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Teacher on the Trail™
Engaging lessons based on Insider video clips.
Our four-legged correspondents write for all ages..
Collection of all things Iditarod.
Latest Teacher on the Trail™ Posts
By now teachers are back in the swing of the school year. We are diving into curriculum, analyzing data, working with coaches and mentors, and planning with our teams. We have our routines established. Our lives have returned to the rhythm of the school year. One thing we do here in Texas is a silent …
Welcome back to school! We are looking for classes or homeschool families from several states to round out our fifth annual Iditarod Postcard Challenge! If you join the project, you are committing to sending postcards to each class on the list between the start of school and when the first musher leaves the Iditarod starting …
A roaring noise rumbles overhead. Suddenly a jet screams through the sky, followed right behind by another one! This is a common sight and sound in my area of Houston—it is the excitement of astronauts in flight training with T-38 Talons. You may not exactly be training your students using high-powered aircraft, but teachers everywhere …
NOTE: This lesson plan was updated August 2023 to reflect active links and current race information. One more idea for room set up as the summer starts to wind down…. I am calling my classroom the 3A Dog Yard these days…. for reasons that I am sure you can understand! To get my students in …
As teachers, we know that it’s extremely important to set the tone and the expectations for your classroom. One of the areas where you can do this is with your classroom jobs. Some students love passing out papers or lab equipment, some are great line leaders or attendance-takers, some prefer non-social jobs like sharpening pencils. …
When was the last time you got completely lost in a book? I confess—for me that was yesterday. I love to read! I recharge by being alone and quiet, so I grew up filling my quiet time with amazing texts describing travel, adventure, and wonderful characters. As we enter the fall training period for young …
Welcome to my very first “Houston, We Have a Connection” post! The title calls to mind the famous line from Apollo 13 alerting mission control to the fateful explosion aboard the spacecraft. I live ten minutes from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, so this year in my role as 2024 Teacher on the Trail™, I wanted …
“There’s no place like Nome”. “Nome, sweet Nome”. “Nome is where the heart is”. There are so many sayings like these that have been tossed around, but they all ring true. There really is no other checkpoint like Nome. Nome is the end of the Last Great Race and the place where I …
It is the first day of school and you have a classroom full of students you probably don’t know. What stories do they have? What burdens do they carry, and what is important to them? As teachers, we want to get to know our students intentionally so we can start to build relationships. We need …
The Iditarod Air Force planes are grounded if the visibility is poor. That means the Teacher on the Trail stays put until the weather clears. Having waited two days, but following the admonition to always be packed and ready, I jumped in the first available plane out of Unalakleet to the checkpoint of Anvik! We …