Martha Dobson, Iditarod Educational Consultant
Educators, now is the time to start thinking about Iditarod in your classroom, if you haven’t already started down that 
trail. The Iditarod Teacher on the Trail website is the starting line for you. Erin Montgomery, the 2015 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™, posts lessons, trivia, and race checkpoint information on this section of Iditarod’s website. Posts from past Iditarod Teachers on the Trail™ are on the site, too. Most recently, Erin posted about theme, inferences ,and Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures. You can find social studies lesson ideas and Erin has wonderful technology information for you, too. The monthly trivia posts feed students small bites of information to introduce them to the race in advance so they’ll be familiar with it and ready to travel the trail when the mushers do at race time the first weekend of March. These informational appetizers make great At The Bell or warmup activities to engage and settle your students upon the beginning of class.
If you want your class to have a chance to Skype with Erin before and during the race, check the site for information on how to set that up with her. Imagine, your students could have the experience of seeing what the trail is like with a Skype call or message from Erin.
As the mushers say to their teams when the race announcer counts them down at the start… HIKE!
