Be a part of this teaching adventure!

Expand the walls of your classroom.  Bring a real event to classrooms around the world.

You have followed the race closely via Internet.  You have led students down a trail of standards aligned lessons and engaged them in adventures in the classroom.  Your students have achieved academic success through your teaching.  You know the race works as a teaching tool.  You are ready for the next step along the trail of academics because you believe you can make a difference in not only the lives of your students, but you can help other students be successful, too.  You are ready for the next teaching adventure!

Brave the arctic elements, temperatures far below zero, during the Last Great Race®. Spend about 3 ½ – 4 weeks during race time in Alaska as a member of Iditarod’s educational team, as you visit schools, present programs in the community, and prepare for the teaching adventure of a lifetime.

Fly in small bush planes over rugged yet magnificently beautiful terrain from checkpoint to checkpoint during the race. As a race volunteer, help where needed as you learn first hand what goes on behind the scenes during the race. Bring the sights, sounds, and race events to classrooms so that educators can connect the race with lessons surrounding a real event, in real-time, and transition that learning to their own local communities, as you report back to classrooms via Internet. Be a part of an academic success story that inspires students to learn and gain skills necessary to help lead them down the trail of reaching their own goals and dreams.

Represent the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race® and educators everywhere in the teaching adventure of a lifetime. Iditarod is the Last Great Race®. It is a vehicle to transport students to academic success. Be a part of this teaching and learning adventure by applying for Teacher on the Trail™. You have already taken your first steps along an adventure learning teaching trail by reading this introduction to our program. The trail before you is one filled with hard work but will lead you to an experience that as 2006 Teacher on the Trail™, Terrie Hanke said, “Teacher on the Trail isn’t a 365-day adventure. It continues for a lifetime.”

Each year, one teacher is selected.  We have an extensive application, interview, and selection process.  Twelve  to twenty teachers from around the United States generally apply, each having credentials demonstrating teaching expertise in curriculum writing, technology integration, and experience in Iditarod thematic instruction.

The selected teacher maintains a section of Iditarod’s website, sharing original standards aligned lessons and projects for classrooms around the world.  During the race, the teacher  brings the Iditarod to classrooms around the world via Internet, reporting experiences and observations about Alaska and the race.

Our selected teacher is self motivated, an independent worker yet a team player, and is up for a challenge.  As Target® 2010 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ Herb Brambley says, being selected as a finalist or the teacher’ “challenges the teacher to evaluate and re-establish his/her own goals and objectives in the classroom and in life.  This opportunity refreshes and motivates teachers to become better teachers, hence students are also motivated.”

Application deadline: December 1 of each year.  Do you meet the criteria of the teacher we select?  Learn more by reading our application document.

Read about the History of the Teacher on the Trail™ program.

Coming soon.    What can you do to be a part of this teaching adventure.  Stay tuned for updated information.