Erin Montgomery a middle school Social Studies Teacher from Iowa is serving as the 2015 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™. Erin took over the duties last June. Here’s a run down on what Erin has been doing to fulfill the goals and exceptions of the program.
Duties for the position can be summed up in three goal statements. Erin responded to my questions about how she’s worked to accomplish each goal while we were waiting in the Fairbanks airport to return to Anchorage.
Goal 1) Be a direct link or primary resource for students and teachers, connecting them to the race through blogging and other mens of communication before, during and after the race.
Erin has done about 45 Skype conferences as a guest speaker for classrooms. The lesson she created and used was about the dogs of the race beginning with puppies following them through their journey of training and becoming an exceptional canine athlete. She also introduced team positions and compared those traits to personality traits of students. Erin discussed the difference between the Siberian Huskies and the Alaska Huskies. To conclude the lesson, Erin encouraged the students to research the different mushers and find out what type of dogs make up their racing kennel.
Erin responds to email through the Email the Teacher address at iditarod.com. Most email is from teachers who want to begin using Iditarod as a theme for education in their classrooms. They’re seeking a theme that motivates and captivates their student’s interests and what abetter to do that than sled dogs and the race that runs 10049 miles across the vastness of Alaska. There are a lot of questions the sport of mushing, while I’m not a musher, I’m happy to do what I cant to either find the answer or direct the to someone who can give them n answer.
Anytime I post a story or lesson, it goes to social media. That reaches a lot of other people through sharing. Folks that aren’t familiar with the Education Portal of Iditarod might find their way there through social media.
Goal 2) Provide lessons and lesson ideas that use Iditarod as a theme for education prior to the beginning of the school year all the way to the end of school.
Erin says, “I’ve connected a variety of subjects – math, social studies, science, music, language arts and physical education to the theme of Iditarod in the classroom. While I’m a middle school Social Studies specialist, I’ve written lessons that can be used with all age groups of students. Some of my topics include Alaska Native Culture, the Aurora Borealis, photography, Dog Heroes, Story Theme through music, Junior Insider, Jamaican Dog Sled Team, exercise across Alaska and musher budget math.” All of these lessons are available on the Education Portal of the Iditarod website.
Two these Erin carried through the school year were Checkpoint Checkup and Tuesday Trivia. For the Checkpoints, Erin briefly summarized the trail leading to the village and then included some information about the village and the checkpoint itself. She contacted a wide variety of people to gather that information. Tuesday Trivia grew out of all the interesting facts that people wouldn’t normally connect tot he race. Examples would be pizza in Unalakleet or Iditarod Photographer Jeff Schultz, and a scavenger hunt through the musher archives and the official race rules.
Goal 3) Communicate on a regular basis and provide information about the history and culture of the Iditarod as well as the great 49th state of Alaska.
In Erin’s the checkpoint stories, her focus was to share something about the culture of the mushing as well as the culture of the people in the area. The posts Erin did on NIkolai and Grayling (before the race route was changed) highlighted the curriculum of those schools which focused on their subsistence living style. They used the elders of the village as well as the tribal counsel as resources for their learning. I shared what it’s like along the trail for the teachers and students to get a feel for what each area that the race tuns through is like, how the east side of the Alaska Range is different from the interior, along the Yukon River and the coast from Unalakleet to Nome. Erin will continue with checkpoint and trail as she moves to Nome.
After having been out on the trail at Nenana and the Junior Iditarod, Erin says, “It’s bigger than I ever expected.” She continues, “At Nenana, I was struck by how quickly the mushers arrived and in such close succession. The mushers all arrived and departed between 1503 on Monday afternoon and 0210 on Tuesday morning. That’s 78 teams in and out of the checkpoint in less than 12 hours. It was intensely busy. I know the teams will spread out and there will be more time between teams arriving at the checkpoints the further we go down the trail. I was also impressed by the hospitality of Nenana. The villagers had food not-stop for mushers and all the volunteers.” Erin said, “With the Junior IDitarod, I was moved by how helpful the competitors were toward each other. These kids who are only a little older than my middle school students are very skilled at taking care of themselves and their dogs in the race environment. They have skills in survival that eclipse that of many adults. This expertise will serve them well in the future.”
Erin says she’s most looking forward to being in the remote villages that tourists just don’t get to and having the chance to interact with the residents of the villages. I’m really looking forward to seeing the open expanses from the air and on the ground and how different one region is from the next I’m excited to share all of these experiences not only with my students but with students around the world that I’ve been communicating with.
Finalists for the 2016 position of Iditarod™ Teacher on the Trail interviewed prior to the start of the 2015 race and have returned home to their classrooms waiting to hear who’s been selected.
