Receiving the quilt was another opportunity for my 7^th graders to connect technology to the world around us.  As soon as we opened the box, the students gathered around to discover the clues of Quilt’s past and the inspiring messages it offered. While the students took charge of this activity, another student captured our discussion using the FLIP video camera.

Afterwards, our plan was to develop ideas to share the story of the Iditarod and the traveling quilt with the other classrooms within our K-8 campus.  One group designed several PowerPoint slides to teach about the Iditarod. Another group helped to create a quilt scavenger hunt activity.  Each day the students planned and organized pieces of the interactive lesson.

Our first collaborative lesson was with Mrs. Mekel’s 4/5 combo class. The lesson started with the students tracing both hands on paper and labeling one      hand “What I Know” and the other “What I Learned.”  My class shared facts about the Iditarod within small groups.  The goal of the lesson was to define words related to success, search for synonyms, and brainstorm action words with 3 or more syllables. Students were encouraged to help each other answer the scavenger hunt questions and explore the quilt.

Through our discussions and activities we learned:

“Obstacles are just excuses.”   –Isamar R.

“The Iditarod is spectacular.  During the gloomy weather, the mushers conquer their fears. They struggle on the dangerous path and care for each dog.  The racers see the finish line and sprint as quickly as they can without a panic.”

–Madison S.

“In the Iditarod you have to persevere.”

–Michael H.

Quilt also visited my daughter’s Junior Girl Scout Troop. Several girls said they had read an article about the dog sled race at school.  Once the quilt was spread out, the girls sat around the outside to discuss the meaning of each square.

By the end of the month, Quilt also had a visit from Mrs. Krause’s 3^rd grade students and Mrs. Mendes’ 6^th grade students.  Mrs. Mendes said her class had read several of Gary Paulsen’s novels, and they were excited to see the author’s signature.

Next, before I sent the quilt off to Nome, my principal Mr. Barker presented me with our school’s Heart of the Dragon Award for using my quilt lessons with Del Sur students.

Thank you Quilt for sharing the spirit of the Iditarod with our classroom.  You have taught us the importance of believing that anything is possible if you just set your mind to it.

Best Wishes,

Mrs. Rickert’s 7^th grade class

Click here to view Mrs. Rickert’s lesson plan and information.

View site »

Click here to view a PDF document of Mrs. Rickert’s Powerpoint presentation.

Sheryl was a guest speaker at the 2009 Winter Conference for Educators, Anchorage, Alaska.

Click here to visit Sheryl’s website and learn more about Idita-Learn!

Have you wondered what it is like out on the Iditarod Trail?  Are you looking for pictures taken at the checkpoints? What do mushers do during the race?  What do volunteers do? What is a snow hook?  How do you go about training sled dogs?  What kind of goals do mushers set and how does that compare with the goals students set for themselves?  What are the meaning of certain Iditarod and mushing vocabulary words?  What is going on at Iditarod Headquarters?  Are you looking for an interesting read for your students?  Have you wondered how to get your students involved in writing?  Your answers await you at Zuma’s Paw Prints.

Zuma’s Paw Prints is your place on the website for your readers and your writers.  FOUR K-9 journalists, Zuma, Gypsy, Libby, and Sanka W. Dog write articles to provide you with news and information that your students can use.  Each journalist writes in a different style and for a different level of a reader or for a different purpose, making it possible for you to focus on the writing of one journalist— or all of them, depending on the needs and abilities of your students.  Students can comment back to the journalists at the blog site.  Zuma can still be emailed, too.

That is NOT ALL!

Watch for a special project for your students—-  soon to be announced on Zuma’s Paw Prints.   (Hint:  What can you do to help the local animal shelters in your community?)

Click on the scrapbook at Zuma’s Paw Prints to view pictures that you can use for educational purposes with your students.

If your school filters or blocks blogs, keep in mind that by asking your school’s technology department to view Zuma’s Paw Prints and requesting it to be unblocked, you often can get the site unblocked.  This has been the case for most schools who have contacted us.  Check with your technology department if you have trouble viewing Zuma’s Paw Prints or other areas of our website.

Zuma’s Paw Prints can play an important role in helping your students to be better readers and writers.  Make sure you check our information for teachers that is found at Zuma’s Paw Prints.  A message to teachers, provides you with tips and information.  Click here to read the message to teachers.

Visit Zuma’s  Paw Prints.   Click here.

Alaska Cam (Downtown Anchorage, 4th and D)

Bear Cam at the Alaska Zoo

Nome Camera:  View of Visitor’s Center and Norton Sound

CLICK HERE!
Hey Hobo Jim! This class would enjoy singing on stage with you sometime!

The K-9 ‘reporting team’ recognizes that not all students read and write on the same level. So, Libby, writes about ‘little d’tails’ for the lower readers while Sanka writes to provide more in depth coverage and information for the higher level reader. Zuma and Gypsy write articles geared for the middle readers. Teachers choose the K-9 reporter or reporters that best meet the student’s needs. Depending on the classroom situation and time available, teachers can use the articles from the K-9 reporters accordingly.

Although Zuma and the K-9 reporters can still be emailed, students have discovered that it is more fun to leave comments and ask questions for the reporters. Along with comments or questions, students can post their poetry or other short stories on the blog, further expanding opportunities for students. The fun of comment boards is that not only does the reader gain information from the article written by the reporter, but the comments left at the end of the article provide additional reading and information for everyone. It is important for the teacher to encourage students to read the comments that follow articles. This helps students develop higher level thinking and reasoning skills as well as help them learn to ask better questions and seek more information because they are building their level of knowledge after reading questions, answers, and comments from other readers.

Often, comments and questions that have been left for the reporters become the topic for an article by one of the K-9 reporters, making Zuma’s Paw Prints, a reading source that has interesting articles with topics that come directly from our readers. We’d like to encourage classrooms to generate topics and ideas for our reporters. What do you want to read about? Let us know!

A few schools have filter systems in place that block blogs, making it difficult for students to access Zuma’s Paw Prints as well as Jon Little’s blog. We discovered however, that most schools were able to get these sections of our website ‘unblocked’ by making a request to their school’s technology department. We recommend that teachers work with their schools in the fall, to address issues concerning the blogs. Remember, if you can read Zuma but you can’t write to Zuma in the comment section due to your school’s filter, you can still email Zuma.

As the teacher, it might be necessary for you to help students learn to use the comment section of the blog and remind them to return to where they left their comment, to find a response. With time and practice, students will easily remember which article they left their comment at andback at the article for their comment and possible response from reporters. Not every comment gets a response because sometimes the comment is simply a comment that doesn’t require further response or information. Sometimes, the comment question is already answered in a previous comment from a student or classroom. The goal to enrich our learning is to help students ask new questions, expanding upon what is already on the written page, and taking us to the higher levels of learning and thinking.

Each comment made at the blog is held for approval before it posts. Remind students to be patient and wait for their comment to be posted before posting the same comment again. Remind them if their comment doesn’t show up the next day, it could have been a comment that has already been responded to or a comment that is grouped with another student’s comment.

Students should also remember to follow safety rules. They should be reminded to never give out their first and last name or give out their address. We can’t post comments that provide personal information about students.

We won’t post comments that have inappropriate statements, gibberish, or bad language. We want the readers to understand the comments and questions that students submit, so please encourage best writing skills and provide students with guidance so they learn to be good communicators.

Thousands of classrooms followed Zuma this year! It has been exciting for the K-9 reporters to introduce themselves to our readers through their articles. The comments and email that we have gotten was inspirational and encouraging! We are so glad that students are enjoying what they read and having fun with our reporters!

It is a good idea to introduce Zuma’s Paw Prints to your classrooms in the fall. Zuma’s Paw Prints is a year round source of information for you and your students. Teachers should look for the menu tab that provides helpful hints so expand student achievement and the use of the blog.
We know that when we switched from the old articles to the new format we took a few schools by surprise and that it isn’t always easy to change. As we grow and we attempt to do our job better, we thank you for your patience and your understanding. We know that as time goes on, you’ll find this section of the site as rewarding as ever and it will be an important part of your classroom routine. Zuma and the K-9 reporters are YOUR reporters and they are dedicated to sharing Iditarod with you.

We also hope you’ll leave comments at Zuma’s Blog to help us do our job even better. We’d like to hear your story ideas. We’d like to hear how you and your students use Zuma’s Paw Prints. We’d also like to hear how you and your students help make a difference in the world through any service learning projects that you may do.

Watch for a special announcement from Zuma and the K-9 reporters because they will be putting forth a challenge to classrooms around the world to help make the world a better place by getting involved in community projects. Examples include: helping out to raise funds for animal shelters, helping create safe places for pets and humans to interact, cleaning up the environment, and helping communities take better care of each other. We’d like to hear your ideas about these projects. Share what you do now and ideas you may have that will help us encourage classrooms around the world to get involved in service learning projects.

Be a part of Zuma’s team! We’d enjoy hearing from you and we look forward to next school year.

Visit Zuma’s Paw Prints by clicking here!

Click on images for a larger picture:

by Diane Johnson

Educators Sheryl Cater and John Clay, from Eden Prairie, MN, attended the start of the Iditarod as part of their 2008 Iditarod school projects as part of Iditarod’s Educational Journalist project. John attended the Teacher’s Conference and was an Idita-Rider. Sheryl, a past teacher conference participant and lead Iditarod Educator working with Iditarod’s Educational Department, has traveled the Iditarod Trail with her Internet project, Idita Learn, and connected with dozens of classrooms

During the week before the conference, Sheryl and John conducted web conferences with their students back in Eden Prairie. Author and musher, Gary Paulsen, is a project partner with Idit-Learn. He was a guest on the web conferences conducted by Sheryl and John.

Idita-Learn is an adventure learning project that Sheryl created. The project brings the race, Alaska, and the culture of Alaska to the classroom via Internet. Idita-Learn has made a connection between Eden Prairie schools and schools in Alaska. Lessons and activities that are aligned with the content standards have been designed to lead students to promote academic success through a technology based communications project.

Sheryl first attended an Iditarod Summer Conference in 2005 in Wasilla and began her Idita-Learn project following her experiences in Alaska. John and Mark Brown, also from Eden Prairie, attended the 2006 Summer Conference in Wasilla. Eden Prairie Schools has highly effective and dedicated educators who empower student success through unique, standards driven opportunities such as this. Students, not just in Minnesota, but other parts of the world have gained knowledge and resources through the Idita-Learn project. Sheryl, John, and the rest of the Eden Prairie team members exemplify what it takes to be on the cutting edge of 21^st century teaching, bringing to classrooms project based, thematic instruction, and technology integration projects that lead to academic success and cultural awareness.

You can view the Idita-Learn project at the following link, click here.

Click on images for a larger picture: