Show and Tell

“Sharing Our Stories” From Student Journalists in Takotna, Alaska

Sharing Our Story from Student Journalists attending Takotna Community School, Takotna, AK Mrs. Smith’s Class Starting the School Day My name is Elijah, am nine years old, and I am in third grade in Takotna, Alaska. I live on Mile 329 of the Iditarod Trail. My job the first week of school was to lead …

Husky Talk Podcast

Welcome to Husky Talk Podcast A weekly behind the scenes look at the Iditarod and mushing for classrooms around the world. Erin Montgomery, 2015 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ from Iowa and her students host this podcast, designed and created to introduce you to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and give you an essential behind …

IditaMath: School Project to Engage Students in Math Practice at Home: Project at Larson Elementary School, Alaska

Idita Math, a project from Larson Elementary School, Wasilla, Alaska.  Quick summary of the project:  Students were challenged to complete math goals at home and ‘race from Anchorage to Nome’ as they practiced their math basic skills.  Teachers created math goals according to the needs of the students.  Overall, the project goal was to help …

Computation and Daily Math Challenge! The Annual Idita-math Competition By Jared Cochran, Geared for 6th Grade, Can be Converted to Other Grade Levels

Annual Idita-math Competition By Jared Cochran Having 96 students,  I decided to break students up into 6 equal teams. Each team had 16 students and each team is given a team name based on one of their favorite mushers.  2009 teams were: Team Buser, a Team Mackey, a Team King, a Team Seavey, a Team Swenson, and a …

Create ABC Books About Iditarod and Alaska

Creating an ABC book is an excellent way to combine research, writing, and technology skills. Each year, hundreds of teachers assign students  to create ABC books about Alaska and/or the Iditarod.  Here is an example of one such book.  If you have examples of student made books such as this, we’d love to share them …

Testimonials: Academic Purpose and Success

Iditarod WORKS as a teaching tool for many reasons. What is it about the race that that when used with students, engages students to read more, write more, solve more math problems, think scientifically, show up for school, and be academically successful?  We’ve got some answers and so do teachers who use the race each …

Teacher Creates Totem Pole: A Letter from Pete

Diane, Many late Hellos!!  This letter has been a year and a half in the making….maybe more.  Your email about using the Iditarod experience is coming back to you.  As a shop teacher, I was always looking for a way to include the experience in my life in my classes.  Well so far, I’ve found …

Social Studies and Science: Totem Poles

By Laurie Nakauchi-Hawn, Finalist for Target® 2009 Iditarod Teacher on the TrailTM First Grade, Friends’ School Boulder With the Iditarod coming up, my first grade class has been studying the people and animals of the arctic. As a way for students to learn more about arctic animals and the Athabaskans, we made totem poles. First, …

Iditarod Around the World: Taiwan

Hi Diane! Here are two files that shows my one of my students’ letters.  She wants to thank you and your website for helping her learn. English is her second language and she has never seen or heard of a the Iditarod prior to this or even seen snow!  So this was a good experience …

IditaRead- California Style

Every year we hold an IditaRead.  Our budget runs between $450 and $500.  The following is a summary of the a typical Idita Read: We went to a company  and ordered these cool dog tags as reading incentives for the kids.  They run about $.30 apiece when ordered in a large quantity.  Any student reaching …