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Middle School
In order to keep students engaged the last week of school before the Holiday Break, I had them read Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. This is a great book of friendship, family and the love between a boy and his dog. All the things to keep students wanting to turn the page and go …
The champions of the Iditarod are true icons. They embody the enormous accomplishment that we aspire to within our own individual passions. We look at them and we see success. Although these amazing examples inspire us, we often feel very small around them, as though we could never do what they do because, after all, …
Temperature in Wasilla, late morning, 20°F, little wind Teachers want to know what works in the classroom to facilitate student learning and to achieve growth in their learning. The research-based document,What Works in Classroom Instruction by Robert Marzano, Barbara Gaddy, and Ceri Dean (http://www.leigh.cuhsd.org/teachers/pdf/Marzano_Strategies.pdf), is a good resource which explains the research behind classroom strategies and …
In my classroom, our study of poetry falls at the end of March. To ease the transition from the Iditarod and Alaska to poetry, I start with The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service. “There are strange things done in the midnight sun/By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret …
Honest dogs—I first came across those words in Gary Paulsen’s book, Woodsong, used to describe one of his dogs, Storm. Paulsen defined Storm as a dog who always worked, always pulled, ran many miles, and taught Gary many things about life. Curious about the phrase, I researched it by asking people who asked others about …
When I arrive in Alaska around February 22, I’ll post often to keep you in the loop about what I am doing and what is going on with the race. And, when the race starts March 6, I’ll post daily about the race and teachable moments. The NUMBER ONE question I’m asked is: “Don’t you …
(Keep on reading to find some ideas of activities for your students to do.) Mushers carry the following mandatory items in their sleds during the race. I bet you can make this list relevant to what students need to be prepared for their job of school. Proper cold weather sleeping bag weighing a minimum of …
The Iditarod and its race statistics make math real-life situations for students, helping them understand how math is used in everyday life. Use these math problems for practice, homework, extra credit, review, or in middle school at the beginning of class to focus students on an independent activity. Some teachers call these “at the bell” …
Breeding dogs to achieve the desired characteristics is a science for mushers. They breed dogs with these characteristics, looking at the dogs’ backgrounds of their “ancestors”. One line, descended from Togo and Leonhard Seppala’s Siberian huskies who ran the Serum Run of 1925, is called the Seppala Siberian. Visit this site http://www.seppalas.com/index.htm to find out more …
This lesson plan addresses several different skills for students. It’s written for sixth graders, but can easily move up in grade levels. Most eighth graders write a term paper, and this lesson introduces younger students to doing research both on the Internet and using print media in preparation for the term paper. Skills covered are …