The hardest part of starting a new journey is the leap of faith at the beginning. -Unknown

Don’t let your journey to the starting line begin in late February/early March. Start as soon as you can. Yesterday was my first day with students here at Camanche Middle School. I love the beginning of the year. It is always exciting to decorate my classroom and start a new year with fresh ideas. Of course, my classroom is going to have an Iditarod theme throughout. As you start preparing to start your year, think about what you can do to begin your journey to the starting line.

In my room I have designated a specific area to Iditarod books and treasures. Last school year the wood shop class made my classroom a sled. Our goal this year is to have the art class decorate the sled. Currently the sled is our bookshelf for books and other Iditarod items. Would you love your own sled in your classroom? Take a look at the plans our shop class used. It is a very simple model.  Dog Sled plans

Get your hands on as many posters as you can. Hang the posters in your room, spark interest with your students. Would you like lots of posters for free? Come to the winter conference or the summer camp for educators.

This year I am going to assign jobs to my students. The idea for my classroom jobs came from Jen Reiter, last years Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™. I tweeked it a little to fit more to middle school students. “Jobs on the trail” is a great way to introduce your students to some of the volunteer jobs along the trail.

Jobs on the trail

Dog Handler – Take Dixon outside (Dixon is our therapy dog)

Volunteer pilot – Water any plants and keep Dixon’s water dish full

Chief Veterinarian – Help new students get the information they need for class

Checker – Check the extra copy folder and make sure class agenda is filled out

Race Comms – In charge of Twitter (student will create a tweet at the end of class)

Race Stats – Update board (date, homework, Today in history, Iditarod trivia)

Musher (mail carrier) – Pass out newspapers at the beginning of class

Start your journey immediately.  You do not have to do something every day, but slowly introduce the Iditarod to your students to generate interest.  I’m excited for this journey and I want my students to be as well.