HAVE YOU HEARD _ When teachers find a passion, they latch on because they know that their students will feel that passion in various ways. Day 3 of the Iditarod EDU Winter Educators Conference was filled with compelling speakers, meeting the mushers, and experiencing the 53rd Iditarod Race Gala, more commonly known as the Race Banquet. As the Teacher on the Trail™, my morning looked different than the conference attendees, but I’ll touch on that later in the “pupdates” section.
Here are a few highlights from Day 2:
Finalist Presentation (Kari Wright): Each of the three finalists for the 2026 Teacher on the Trail took turns presenting to the educators. Each started with personal information about themselves and their lives back home, then they involved everyone in an Iditarod based activity. Kari Wright focused on budgeting within the race. Students are given a limited amount of money, specific items that need to be filled, and then options for each item. For example, students are given three options for dog booties, but each type has different pros/cons and a different price associated.
Finalist Presentation (Kari Lawson): Kari Lawson focused on close reading with different topics and using different reading levels to relay important information to students. In her classroom she uses information from each musher’s biography on the Iditarod website to create a scavenger hunt with questions, such as “which musher works full time for the United States Postal Service?” … Bryce Mumford!
Finalist Presentation (Jackie Denton): Jackie focused on the material used to make dog booties. Using different fabrics and sandpaper, students can wrap the fabric around an object (such as a hacky sack), then rub over the sandpaper to see which material is most durable.
KattiJo Deeter: KattiJo shared information about dog sleds, dog care supplies, and the kennel that her and her husband Jeff own and operate: Black Spruce Dog Sledding. KattiJo and Jeff are both Iditarod veterans, but this year only Jeff will be running the race. She reflected on her experiences with the Iditarod in 2022 and 2023. KattiJo is very thorough in the way that she explains mushing, especially to those who might not understand the ins and outs of the sport. There are many videos from her time with the Insider crew last year that students will find particularly interesting.
Bridgett Watkins- Bridgett told the story of her journey to the Iditarod starting at the age of 6. She described the many setbacks that are common throughout the life of a musher, including some personal setbacks for her. She experienced a snow machine accident and a moose encounter with her team. Both events were devastating, but she persevered through the hard times. She had a difficult time in White Mountain in 2022, which eventually led her decision to scratch out of the race that year, but she chose to pursue her dream of finishing the Iditarod and accomplished just that with her comeback in 2023 when she finished in 16th place.
Barb Redington- Barb described the legacy of the Junior Iditarod and its history. She told some adorable stories of her son Ryan Redington’s journey with the Junior Iditarod and her feelings seeing him win the Iditarod in 2023.
Emily Robinson- Emily shared her race experiences leading up to her history making endeavor of winning the Junior Iditarod four times in a row. She explained her process leading up to each race season which starts with a plan 5-6 months in advance. Can you imagine if our students planned their school year in a similar way? Knowing that it will be difficult, but it will be worth it? Emily’s next plan is to recreate the 1925 Serum Run with a 10 dog team from Fairbanks to Nome. She shared a story of her dad, Wally, in last year’s race when there was a rough wind storm, but the dogs followed the scratch marks on the ice from dogs earlier and looked for trail markers that had fallen down to find the trail. Sled dogs are incredible dogs and Emily is a great role model to our young students!
Jonathan Hayes- Jonathan was able to zoom with the conferences attendees from his home in Maine. He recently returned to Maine after accomplishing the Centennial Seppala Expedition. He was able to meet and talk with almost 10 schools/churches along his route between Nenana and Nome. There are only around 100 Seppala Siberians left in the world and Jonathan has 22 of them at Poland Spring Seppala Kennels.
Musher Meet & Greet- We all had the chance to talk with the mushers individually, take pictures, and get autographs during the musher meet and greet. Each musher has a high top table with their name on it and then everyone can line up to meet them. Even though it’s a very large room, it gets filled quickly with so many people eager to meet with the mushers! One of my favorite moments was when my 10 year old daughter got to meet Emily Robinson (four time Junior Iditarod winner) and Emily personalized a note to my daughter encouraging her to follow her dreams.
Banquet- The banquet is an even larger room filled with tables, silent auction items, and the stage. This immediately follows the musher meet and greet and is a great time for the friends and families of each musher to enjoy some fellowship and recognize the hard work that has led to this point before the race. Each musher is individually introduced as they prepare to randomly select their bib number from the traditional mukluk. There are 33 mushers this year, and bib number 1 is reserved for the honorary musher, former Iditarod head veterinarian Dr. Stu Nelson, so the musher’s bib numbers range from 2 to 34. This determines their starting order for the Ceremonial Start and the re-start in Fairbanks. In the classroom, students would enjoy either drawing their own bib numbers or personalizing a bib with information about the musher they are following.
PUPDATES_ I mentioned before that my morning was a little different, so a huge shout out to Juli Westrich, 2023 Teacher on the Trail, who helped fill in the blanks for presentations that I missed. As the Teacher on the Trail, I was able to attend the first part of the musher meeting in the morning. If your class sent in a project for Trail Mail, don’t worry! I made sure that each musher signed the envelopes. 🙂 The Trail Mail will then be sealed up and placed in the coordinating musher’s sled as they travel to Nome.
One of the many perks to being the Teacher on the Trail is getting to participate in the Iditarider program. For those who don’t know, during the Ceremonial Start, each musher has one lucky person who gets to sit in their sled while the dogs are running the streets of Anchorage. This year I will get to ride with Gabe Dunham (bib #20). The route has been shortened significantly due to the lack of snow, but I still had the chance to have lunch with Gabe and learn more about her, her race history, her day to day life, and her dog team for the 2025 race. Keep your eye out for #20 during the Ceremonial Start!
I love hearing from teachers and how you are using the race in your classroom this year. Send me a message at emailtheteacher@iditarod.com.
