This picture was taken at Race Headquarters at the Millennium near the Dog Drop area.  The Dog Truck was broken.  The volunteers really ‘got into’ fixing the problem.  Are you willing to do what it takes to fix a problem?

Internet Problems this evening.  Image to be loaded tomorrow.  Sorry!

Trent and the Snowshoes

Just like all of the 2010 Iditarod Mushers, Trent Herbst left Willow, Alaska for Nome.  Trent is a 4th Grade teacher from Idaho.  In many ways, Trent’s students began the journey with him – and the sled and snowshoes with Trent, were symbols of learning and mutual trust.

Pounding, sawing, thinking, sewing, cooking, organizing, and planning— for the 2010 Iditarod all became a part of the student’s classroom curriculum, the reading, the math, the science, the real life application of skills turned a classroom into a learning experience of a lifetime.

The students did the math, the science, the research, and the work to design Trent’s sled, create snowshoes, prepare meals on the trail for Trent, to sew important gear to keep Trent’s dogs safe and to support their teacher’s trek on the 1049 mile journey to Nome!

When Trent left for Nome, student signatures on the sled were not symbols of a classroom left behind.  The signatures are instead, symbolic of what is good — no great about education today.  Trent’s students will have what it takes to be academically successful because they’ve learned to used the content skills.  More importantly, his students have learned about volunteerism, problem solving, research, organization, goal setting, compassion, teamwork, and many other life skills that will guide them as they help make the world a better place.

*Congratulations to Trent and his students for the incredible job they did on the teacher’s workshop presentation.  Thanks to Trent and his students, the parents, the principal, and the Community School.  Well Done!  A+  You are Idita-Excellent!

A Dropped Dog Receives an Exam at Race Headquarters

Iditarod is dedicated to the best dog care ever!

Dogs pass physical exams before they receive the ‘ok’ to race in Iditarod.

During the race, veterinarians who are stationed at Checkpoints examine dogs and ensure the best possible care for the canine athletes.

Dogs that are ‘dropped’ from the race are returned to Anchorage  They are examined at Race Headquarters at the Millennium.  Veterinarian staff provide check ups, meals, fresh water, and comfortable lodging for the sled dogs  while the dogs await their handler or family to pick them up.  While waiting, the dogs enjoy snoozing on straw, relaxing in the sunshine, and meeting race fans and volunteers.

The dogs are healthy and eager to return to their ‘families’.

See how you can get involved.  Click Here.

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Millennium Race Headquarters to Target® Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ Herb Brambley…

Monday evening, March 14, Herb was in Shaktoolik, Alaska.

Tomorrow, Herb plans to go to Koyuk.

Follow Herb’s journey at this link.

Herb and Shaktoolik via Skype Pictures:  Click the image for a larger view.

Here are two files that shows my one of my students’ letters.  She wants to thank you and your website for helping her learn.

English is her second language and she has never seen or heard of a the Iditarod prior to this or even seen snow!  So this was a good experience for her and she was very excited to learn about something that she has never seen before.

Here is her letter that you can use.  Please let me know when you will post it!

I think she will be very happy!   Thanks again!

Mike.

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What events would you attend?

If you were in charge of planning an Iditarod event, what event would you create?

I am the lucky teacher of 19 6th graders in an international school on the coast of the Caribbean in Venezuela. For three weeks, we will be following all 71 mushers to Nome. Each student has personally taken on 3-4 mushers to learn about and track. To get ready for this project we read and discussed the book Black Star, Bright Dawn and watched several dogsled movies-documentaries as well as Iron Will (the real “hook”). So now the students are scouring the internet for information about their mushers, the race, Alaska, the dogs. During the next 21 days they will be creating wikis about what they are learning and how it ties to all subject areas.

After we finish, I plan to write up the whole experience to be published in some international teaching journals in the hopes of getting more kids around the world into follow the race next year!

Shawn

On the first day of school, I presented my students with a community service goal which tied into the Iditarod Rookie Project.   We were going to raise money for our rookie musher, Kim Darst and all the money that was over our goal would be given to our local animal shelter.  I called it “Cans for Miles”.  After all, how hard could it be to collect cans and bottles!   My class calculated the number of miles from Kim’s hometown in Blairstown, New Jersey to the Iditarod finish in Nome.  Using Yahoo Maps, we calculated it was 5,413 miles.  Our goal then was to collect 5,413 five cent cans.  September through January we collected five cent cans.  Unfortunately, our goal was not met.  We collected 1, 837 cans during those months.  Boy, talk about a great lesson on goal setting.  My students realized that sometimes, we set goals and they aren’t always achieved.  We talked about what we could have done differently and how sometimes we set goals in life that are hard to attain.  I tied this in with how Kim Darst may have felt knowing that she would not achieve her goal this year of getting to Nome.  Many of the students were disappointed when they knew we wouldn’t be able to donate any money to the animal shelter, so I told them I would match their hard work so that Kim and the animal shelter would get a piece of their hard work.

Not to be undone by our rookie project, my class learned about Four Paws for Logan from the Iditarod website.  Now this is our new service project.  We are collecting five cent returnable cans to raise money for a service dog for Logan.  Did we set a goal?  You bet we did!