This year’s (2009) Summer Teacher’s Camp was another gem among many. Starting off with 4 days and 3 nights at Vern Halter’s “Dream A Dream Dog Farm,” we got right in to the mushing and dog care aspect of the teacher conference. With Vern at the wheel (literally), we bounced over hill and dale, and Vern guided us through the twist and turns of developing a run/rest schedule for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

We met authors such as Pam Flowers and Rod Perry. Pam Flowers was the first and only woman to traverse the arctic alone by dog sled. What an eye popping story! Pam’s books are available at http://www.pamflowers.com. Rod Perry recently completed a book about the history of the Iditarod Trail called Trail Breakers, available at http://rodperry.com. Rod is an experienced back-country musher who has been charged by grizzly bears no less than 3 times, and has indulged in milk from a mother moose at least 2 times, once in a life or death situation to ward off starvation. Rod was a champion wrestler in college so he must have used some fancy wrestling hold to complete that task.

The Iditarod sign up on Saturday was a great opportunity to meet and talk with world famous mushers like Lance Mackey and Dee Dee Jonrowe. We had the privilege of visiting the beautiful home of artists Jon and Jona Van Zyle. One of the conference days was an open day to visit a site of our choosing as we completed a fun challenge project. Our final experience was an introduction to the National Guard’s Drug and Alcohol Reduction program, which is available for your school through your state’s National Guard. I will write more on this later.

This conference, my friends, is not your average teacher’s conference. It provides once in a life time experiences and refreshes the soul to prepare you for a fresh start next school year. It is a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas with teachers from across the country. If you haven’t attended this conference, start making plans to include the Iditarod Summer Teacher’s Camp in your schedule for next year. I will be looking forward to seeing you there.

Top 10 ways to plan for this conference next summer.
1. Open a vacation account at your local credit union.
2. Spend some of that moldy money you have socked away in your secret Swiss Bank account.
3. Save all your pocket change in a 5 gallon water cooler jug.
4. Put 20 dollars in a bank account every week for the next year.
5. Stop at laundr0mats and check the washer, dryers and coin returns in soda machines for change.
6. Play the lottery.
7. Don’t go on that stupid family vacation that everyone hates.
8. Don’t waste your time and money going to the beach and renting that condo.
9. Run the family station wagon with the bald tires and muffler dragging the ground for one more year. (Be like Uncle Buck. He’s cool. You can be cool also!)
10. Just do it!!!!!!! You’ll be glad you did.
11. And one more thing, when making reservations, remember United breaks guitars!!! http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=united+breaks+guitars&search_type=&aq=f