High School

Trivia Question: Who is the “Father of the Iditarod”?

Have your students research the “Father of the Iditarod.”  Who is he?  When did he start the race?  Why did he start the race?  Did he ever race in the Iditarod himself?  Does he have family members still racing?   Click here for the answer. Visit the Online Iditarod Museum for additional information on the …

The Journey of a Volunteer

The definition of volunteer is a person who performs a service willingly and without pay.  There are thousands of people who volunteer each year for the Iditarod.  Without these many volunteers, there is absolutely no way this race could happen.  The journey of a volunteer does not just take place during the few weeks of …

The Journey to Your Starting Line

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 …

The Journey Ahead

  As the school year approaches, August 7 for me, I want to share with you what you can look forward to this year. If you read my blog entries from summer camp, then you may have picked up on my theme, “Journey through the Iditarod.”  I plan on using this theme in a variety …

Building Character

  As young mushers evolve into seasoned veterans, they build a lot of character along the way. Today our group made a visit to Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla. While there, we were able to listen to Barbara Redington speak. Barb is the wife of Raymie Redington, son of Joe Redington, Sr. (“Father of the Iditarod”). …

Charles’ Last Run

  What do mushers do with their sled dog when he/she retires? Just as they had the best life before their journey through the Iditarod, they have the best life still, but more relaxing. Our best bud here at Vern’s, Charles, retired as a sled dog on March 1, 2014. Charles is a 10-year old …

Teacher turned Dog Handler

My journey today was quite interesting, however, it was awesome.  This morning Terrie Hanke, author of the Eye on the Trail blog for the Iditarod, and I went to breakfast before beginning our shopping list for camp.  When we got back to Vern’s Dream a Dream Dog Farm we started helping Linda prepare sandwiches for the 9:00 tour group, …

Summing it All Up

We summed up our year of Iditarod fun the same way we started it… with the Quilt.  If you remember, our class hosted one of the Iditarod Travelling Quits.  You can read that original post here:  LINK To summarize our experiences, we decided to create our own quilt square to be added to a new …

Robitarod!

So this year everything I’ve touched has gone to the dogs… and that includes my Robotics Club! I work with a group of fourteen fourth and fifth graders once a week after school using Lego Mindstorms to begin to explore programing and basic robotics.  We usually spend the fall semester learning how to program and …

Scaling Up the Trail

Several years ago, we realized that we were never getting to the Geometry Unit that inevitably occurred at the end of the math book and therefore at the end of the school year. We decided to break up the unit into pieces and teach it periodically throughout the year. Inspired by the book Mathematical Art-O- …