of the huge number of eagles I saw in Homer, AK last summer. Do some research to find out why eagles are common in Alaska.

Chugach Mountains

Filling My Sled 2.23.11

Temperature in Anchorage, 8 a.m. 14 °F

Fill Your Sled is the theme of this year’s posts—fill your sled with ideas for your classroom, fill your sled with photographs, fill your sled with experiences to enrich your students’ learning. Today I filled my sled with a new experience—standing on the runners of a sled behind an 8 dog team of FAST dogs!

At Aurora Dog Trails, I rode a second sled behind a musher’s sled and her 8 dog team. She showed me how to put harnesses on the dogs, I walked (trotted) a couple of them to the line and helped hook them up, and when she pulled the snow hook, we were GONE! Zippity zip, down the trail! The dogs love to run, and these dogs run short distance races, so they run fast. Both of us crouched on the runners, feet on the sled brakes to slow them a little bit as we took off.

Riding a second sled is a little bit like the game of Crack the Whip, and I had to pay attention to slowing my sled with the brake when the musher slowed hers. It’s not just stand on the runners; it’s lean left or right, pushing a little with your foot to guide the sled around curves in the trail.

We did a quick three miles in about 15 minutes or so under a blue, blue sky surrounded by mountains in 14 degree weather. What an experience to put in my personal sled!

Iditarod Inspired Poetry

In my classroom, our study of poetry falls at the end of March. To ease the transition from the Iditarod and Alaska to poetry, I start with The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service.

“There are strange things done in the midnight sun/By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales/ That would make your blood run cold;” (Robert Service, The Cremation of Sam McGee) 

A darkly humorous narrative poem, its setting is familiar to the students who have been following the race.  This poem is an easy way to teach stanzas, rhyme scheme, and figurative language, especially personification.

We work with haiku and concrete poetry, also. This serves as a unique method to summarize their knowledge of the race and Alaska. Illustrating their poems serves as another way to summarize what they know, too, and lets those creative juices flow.

Enjoy the poetry photo exhibit. Especially note how the mug of hot chocolate poem was colored to look like a winter jacket.

hot chocolate haiku

Dog pawprints haiku

Alaska concrete poem

Iditarod dogs haiku

Iditarod dog concrete poem

Honest Dogs

Martin Buser

Honest dogs—I first came across those words in Gary Paulsen’s book, Woodsong, used to describe one of his dogs, Storm. Paulsen defined Storm as a dog who always worked, always pulled, ran many miles, and taught Gary many things about life.

Curious about the phrase, I researched it by asking people who asked others about “honest dogs”.  Author and Iditarod finisher Pam Flowers describes an honest dog as one who is a hardworking dog, and if the dog is not working hard as it usually does, then the dog has an honest reason for not doing so—snow or ice between the toes, getting jarred while running by stepping in a hole, sneezing, or other reasons to make their line go slack. (Note: the line referred to is the line attached between the tug at the rear of the dog’s harness and the gangline)

Pam says it’s the musher’s job to find out what the reason is and to take care of it. A dishonest dog is one who has learned to keep the line just tight enough to make it look as if the dog is pulling, but he isn’t.

Martin Buser, four time Iditarod winner, defines an honest dog in the following way:

I don’t mind if a dog eventually goes off the line during a long run as long as he or she gets back to work on their own.  Taking a break is fine by me, the honest part is that the dog does not lay down or quit.  If I’m stupid, I can make any dog quit.  One has to find what is possible to ask, what can be given.

 How does a musher know if a dog is pulling or not? They keep an eye on the line from the harness tug to the gangline. If it’s tight, the dog is pulling. If it isn’t, the dog is taking a break.

So, after I gathered all this information about honest dogs, I started thinking how this is an example of figurative language and how it relates to people. Usually, we think of honesty as a the quality of being truthful, saying what is true. But, honesty can show in actions, too.

How do we people know when other people are working like honest dogs work? We don’t have harnesses, tugs, and ganglines to look at. I think people listen to what we say we will do, and then people watch to see if we do what we said we would do.  People watch to see if we carry out our responsibilities or not.  Carrying out our responsibilities is like keeping the line tight.  Some people call this “talking the talk and walking the walk”. You do what you say you’re going to do.

Hardworking, “honest” people take breaks too, to recharge or to consider another way to get something done, causing their line to go slack for a little while. They get back to work, tightening their lines on their own. And if an honest person falters or hesitates, the reason they do so is an honest reason, a real reason.

When people offer excuses or dishonest reasons for not getting something done, then it’s like being a dishonest dog—pretending to do the work, but not really doing the work. The line looks tight, but the job isn’t getting done.

And, as a teacher or employer or co-worker, think about Martin’s statement that if he’s stupid, he can make any dog quit, that it’s up to him to find out what is possible and what the dog can give. Seems like that’s advice for folks who work with students, employees, and colleagues, too, not just mushers.

Are you an honest dog?  How do others know that you are? Think about it! (Thanks to Terrie Hanke, Sue Allen, Pam Flowers, Hugh Neff, and Martin Buser for their help with this information.)

Something to Do While You Follow Me!

When I arrive in Alaska around February 22, I’ll post often to keep you in the loop about what I am doing and what is going on with the race. And, when the race starts March 6, I’ll post daily about the race and teachable moments.

The NUMBER ONE question I’m asked is: “Don’t you get cold in Alaska?”   To help others Outside of Alaska understand the cold, I’ll post the temperature and wind speed daily on my site while I’m in Alaska. By the way, Outside refers to anywhere not in Alaska, and usually to  the other states of the U.S. Use this information for the following activities to figure out if I’m getting cold! (Don’t worry. I’ve got all the right gear to keep from getting cold!)

• Elementary–Color a paper thermometer which shows your area’s temperature and another one showing the temperature I posted. Write the temperatures correctly.
• Elementary–Make a chart or graph showing the temperatures I post.
• Middle School—Use the lesson plan I posted in Coordinates for Your Sled-The Math Trail to make a 2 or 3 line graph plotting and comparing the temperatures I post and your area’s temperatures.
• Middle School—Relate positive and negative numbers to the temperatures I post and the temperatures in your area.
• Secondary—Convert the Fahrenheit temperatures I post to Celsius, and then back again. It’s a great workout for your brain! (Don’t use the converter program, use brain power.) http://www.albireo.ch/temperatureconverter/formula.htm Accessed 12.27.201    

 Fahrenheit to Celsius  

    Celsius to Fahrenheit  

     

• Secondary—Calculate windchill and use those algebra skills. I’ll post the temperature and the windspeed daily during the race. You calculate the wind chill for a REAL brain workout. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/basics/windchill/wind-chill-formulas.htm Accessed 12.26.2010
• Any age level—Research and learn about Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures. Write a paragraph or paper or create a power point show about the history of how these different ways of measuring temperatures came to exist, why scientists use Celsius more than Fahrenheit, which countries use Fahrenheit more than Celsius, what Celsius used to be called, etc.
• Read Sanka’s postings on Zuma’s Paw Prints. This K-9 reporter includes weather and climate information in his postings.  http://iditarodblogs.com/zuma/

Mushing on,

Martha

Iditarod is Coming! Fill Your Sled Now!

(Keep on reading to find some ideas of activities for your students to do.)

Mushers carry the following mandatory items in their sleds during the race. I bet you can make this list relevant to what students need to be prepared for their job of school.

•  Proper cold weather sleeping bag weighing a minimum of 5 lbs.
• Ax, to weigh a minimum of 1-3/4 lbs., handle to be at least 22” long.
• One operational pair of snowshoes with bindings, each snowshoe to be at least 252 square inches in size.
• Any promotional material provided by the ITC.
• Eight booties for each dog in the sled or in use.
• One operational cooker and pot capable of boiling at least three (3) gallons of water at one time.
• Veterinarian notebook, to be presented to the veterinarian at each checkpoint.
• An adequate amount of fuel to bring three (3) gallons of water to a boil.
• Cable gang line or cable tie out capable of securing dog team.
• When leaving a checkpoint adequate emergency dog food must be on the sled. (This will be carried in addition to what you carry for routine feeding and snacking.)
• http://iditarod.com/pdfs/2011/rules.pdf

Right now, mushers are preparing for the race by freezing and bagging their dogs’ food for the race, planning and preparing their people food and supply bags, running their teams on daily training runs and in races like the Copper Basin, the Sheep Mountain 150, or the Gin Gin 200. I am always curious about names, so I researched how the Gin Gin 200 got its name.

Who was Gin Gin?
The Gin Gin 200 is named after a remarkable dog who dominated a dog kennel for over 10 years. She was an inspiration both on the trail and in the dog yard. She was a dog with unswerving loyalty and stubbornness. She did not know” quit”. Her ability, drive and attitude should serve as an example to dog drivers everywhere.  http://www.gingin200.com/ accessed 1.1.11

Fill your classroom sled with some of these ideas to get your class prepared for the Iditarod.  Choose one way or several ways, or think of your own way to connect your students, your curriculum and the race.

• Start now visiting www.iditarod.com and  http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/ , the For Teachers section of that site for ideas to use. There is an exciting lesson plan idea using the Blabberize website on the For Teachers section. http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/
• Read Zuma’s Paw Prints at the For Teachers page. Zuma and other K-9 reporters give you information about the race. http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/
• Adopt a musher(s) and use this form to chart his/her race progress. http://iditarod.com/pdfs/teacher/MusherDataSheets.pdf Scroll down to find the southern route chart. The southern route is run in odd-numbered years. The race data is free and is found on www.iditarod.com.
• Create a race route map along your classroom’s walls or down your hallway and move your adopted musher(s) along the map. This link takes you to the race map and access to a list of the mileage between each checkpoint for the southern and northern race routes. http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/2009/11/21/maps-of-the-iditarod-trail/
•  Teach a novel or read books about the race or related topics. Find books to choose from on these lists.  http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/iditarod-books/
• Math problems for elementary and middle school are in December’s posting on this site.
• Teach students to convert the 24 hour clock time, used to report race times, to 12 hour clock times. Great mental exercise!
• Temperature charting, wind chill calculation, converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius and back again. (See my posting on this site titled Something to Do While You Follow Me! for details)
• Watch the free Iditarod Insider videos or sign up for this special video view of the race. You and your class can see what’s happening in the race via these clips. http://insider.iditarod.com/

Mushing on,

Martha

The Travels of Bullseye

Bullseye, the Target® mascot, travels with me to presentations I make and on trips I take. We’ve traveled to schools in North Carolina and to Asheville, NC, where we hiked a short section of the Mountains to the Sea Trail  with Cathy Walters, the Target® 2009 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™. Recently, Bullseye and I traveled to New York City to visit a special exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History about the race to the South Pole—Roald Amundsen’s and Captain Robert F. Scott’s expeditions and efforts to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. The Norwegian explorer, Amundsen, reached it December 14, 1911. Scott’s party of five men, including Scott, reached it in 1912, but perished on the return trip due to bad weather and a lack of supplies. Bullseye couldn’t have his photo taken with any of the exhibit displays, but enjoyed being photographed elsewhere around New York City. The dinosaur photo is from the American Museum of Natural History. Balto’s statue is in Central Park and was placed there by New Yorkers in honor of all the dogs’ efforts to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in January 1925. The restaurant called Fred’s is named after a dog! Enjoy his photos from schools, Asheville, and New York. Highlight the captions that blend with the background so you can read them more easily.

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Snow!

North Carolina, my home, is a state with very different regions—the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state; the rolling land of the Piedmont where I live; the flat coastal farmland edging to the Atlantic Ocean. Snow frequently visits the mountains of NC, but not so often elsewhere in the state.

Snow fell the first two weekends of December in the Piedmont, not much at all, but considering I can’t remember the last time snow fell here in December, the snowfall was remarkable for that fact alone.

Usually the snow that falls here is fluffy flakes; last week the snow looked like tiny balls of Styrofoam. Take a look at the pictures to see it.

Whether you live where snow falls or not, enjoy these books about snow. By Cynthia Rylant, the book titled Snow; Snow Show by Carolyn Fisher which explains scientific process regarding snow; Recess at 20 Below by Alaskan teacher Cindy Lou Aillaud about playing outside in cold weather conditions; The Snowflake-Winter’s Secret Beauty by Kenneth Libbrecht and Patricia Rasmussen; The Truth About Snow People by Blue Lantern Studio, available at Target®; and, of course, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

What books do you already enjoy about snow? Enjoy them again with hot chocolate or apple cider. Happy Winter to you!

Mushing on,

Martha

Iditarod Math for Elementary & Middle Grades

The Iditarod and its race statistics make math real-life situations for students, helping them understand how math is used in everyday life. Use these math problems for practice, homework, extra credit, review, or in middle school at the beginning of class to focus students on an independent activity. Some teachers call these “at the bell” problems.

If you have Notebook software, put these problems in that software and present them via your SmartBoard. Put the problems in a shared folder so all teachers can access them.

There are problems appropriate for K-2 and grades 3-5 (addition, multiplication and division) and for the math skills expected of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Solutions for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade problems are here. These problems will probably give you some ideas for other problems. Visit www.iditarod.com and look around the site to find more information to use for your math work.

Mushing on with math,

Martha

What to Wear in Alaska

THE box arrived a week ago. THE box I’ve been waiting for contains an anorak, arctic boot and a mukluk to try on for size. Target® provides my anorak and arctic boots, and now is the time to get the right sizes ordered. Terrie Hanke, the 2006 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™, sent me her gear to try on. My gear will be similar to hers. I’m also having fun finding plunge mitts with a leash to keep these North Carolina hands warm. (Explore the Internet and search for plunge mitts to see what those are.)

 People ask, “Don’t you get cold?”, but dressing in layers of the right gear helps prevent getting cold. Layers of long johns, fleece, insulated snow pants, a down coat under the anorak plus mitts with liners and a hat all work to keep me comfortable. The technology applied to fabrics and materials to meet the challenge of cold temperatures while making it possible to move easily in the gear is amazing.

 Students at my school watched this video on the TV announcements, and my sixth graders were amazed at the size and lightness of the boot. So was I! Quite a few of my students hunt, or their family members hunt, so they are familiar with dressing for the cold, and enjoyed their hands on experience with this gear.

Alaska Clothes

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Meet the Sled Video

Learn about an old sprint sled, introduced by a couple of my students on our school’s TV announcements.

Sled video by Martha 2010

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Sled Dog Genetics

Taz poses in retirement, 2007, Dream a Dream Dog Farm, Willow, AK

Breeding dogs to achieve the desired characteristics is a science for mushers. They breed dogs with these characteristics, looking at the dogs’ backgrounds of their “ancestors”. One line, descended from Togo and Leonhard Seppala’s Siberian huskys who ran the Serum Run of 1925, is called the Seppala Siberian.  Visit this site http://www.seppalas.com/index.htm to find out more about the Seppala Siberian, which is considered a natural dog. Be sure to visit the page about the Seppala Standard, because this shows the characteristics formed by nature and function that define a Seppala Siberian. The page called What is a Seppala traces the breeding history of this working dog.

Another type of dog that mushers breed is the Alaskan husky, the result of breeding to develop a faster dog with northern dog characteristics and the physical attributes of the working sled dog. Most mushers have the Alaskan husky. When I first saw an Alaskan husky, I was struck by how they looked like a mutt—you can see the Siberian and northern dog characteristics in them, but also the characteristics of a hound. (A mutt is a mixed breed dog, and I use the term with all respect to this husky.) The Alaskan husky is smaller than the Siberian or malamute, making it a faster dog. Although not recognized as a pedigreed dog, mushers carefully plan breeding of this dog to produce the desired results.

Some mushers prefer to run only Siberians, so watch Blake Freking’s team or Karen Ramstead’s team to see Siberians in the Iditarod. Jim Lanier runs only white dogs on his team. Wonder what kind of genetic planning that entails to get so many white dogs?

This lesson for middle school focuses on physical characteristics of sled dogs. A genetics worksheet is included, and a website address for video and information about sled dogs. These pictures can be used with the lesson which addresses eye color, straight or floppy ears, and bushy tails in dogs. Many thanks to Susan Harrington and my husband for explaining genetics to me and helping me develop this lesson.

Mushing on,

Martha

Brochures, Research, Cite Your Sources!

This is the front of a brochure about the Junior Iditarod.

The brochure opens in the center to reveal its contents about the Junior Iditarod.

Sources are cited on the back of this brochure about the race’s different awards.

This lesson plan addresses several different skills for students. It’s written for sixth graders, but can easily move up in grade levels. Most eighth graders write a term paper, and this lesson introduces younger students to doing research both on the Internet and using print media in preparation for the term paper. Skills covered are evaluating websites for accuracy and reliability, technological skills to search for information, taking notes, ethics in using information found on the Internet and in print media, and the proper format to cite sources. This is a great time to introduce plagiarism.

Before starting their research, discuss with students the qualities of a reliable, accurate source, whether it’s a print media or Internet. Also discuss what copyrighted material is, how they can identify it, and why they cannot copy and paste it without permission from the author. The same applies to photographs, artwork, and clipart. When we did this project, we got permission from the website or the photographer to use certain photos.

These brochures were “made by hand” for several reasons. Scheduling enough time in the computer lab to do them on the computer was not possible; for some students, trying to format a newsletter on the computer would be too challenging; entering text takes them a long time as most have not learned correct keyboarding skills; and I wanted them to enjoy the creativity of design, colored pencils/crayons, and decorating.

The brochures pictured unfold in the center and students had the entire inside to fill with information and photographs or artwork. On the back of the brochure, they cited their sources. We used MLA format because that is what they would use in eighth grade and in high school.

Mushing on,

Martha

Iditarod Traveling Quilts

A traveling Iditarod quilt being observed by sixth graders

An acrostic square

Quilt squares-remnants of fabric that by themselves are of little use, but sewn together, they become protection against cold, works of art, and expressions of individuals and the times they live in, achieving something that no one square could achieve.

Team members- individuals who, on their own, may be of little help in achieving a goal, but joined together for the common good achieve a goal greater than any one part could.

Quilt squares : Team members :: Join together : Achieve a Goal

An analogy for the race and for life 

There are seven traveling Iditarod Quilts visiting schools around the country this year. The squares are made by teachers who attended the Summer Iditarod Teacher Conferences or by people at schools who hosted quilts. My school has had two quilts to visit, one a couple of years ago, and the second one earlier this fall.

Quilt, as each quilt is called, hung in our school display case along with my sled, and we spent a couple of days observing Quilt and the sled, writing about each and designing our own quilt squares. Recently, after some lessons in word processing, students entered and formatted their sled paragraphs. This is a good way to practice formatting skills and following directions to format correctly. The next part of our activity will be to revise the quilt square designs and create a paper quilt on bulletin board paper. The students’ quilt square designs were inspired by the squares on Quilt in the display case, so designs include encouraging quotes, sleds, mountains, and dogs.

Keep checking www.iditarod.com on the For Teachers link for more Quilt postings.

Mushing on,

Martha

Pictures to Catch Your Eye!

Enjoy this slide show of photos. I created it with the Word Processing lesson in mind. Several of the choices were inspired by the subject matter of the documents to format.

Mushing on,

Martha

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Word Processing and Iditarod

As a sixth grade English/language arts teacher, one of my responsibilities is to teach students word processing. By sixth grade, most students are familiar with the mouse, the delete button on the keyboard, and have a general idea of where the letters are on the keyboard. Formatting a document, though, is something they usually aren’t familiar with, and to prepare them for 21^st century learning, they need to know how to do this.

This lesson and its skills were written for sixth grade. Each document is about a different aspect of the race—mushers, awards, and the Junior Iditarod race. Included are pdfs of the document to format, how the document should look after formatting, and directions for formatting each document. Skills used are justifying and centering text, capitalization, indenting, single spacing, cutting and pasting, highlighting, deleting, spell check and grammar check, and entering text.

The first day we’re in the computer lab, we work through the musher document together as I assess where the students are with their skill level. Each student has a copy of the directions for formatting that lesson in front of them, and teaching this is aided by projecting the image from one monitor via LCD projector. During the second lesson about race awards, students work slightly more independently, and by the time they get to their third lesson about the Junior Iditarod, they can usually work independently.

A couple of tips—I teach from the back of the computer lab where I can easily see everyone’s monitor and know at a glance how their work is going. At my school, the technology facilitator put these documents on the school’s shared folder for students to access, and we discovered that sometimes Microsoft Word wants so badly to capitalize words that it wouldn’t “hold” what should be wrong so the students can correct it. After a few tries, it held. Other subject areas could teach Excel or Database using Iditarod information, too.

Mushing on,

Martha

Take Iditarod to Your Community

Morgan checking out a rare snowfall in our area of North Carolina.

Whenever the Iditarod is mentioned, folks are curious to learn more about the race and the athletes, both canine and human. Of course, I am excited to tell them about my trips to the race starts in Alaska, what I know about it, and my upcoming trip for the 2011 race. The most frequently asked questions for me are: “Are you running a team in the race?” (No, I’m flying along the route during the race in bush planes.); “How long is the race?” (Officially, it’s 1,049 miles, and the first mushers arrive in Nome around day 9 or 10.); “Do you have a sled dog?” (Yes, I adopted a Siberian from our local shelter.); and “Does she pull a sled?” (No, she pulls me on our very fast walks.) In the upcoming months, I’m visiting schools around North Carolina, public libraries, and 4-H to talk about the race and its use as an education tool. In the past year, I’ve spoken to Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs and retirement homes, too. You can bring Iditarod home to your community, too, through service leadership projects.

Decorated with miniature booties and tags with checkpoint details, musher ornaments and information, and snowflakes.

My students have a yearly opportunity to decorate Christmas trees in our local museum, and each year they decorate trees with an Iditarod theme. Sled dogs and sleds, musher ornaments,  miniature sled dog booties, gifts with informative Iditarod gift tags under the tree serve to tell our community about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Have your students practice research skills on the Internet to find information to put on their ornaments. Look at an earlier posting on this site to find pictures of a sled and dog you can use for an ornament pattern.

One year my classes participated in the Books to the Trail project, bringing loose change to pay for Scholastic books we ordered. Students planned the purchase from a couple of book orders, determined to get the most books for the money. Visit www.iditarod.com and the For Teachers link to learn more about this project.

Zuma, the K-9 reporter for the Iditarod issues a service leadership challenge each year. Visit Zuma at www.iditarod.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1708954606. Serve animals in need in your area by collecting loose change to donate, or old clean towels, newspaper, or pet food. Your local animal shelters and rescue organizations may have other needs—check with them to see if office supply donations or other items are helpful to them.

When you’ve finished your project, write it up and send it to djohnson@iditarod.com. Diane can get it posted on the Iditarod website for folks everywhere to read and be inspired by your work. Enjoy taking Iditarod to your community.

Sled dog bootie information for the Christmas tree

Mushing on,               

Martha

Taking Care of the Iditarod Dogs, Writing, and Sequencing

Buddies at the 2010 vet check

The dogs of the Iditarod are athletes and get the kind of training and health care human professional athletes get. Volunteer vets man the race’s checkpoints to examine teams as they arrive throughout the race. These dogs have been cleared physically by a pre-race exam which includes bloodwork, EKG, and a physical exam. This article, Caring for Dogs of the Iditarod, details the care they receive before and during the race.

Three days before the race start, there is a final vet check opportunity at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla, AK. All the dogs here have already cleared their labwork and EKG and receive the final physical exam on that day. Fans enjoy watching the vets and dogs, meeting mushers in person, taking photos, and interacting with the dogs.

This lesson about sequencing is written for first grade. It includes pictures from the 2010 final vet check for students to use in sequencing and writing a book. The article above gives teachers background information to familiarize them with healthcare for the dogs.

Not a primary grade teacher? Here are some more ideas for upper grades, including high school, for you.

 1) Make an Iditarod Trail game using this cube pattern. Put photos of the vet exam on cube faces. Number each photo. Use a trail map and advance a sled dog playing piece (or colored button or coin) along the trail’s checkpoints based on the roll of the cube.

2) Write a description of the vet check exam from the dog’s point of view.

3) Research physical exams for people and dogs. Compare and contrast these exams in a formal paper. Cite sources.

Mushing on,

Martha

Coordinates for Your Sled–The Math Trail

GPS—how did we get anywhere without it! Enter your destination and drive to it! No map unfolding and refolding—map refolding is challenging—it never ends up the way it looked before it was used. GPS directs us to locations using coordinates that map the world. Latitude, longitude, number lines, space, spheres. Coordinates plot points on graphs, too, making numbers into a visible picture or line so we can “see” where the numbers are going, what they are “doing”.

Use this lesson to take your sled down a math trail. It challenges students to plot the coordinates of a sled dog, an activity for upper middle school and Academically Gifted students. Or, use the lesson modification for primary students to make a connect the dots dog using numbers. Color the completed dog and put a harness on it. A set of coordinates, a picture of graphed sled dogs, a connect the dots dog, and a sled dog outline are included in this lesson for your use. Keep reading for another math lesson.

connect the dots sled dog

Graphed sled dogs

The next math lesson here plots temperatures on a graph, comparing temperatures of three locations over an extended time period. My inspiration for this lesson was the unusually cold temperatures in my area of North Carolina late December 2009 through early January 2010. The cold temperatures coincided with the introduction of integers for our sixth grade team, so Mother Nature lent a great hand to learning! Students plotted the temperatures for Nome and Anchorage Alaska and Mt. Pleasant, NC. The lesson provides practice with integers as well as plotting points on a graph. When the graph is complete, turn it into a line graph with a different color line for each location. The lines really communicate the graph results to students.

Mushing on,

Martha

I Knew I Could Do It! Write a Personal Narrative

Amanda after her first Junior Iditarod finish

Congratulations and thanks to her canine teammate

This lesson plan for grades three through high school uses the book Big-Enough Anna to spark students’ thinking. The book, by Pam Flowers, is a true story about how a little sled dog was big enough to learn to lead the team, to step up when the team counted on her, and to meet a dangerous challenge and continue on in her position as lead dog. Take a look at one of my July posts to order the book.

The lesson generates thoughts on universal themes such as accomplishing things that others don’t think you can do or continuing to work even though you are challenged. Then, students brainstorm personal experiences they’ve had with the same situation—doing something or accomplishing something that someone thought they couldn’t do—and write a personal narrative about it.

The narrative should reflect the students’ writing abilities and levels, thus a high schooler’s personal narrative will be more extensive and developed than the elementary school student’s paper. A rubric to score the narrative is part of the lesson.

Publish your students’ “can do” narratives and refer to them when students feel challenged in the classroom or in life, just like teams and mushers push through the tough parts of the Iditarod to move on down the trail.

Mushing on,

Martha

September Ideas for Your Sled

 It’s after Labor Day and we’re all back in school. I hope you’ve found ways to use the clipart and bookmarks in your classrooms or you have plans to use them during the year.

I‘ve had another remarkable Iditarod experience since school began that I’ll share with you. About two weeks ago, my classroom phone rang, and the caller was a parent of a student at another school in my school system. She had read an article about me in my position as the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ in a school system publication and was excited to contact me about her family’s history of racing Siberian huskies when they lived in Iowa. The most wonderful part of the call, though, was finding out they were selling a dog sled, only 20 minutes away from me! Last Saturday I picked up my “new” old sled, harnesses, and a gangline as well as some great stories of their dogs and running dog days. And, I got a super lead on the sled’s  history which I’m working to confirm.

Iditarod has provided unexpected opportunities for me over the years; where I least expect a connection, there is one. Who would have thought that in Cabarrus (say kuh bear us) County, North Carolina I’d have a chance to buy a dog sled with some really remarkable history connected to Alaska? It’s like going on a treasure hunt. I bet that you will have remarkable experiences in your classrooms when you use Iditarod as a teaching tool, too.

Here are some lesson ideas my sled generated. I can’t wait to hear about the activities and results you get when you try these.

1. Use the photo of the sled next to the Toyota Prius as a writing prompt.  Compare and contrast the two types of transportation, their size, their purpose, their use, where they are used; create an analogy between the dogpowered transportation and the mechanical energy saving transportation; write a dialogue between the sled and the car; choose either the sled or the car and write about why it is a superior form of transportation; write about what you can do with the sled that you can’t do with the car.
2. Write a story from the sled’s point of view.
3. Write about a race the sled was in.
4. Persuade someone to buy this sled with an illustrated advertisement.
5. Build your own small scale sled using popsicle sticks.
6. Use a computer program to design your sled.
7. Create an illustration of the sled and team using an art technique such as mosaic, pencil, or collage.
8. Write a fable about the sled and the car. (This reminds me of The Tortoise and the Hare fable.)

Mushing on,

Martha

The dog sled and the Toyota Prius

What ideas does this picture generate in your mind?

Describe the rough trail that caused the sled crashes repaired by duct tape.

Togo and Balto

Togo, Seppala’s lead dog who led the most miles in the 1925 run to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to Nome.

Balto statue at Iditarod Headquarters, Wasilla, Alaska

Leather replica of Balto’s harness. My left hand holds the padded section that goes around the neck.

Morgan modeling a newer harness.

 When I introduce the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race™ to my students, I use an article, The Story of the Iditarod Trail, for them to read. I watch them reading it to themselves or to their partners, and, it never fails, they perk up and recognition glows on their faces when they read about Balto in that article. They say, “I know Balto!” because they’ve read a book or seen a movie about him.

Togo and Balto were the lead dogs on Leonhard Seppala’s and Gunnar Kaasen’s teams which helped deliver antitoxin to Nome in 1925 to stem a diphtheria epidemic. Both dogs were Siberian huskies, a breed brought to Alaska from Siberia by William Goosak, a Russian fur trader. These dogs were smaller and leaner than the huge dogs being used at that time to pull freight sleds delivering mail, supplies, and bringing out gold in Alaska. Their nickname was not very complimentary—“Siberian Rats”. The Siberian husky breed was officially recognized in 1930 by the American Kennel Club, and many sled dogs today descend from Seppala dogs.

Roald Amundsen planned to use Togo and his teammates for a North Pole expedition which was cancelled. Seppala continued to train and race the dogs, and in 1925, was called upon to run a long leg of the route to deliver the diphtheria antitoxin.  Togo led the team the longest distance, 260 miles, while other teams ran distances of 25-40 miles.

Balto, another Siberian husky owned by Gunnar Kaasen, led the last team to carry the medicine into Nome. Whiteout blizzard conditions and snowblindness forced Kaasen to rely heavily on the 3 year old dog’s abilities. (Source: http://www.shca.org/shcahp2d.htm 9.11.10).

Read more about Togo and Balto at these sites.

http://www.litsite.org/index.cfm?section=Digital-Archives&page=Land-Sea-Air&cat=Dog-Mushing&viewpost=2&ContentId=2561

http://www.litsite.org/index.cfm?section=Digital-Archives&page=Land-Sea-Air&cat=Dog-Mushing&viewpost=2&ContentId=2559

After his death, Togo was preserved by a taxidermist and is on display at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla, Alaska. In December 1925, a statue of Balto was unveiled in New York’s Central Park. Determined that Balto would also be on display in Alaska, Kim Raymond searched, located, and arranged shipping of a second Balto statue to the Iditarod Headquarters in 2009.  Read more about this statue at this site on page 10.  http://iditarodblogs.com/news/files/2009/09/09-Fall-e-Runner.pdf

These photos are of Togo, Balto, and a replica of the leather harness that Balto wore. I am holding it at Jon and Jona VanZyle’s house in Alaska. Jona worked at the Cleveland Museum in Ohio at one time. The museum owns Balto who was preserved by a taxidermist after his death. Jona found the harness in a collection of items the museum holds from the time when Balto and other team dogs lived at that museum. She had a replica made of the harness which is surprisingly heavy.  It fits around the dog’s neck and behind the front legs, encircling the torso. Today’s sled dog harnesses are very lightweight and made of webbing which fits along the dog’s back and sides.

My dog, Morgan, is modeling a more modern type of harness. It is a little big for her, but she shows how a harness fits. By the way, a lot of people ask me if she pulls a sled. The answer is “No”. I rescued her about three years ago from our animal shelter, and while I’ve taught her gee, haw, straight ahead, and on by commands, we just go for FAST walks! (say jee, it means right; haw means left)

Mushing on,

Martha

Bookmarks and Activities for Students and Teachers

Use the bookmark for your classes. They can be rewards for students who achieve reading goals, everyone can have one for themselves, or use them for end of the year gifts for your students. Print them on card stock so they will stand up to use.  I printed bookmarks on my school’s color printer. The pictures on the bookmarks are from the 2009 Iditarod.

Earlier in August I posted a Scavenger Hunt lesson with a summary and evaluation exercise, combining a physical education lesson with English/language arts. Here is a modification for the summary activity, and here is an example of the activity without modification.

You can keep up with the Iditarod Trail Committee now on Facebook. Here’s the address—

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iditarod-Trail-Committee/112545578798091

Remember to visit the For Teachers section of www.iditarod.com for messages posted by Diane Johnson of the Iditarod Education Department.

Mushing on,

Martha

More Lessons & Ideas to Fill Your Sled!

August is upon us, and we teachers know the clock is ticking towards that first day of school. In July, I posted clip art to help you with bulletin boards, room decorations, and more. You got a great start with reading Big-Enough Anna by Pam Flowers, too. The lessons this month will show you how to apply an article in almost any subject and how to take a seemingly unrelated lesson and use it in your subject area. The first lesson, Using The Story of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, takes an article from The Learning Works, Inc. and shows you how to use it not only for reading and language arts, but for subjects such as science and history, and that it can be used with all ages, including adults. I use the article to introduce the race and its history to my classes each year, and I share it with adults and staff as a quick way to familiarize them with the race. Here are two sets of questions to use with the article, too. One focuses on reading for detail, and the other set is multiple choice informational text questions.

The second lesson is a physical education lesson plan by Terrie Hanke, the Wells Fargo 2006 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™, and shows how I adapted it for my English/language arts classes several years ago. This scavenger hunt got us running around outdoors, but it also taught cooperation and problem solving. We put the checkpoint names on the cards under the cones for student teams to find. When we finished the physical education part of the lesson, students wrote a summary of the activity’s procedures and an evaluation of the successes and challenges of the activity. The writing portion of the activity was completed over several days. One modification I made to Terrie’s lesson was to only have one team running the hunt at a time. We played our scavenger, or checkpoint, hunt outdoors on the softball field’s outfield to avoid conflict with PE classes in the gym or on other fields. This hunt is also a good way for students to become familiar with the names of the race’s checkpoints. Younger students can focus on writing directions for playing the activity. Secondary students should write clear, varied sentences with correct mechanics and show insight regarding the activity in their writings.

The photo of Togo was taken at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla, Alaska. He is “stuffed”, having been preserved by a taxidermist. The statue of Balto is also at headquarters. It is identical to the one in New York’s Central Park. Read the article The Story of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to find out more about these dogs.

Fill your sled this year with your variations on my plans. Let us know what you do and how you do it!

Mushing on,

Martha

Togo at Iditarod Headquarters

Balto at Iditarod Headquarters

Big-Enough Anna

This lesson was written with fifth grade standards, but easily moves up or down grade levels. Students use foldables to analyze the book. The book can be ordered from the author’s web site below.

This book is a biography for children. It’s by Pam Flowers, with Ann Dixon, and it’s about Pam’s 1993 2,500 mile trans-Arctic journey and an unlikely little dog who saved the expedition. Pam is the first woman to travel this trip, a trip which traced the1923-34 route of explorers Knud Rasmussen, Anarulunguaq, and Miteq. Anarulunguaq was a young Inuit woman of Greenland whose job was to drive the dog teams, interpret, cook, mend, sew, and help Rasmussen collect information about the culture and history of Inuit people in Canada and Alaska. In fact, Anna the dog is named for this young woman.

When Pam talked to us at the Iditarod Summer Camp, she told us the story of her journey and of Anna’s adventure. I was enthralled by the challenges Pam and her team faced and dealt with—the trust in each other to keep going where one led, whether it was the musher or the dog, and the determination to finish what they started.

Pam writes books and travels to present at schools. Visit her web site for more information. http://www.pamflowers.com/ Pam also wrote an autobiographical accounting of the trip for older readers and adults titled Alone Across the Arctic.  Still an adventurer, Pam hiked the Appalachian Trail, approximately 5 million steps, with her black lab named Ellie. Look for a new book coming out about Ellie’s adventure.

Mushing on,

Martha

Pam Flowers at the 2010 Iditarod Summer Camp for teachers

Pam signing my copy of Big-Enough Anna

Fill Your Sled!

This sled is filled with book titles students read in one quarter.

Fill Your Sled! is the theme for my year as the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™.  I plan to give you ideas, lessons, activities, photographs, and messages to fill your sled with for your classroom. The Iditarod is a teaching tool, and you can look forward to information that’s going to help you use the race to teach those skills students are learning. I teach middle school language arts, but you’ll find lessons and ideas for all ages and all subjects. You may find a lesson for one subject lends itself to a different subject like I did with a physical education lesson by Terrie Hanke, the Wells Fargo 2006 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™. We did the activity, then wrote a summary and evaluation of it.

And, you’re going to find that as you use this teaching tool, your classroom and personal sleds are going to fill with unexpectedly wonderful experiences and ideas. Share them with others during the year by sending them to Diane Johnson at djohnson@iditarod.com.

Start filling your sled with these three pieces of artwork. No need to worry about getting permission to use clip art! Created by Michele Turner, art teacher at my middle school, you may use them for educational purposes. Many thanks to Michele!

 I’ve used the sled dog as a group management tool in my sixth grade middle school classes. Each group gets a laminated paper with the sled dog on it. Inside the dog I wrote ON TASK. Under that, I wrote YES and NO, spaced apart from each other. As groups work, I move around the room, marking tally marks under the YES if the group is on task or NO if the group is off task. This maintains their focus or refocuses students without the teacher having to say a word. Mark with a Vis-à-Vis marker which wipes off easily.

Enlarge the dog or sled or team for bulletin boards or decorating the wall. My sixth graders fill a giant sled pulled by the dog with book titles they’ve read each quarter. The “books” they write on are small, laminated “books” which are cleaned and used for the next quarter of school. Your students could fill the sled with character traits, goals they set for themselves, or progress they make in any subject.  If your school still has an opaque projector (this is going far back in time!), use it to enlarge the artwork to gigantic proportions.

Here’s another classroom management idea. It’s important for students to have the correct materials for class with them and at hand. Make a written list of materials for your students, but instead of posting a “Materials” list for students to read and gather, post a list on your board called “Gear List” or, as I do, “Gear on Desk”. We talk at the first of the year about the importance of the mandatory gear a musher carries in the sled bag, why the musher must have these items and what might happen if an item is missing. See http://iditarod.com/pdfs/2010/rules.pdf, page 7 for the mandatory items list. Students connect this mandatory gear to the mandatory gear they need to have on their desk when class begins. Writing the items on the list reduces or eliminates time spent retrieving them from desks, lockers, within the room, or in the students’ notebooks. This list also helps students learn the value of organizing their notebooks and materials so they are quickly prepared to begin work, just as mushers organize their sled bags to eliminate wasting race time or dog care time hunting for that item that they knew they had somewhere, if they could just find it!

Mushing on,

Martha

This sled is filled with book titles students read in one quarter.

 

 

Iditarod Connections–Amazing!

Since I started using Iditarod as a teaching tool in the classroom, I’ve been surprised and amazed by the connections the race has made for me. First, the connections the race makes for my students. The race, the mushers, and the dogs catch the students’ interest and provide real-life examples of the skills the students need to master. Students use the information to make connections to what they are learning and to their own lives, finding similarities and differences in their lives and their surroundings. And, in our school’s very first Idita-Read, the student who turned in the 1,049^th book, our Red Lantern winner, adopted musher Phil Morgan to follow during the race, the 2005 Red Lantern winner in the race.

Second, the race connects me to others in unexpected circumstances. In June, I met Gail Somerville, an Anchorage teacher whose class received a quilt from my middle school team via Jane Blaile’s quilt project during Jane’s tenure as the Target® 2008 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™. There’s one connection.

Believe it or not, I made two connections on a bear viewing trip in Homer, Alaska. Our bear guide, Dave, commented on my Iditarod ball cap on my daypack, so we began talking about the Iditarod and my position as the 2011 Target® Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™. Turns out he handled dogs at the 2006 race start for Tollef Monson. As we talked about this, another trip client began talking about my position and telling all of us what I would be doing this year. I was amazed! Everything he told us was exactly right! He explained that as a college professor in California, he used Target® for his students to study regarding branding of a company. He knew all about the application process, the competition for the finalists, the responsibilities of the teacher, and Target’s® areas of philanthropic support, including education. Here is also a connection to higher education. Iditarod isn’t only for elementary students!

Then, when I returned to North Carolina July 5, I found an email from a teacher who met a colleague of mine in Cancun on vacation. Through this connection, this New Jersey teacher learned about the Target® Iditarod Teacher on the Trail, is now learning about the Iditarod and planning to use it as a teaching tool. She says budget cuts prevented the purchase of some math textbooks, so she is looking for real-life examples and sources for her students. Wonderful!

Make connections for your students, teachers, and the public. Learn to connect the race, learning, and education standards for your classes. Share this site’s address with others, post it on your school web page, and in your classroom. You will find, as I have, that Iditarod Works!

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Traveling Alaska with Bullseye

Bullseye is in the pack, waiting to start his train ride on the Alaska Railroad to Spencer Glacier.

While I was in Alaska, I had the chance to sightsee, and what a place Alaska is to sightsee! Everywhere you turn, whether driving out of Anchorage to the Glenn Highway or headed to Homer on the Seward Highway, there are mountains with snow, or moose along the road, or wild irises and chocolate lilies growing. It’s a photographer’s heaven! No shortage of subjects for the camera in Alaska.

Bullseye, Target’s mascot, went with me, peeking out of my pack or clipped to it from his stuff sack. Bullseye is wearing his parka, but to cool him off in June and July, I pulled his hood back. He appreciated that! Did you know that dogs do not sweat from the skin? They cool themselves by panting. Not sweating from the skin is an advantage in cold climates because there is no sweat to cool and freeze on the skin or fur, unlike horses or ponies. In Captain Robert F. Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole in 1911, he used Shetland ponies to haul supplies which became a problem for his expedition due to how those animals cool their bodies. The sweat froze in the hair of the ponies.

Bullseye traveled on the Alaska Railroad’s Whistle Stop tour to Spencer Glacier, took a float trip on the river, flew on a 1956 De Havilland Beaver, and saw brown bears, up close, in Katmai National Forest. Enjoy the pictures!

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More Alaska Photographs

Enjoy these photos from the musher picnic 2011 race signup on Saturday.

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Hatcher Pass & Musher Signup for 2011 Race

The Little Su, as it's nicknamed, in Hatcher Pass

 Before going to the musher picnic and signup for the 2011 race, I had the chance to go on the Hatcher Pass road. This road leads to the Independence Gold Mine which is closed, but you can visit it. The day was overcast and we ended up driving through the clouds, but it was beautiful. The Little Susitna river is glacier fed, so the water has a green/blue cast to it.    

At the picnic, mushers paid their race entry fees, turned in paperwork, and race fans had a chance to get autographs and photos of the mushers. Bob Story of New Zealand is a rookie training with veteran musher Vern Halter. A rookie is a person who hasn’t finished the Iditarod. Bob will have several long distance races under his belt by the time Iditarod 2011 begins in March. 

Bob Story, rookie, pays the race entry fee.

Check the photos for a few other mushers who signed up for the 2011 race. I’ll be seeing them on the trail! 

Kristie Berington, veteran, & Angie Taggart, 2nd grade teacher and rookie, sign up.

     

     

     

 

 

 

Paul Gebhardt signs for a fan.

 

 

 

Hugh Neff worked with the Alaska NEA to promote reading in the 2010 race.

Exploring Native Alaskan Cultures

Native Alaskan cultures fascinated us on Thursday.  Native Alaskan cultures are the people first found in  Alaska who have the same language and customs. There are four Native cultures in Alaska, the Aleut, the Athabascan, the Tlingit, and the Eskimos.   At the Native Alaska Heritage Center in Anchorage, Native Alaskans told us about these four groups, demonstrated native games of skill, told a story of a grandfather and growing up, and performed dances in Aleut regalia. I didn’t move for an hour and a half except to lift the camera to shoot pictures. An outdoor walking trail provides the oppportunity to see and go inside replicas of living spaces of the various cultures. Craftsmen carve totem poles, sew fur parkas (or parkys, as it may be pronounced), and explain the daily household items of the cultures.  On the dancer’s dress, the swinging tails whisk rain off the clothing as the Aleut live in a rainy area. The man drilling walrus ivory bites an ivory mouthpiece against which the drill is held, then uses the small bow to spin the drill, drilling into another piece of ivory.

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

Enjoy the dog pictures! These super athletes live at Dream a Dream Dog Farm or the Van Zyle’s kennel. Mouse over the picture for more information. I met Aurora three years ago when she was a pup. Now, she’s running as a wheel dog. Answer this question–where is Aurora in the team lineup, if she’s a wheel dog?

What an Adventure!

Today on the first ATV run behind the 16 dog team, the gangline separated from the harness on the ATV and, since sled dogs love to run, that’s what they did. They ran all the way to the turnaround where we, the second group of riders, were waiting to ride the ATV home. They surprised us because we were turned looking down the hill, cameras ready to shoot photos as they came running up. Instead, the team appeared running around the curve behind us. Everybody scattered like startled birds to get out of the way, and the team stopped to Vern’s cries of “Whoa! Whoa!”

The first rule of mushing is, “Don’t let go of the sled.” It’s also the second and third rules of mushing. We experienced firsthand the dogs running, regardless of whether the sled is attached or if the musher is on the runners.

Here is what a run behind 16 dogs looks like. ATVs are the sleds when there’s no snow. The driver maintains the right speed to keep the gangline taut. 

16 dog team through the mudhole

 

Iditarod 101

Rest stop on the puppy walk

First day of summer camp for teachers, and there were lots of firsts for us. First puppy walk, first ride behind a 16 dog team, first day of dog chores. We learned the basics of the Iditarod from Vern Halter, and Bob, who plans to run the 2011 race, told us about the race from a rookie’s viewpoint.  From Vern and Bob, I got some great quotes about the dogs which we can take to the classroom. “Form good habits early, you’ll do well” and  “Everything you do in the environment gets them ready to move forward” (Vern). Bob, explaining training the dogs to run long, steep hills, said,  “After the run to the top of the hill, a little further on, stop, rest, snack them, and praise them.” It struck me that “resting, ‘snacking’, and praising” our students after struggling with the hard work or skill they’re learning would go a long way to encourage them to continue for the long haul throughout their year. Forming good habits and preparing the students’ environment are two more things for teachers to keep in mind in getting students down their trail to the finish, their learning goals.

Beautiful day in Alaska! Sunny, warm, 22 hours of daylight! Start making plans now to come next summer!

Iditarod as a Teaching Tool

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race™ as a teaching tool in the classroom captures students’ interest and maintains that interest so that the teacher has the opportunity to teach skills and objectives to engaged students. Teachers know that engaged students are easier to motivate, are more focused, and absorb the skills taught. The professional article here provides information regarding using the race as a tool in the classroom.  Iditarod in the Classroom

The Beginning

Iditarod Trail Race Headquarters

I titled this message The Beginning, although it isn’t the true beginning of my journey to this point. The very beginning of my journey was six or seven years ago. Today is The Beginning of the next section of my trail that I’m blazing as the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™.

This trail is going to be new experiences for me, and it’s going to be a trail for teachers and students to travel with me. On this trail I intend to post photographs and messages to make you feel you’re right here with me; I plan to give you lesson plans that address standards and objectives that you use in your classrooms; I will give you information  to use the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race™ as a teaching tool to engage your students in learning, and I hope you will catch my passion for the race and Alaska.

We begin the weeklong Summer Educators’ Conference tomorrow, and teachers from across the United States will collaborate to share ideas, techniques, and experiences using the race in their classrooms, schools, and communities.

Follow me, and the Iditarod Education Department, here this year as I post messages, lessons plans, and activity ideas. Watch for sled dog race artwork to be posted that you may use in your classrooms.

Martha Dobson, Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™

Martha Dobson of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina is a lifelong North Carolinian, a sixth grade middle school teacher and the second North Carolina teacher to hold the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail position. Living all around North Carolina while growing up, she has resided in her small town near Charlotte, NC for 27 years with her husband, Allen, and three children, Robert, 25, Elizabeth, 22,  and Sara, 18.  Allen is a family physician. Robert and Elizabeth graduated college in the past year, and Sara begins her college career in the fall. A longtime Girl Scout , Martha has volunteered with her daughters’ troops since 1993 and worked as a freelance writer for a local newspaper.

 

A graduate of Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, Martha holds a bachelor of arts in psychology and a teaching certificate in elementary and middle grades education with concentrations in language arts and social studies. She enjoys horseback riding, being outdoors, travel, and reading. Her family has numerous cats and a rescued Siberian husky named Morgan.

 

Martha returned to the classroom at Mount Pleasant Middle School eight years ago to teach English/language arts. Immediately, she was drawn to the Iditarod by her prophetic choice of a Gary Paulsen novel to teach her students. In 2005, she traveled to the Iditarod race start to be an Idita-Rider in Phil Morgan’s sled, sure that she’d never have a chance to return to The Last Frontier. That experience was the “coolest thing” she’s ever done, she says, and the Iditarod bug bit her, hard. Now she’s been to four race starts, four Iditarod teachers’ conferences, and enjoyed a summer vacation.

 

Martha says that the Iditarod appeals to her sense of adventure and her appreciation of the unique and challenging event. Her students are intrigued by its uniqueness, too, and Martha has incorporated Iditarod in her classroom and school through lessons not only for her English classes, but classes in other grade levels and subject areas, including math, science, and technology.

 

As well as being a highly motivating teaching tool, Martha says the Iditarod and her efforts to become the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ set the example of taking advantage of opportunities in life and perseverance. “I believe that you work hard, and get what you work hard for,” she says. Never dreaming that teaching would get her to Alaska, Martha believes it’s important for everyone to “go for it” in life, whatever their dream or opportunity might be.

 

Join Martha in her dream, crossing Alaska from Anchorage to Nome, bringing it to classrooms around the world through her lessons and messages posted here.

Target® is the official sponsor for Iditarod Teacher on the Trail.™  Please visit their website and learn about their dedication to education and communities.    Discover information about grants and how Target® helps children, families, schools, and communities to be more successful.

Iditarod Education Committee Selects Martha Dobson

Martha Dobson

Wasilla Alaska – (May 13, 2010) – Martha Dobson, Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, has been selected as the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™.

Martha Dobson, an educator at Mount Pleasant Middle School, North Carolina, teaches sixth grade English and Language Arts.  Martha’s prophetic choice of a Gary Paulsen novel to teach her students, led her to the Iditarod and a trip to Alaska.  After experiencing the race as an IditaRider and attending an Iditarod Teacher Conference in Alaska, Martha discovered that the race seemed to spark an interest like none other in her students. “The challenge the race presents to mushers, dogs, students, and me is a metaphor for the challenges of life and life opportunities, a strong example of setting goals, determination, and perseverance to run one’s personal race.”

Beginning in June and throughout the next year, Martha will be creating standards aligned curriculum and developing an online journal at http://iditarodblogs.com/tott/. During the 2011 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Martha will be flying from checkpoint to checkpoint sharing her observations and lesson ideas via the internet to students and teachers in classrooms around the world.

The Iditarod Teacher on the Trail^TM program began in 1999 with an inspirational idea and has grown into a nationally acclaimed and globally followed 21^st century technology project. With the support of Target® this program is able to reach out to children around the United States and the world, bringing “The Last Great Race on Earth” a little closer to their imaginations in a real-time, research based project that inspires students to read, write, and solve problems using 21^st century skills.

The Iditarod Trail Committee is proud to welcome Martha to this very elite group of educators from around the country.  Martha will be sharing a preview of her Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ curriculum at the Summer Camp for Educators to be held in Wasilla, Alaska, June 20 – 28 and at the Iditarod Winter Conference for Teachers, March 1 – 4, 2011.    Martha is the 13th Teacher on the Trail.