Teacher on the Trail
An ‘Adventure Learning’ project that provides incredible opportunities for educators.
Teachers discover featured Insider Videos selected by the Iditarod EDU team.
Your one stop shop for following Iditarod. Mushers, checkpoints, GPS Tracker, standings, videos and more.
Latest Teacher on the Trail Posts
Much like any other athlete and sport, training and hard work during the off-season are integral parts which have a direct correlation with the achievement of success. Think about any sport or activity which you participate in. What do you do to get better? One of the things mushers do to practice and help the …
Puppies, candy, and beautiful Alaskan weather- what more could one want in life? Summer Camp for teachers has finally begun and I feel like a kid in a candy store. Over the course of the next week, my home away from home will be at Vern Halter’s homestead- more formally known as Dream a Dream. The …
Paws Along the Trail to Say Goodbye I can scarcely believe my year as Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ has come to an end. What a great ride it has been! Learning more about the Last Great Race™, this amazing feat of strength and endurance, has been a dream come true. Here are some Iditarod …
Paws Along the Trail with Laughter School is ending for many of us teachers. This is the time of year when standardized tests are completed and some lighthearted academic activities are welcomed in the classroom. I love seeing my students laugh! This activity brought fun moments for our last week together. I thought, “Why not …
Paws Along the Trail with Wonderful Volunteers People have asked me, “What was your biggest surprise on the Iditarod Trail?” My answer is the volunteers. I had no idea the extent of what goes on “behind the scenes” to pull off such a race! Volunteers come from everywhere! Some are local adults and school children from …
Paws Along the Trail with Fractions The Iditarod lends itself to teaching fraction concepts and computation in many ways. For fraction concepts, see the musher drop bags above. The denominator shows the total in a fraction set. The numerator shows which particular bag in the set. Looking at mushers’ websites and their dog listings/photos, students …
Paws Along the Trail with Resilience and Respect Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Christina traveled all the way from the UK to attend the Iditarod Winter Teachers’ Conference in Anchorage. Her enthusiasm for the race and how it impacts her students was infectious! She works at the college level, helping students …
Paws Along the Trail with Creating Iditarod Booklets If your class followed the Iditarod, you will be surprised at what your students remember even at this time of the year. As we review for the reading standardized state test, I am still using the Iditarod to motivate and engage my students. A difficult concept is …
Paws Along the Trail with Dropped Dogs Mushers may begin the Iditarod race with a maximum of 16 dogs. They must end with no less than 5. Students often are concerned about what happens to the dogs that don’t finish the race. If a musher feels a dog doesn’t want to run anymore or …
Paws Along the Trail with Puppies Musher Meredith Mapes completed her rookie Iditarod race in March. As did many mushers, Meredith parked her sled under the burled arch finish line and walked up the line of her dogs, petting and thanking them. Recently, she had another event to celebrate. One of her dogs had six …