Teach and Learn
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The weather continues to be the big story as we prepare for this year’s Iditarod. It seems like the world has turned upside down… at least it looks that way on our weather graph! The line tracking the temperatures in Baltimore keeps dropping down below the lines tracking the Alaska weather! My students have been …
The students of 3A have a seat at the table at the Mushers’ Banquet! Actually they have a seat ON the table…. Okay, actually, their artwork has a seat on the tables! We have shipped our centerpieces to Alaska! Every year, the Iditarod Education Department hosts a contest for school kids to design centerpieces …
Rule Number 11 deals with the race purse: Rule 11 — Purse: A purse of $650,000 will be shared among those placing in the top thirty (30). Every effort will be made to supplement this baseline purse. In addition, beginning with 31st place, $1,049.00 will be paid to each remaining finisher. But of course the …
What do you call an angle that is adorable? Acute angle! This week we are all about angles in math class! This is a new skill for us… it appears in the new version of our math book, and is something we haven’t taught before. So, I started by thinking of where on earth I …
This week we are focused on calculating area and perimeter… and what better tool to do that with then dog yards! This week the students are presented with a scenario where they have been sponsored by a local fencing company who offers them fencing for their dog yard. Instead of traditional sled dog yards, the …
This week we began our huge Iditarod Math Unit! From now until Spring Break in mid-March we will be focusing on the Iditarod as a way to get some much needed math skills taught in a fun and interesting way! For obvious reasons, it’s my favorite math unit of the year! My favorite student comment …
Two books for you to read! The first is Iditarod Dream: Dusty and His Sled Dogs Compete in Alaska’s Jr. Iditarod. This is a photo-essay of Dusty Whittemore’s 1995 Jr. Iditarod race, his second. Written by Ted Wood, an introduction provides background information for this race for 14 to 17 year olds. Described as a book …
Well – at one point yesterday it was colder in Oakland, Maryland than the South Pole! At one point it was – 15⁰ in Western Maryland and -7⁰ at the South Pole! In Baltimore, we didn’t get quite as cold as the South Pole, but we did beat Alaska! For the first time, on our …
Last year, 2013 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail ™, Linda Fenton issued a challenge to see how many students she could get to read Stone Fox (http://itcteacheronthetrail.com/2012/12/28/stone-fox/). The timing was perfect for me. The fourth grade had recently dropped the novel from their repertoire, so I was able to pick it up and tie it …
Terrie Hanke, 2006 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail ™, shared this tale with me: I have a nice picture of Mitch Seavey changing into fresh Smart Wools at Elim in 2006. There I was inside the fire house with Jasper Bond, Mark Nordman, Danny Davidson and Jeff Schultz. Mitch came in with a fresh, still …