Finney’s Biography as it appeared on the website during the 1999 Iditarod

Born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, Andrea (Finney) Hobson Aufder-Heyde received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA in 1964. She received certification for teaching mentally challenged students from Temple University in Philadelphia. She also received certification to teach orthopedically challenged students from West Chester College in West Chester, PA. Finney obtained her master’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, in 1970 in the area of teaching the emotionally challenged.

Finney (as she prefers to be called) has taught in all these specialized areas of special education for approximately twelve years. She was director of a Preschool for Handicapped Children in Bloomington for a year.

After leaving special education, Finney spent the next eleven years teaching first graders and for the past three years has “utterly enjoyed the pleasures of teaching second graders.” She has taught the majority of her twenty-four years at Rogers Elementary in Bloomington.

Finney has been using the Iditarod® as a “hook” to create a passion for learning in her class. The wonderful books about the Iditarod® have been great motivators for students to do partner and independent reading. The strugglers seem to adore the Iditarod® because of the involvement between the dogs, nature and mushers and this high interest seems to hold their attention and focus. The amount of learning by all student academic levels has been inspiring to her as a teacher and that is why she is “hooked” on the Iditarod®.

Finney recommends the use of the Iditarod® Curriculum and encourages the teaching of the many aspects of the Iditarod® in the classroom. The Iditarod® encompasses all facets of the multiple intelligences, a few being: reading, writing, math, social studies, science, music, art and even P.E. She says that she has never had a student that has not become enthralled with the study of the Iditarod® and she can not wait to begin her story telling and teaching of it each year.

When asked about her goal, Finney replied, “My goals, as a teacher, have certainly changed over the years and I continue to learn from my colleagues. Since our school has recently become a C.L.A.S.S. school and we use a thematic approach built on real life experiences and life skills, it would only seem feasible for me to illustrate to students the real life experience of the Iditarod® and how the mushers and dogs use the ever important life skills during their perilous journey to Nome. I am making “North to Alaska” my year long theme and will be webbing the appropriate components, as my class and I journey together through out the year. The Iditarod® web site will reflect my teaching strategies, as I make my educational journey on the trail.

I am dedicating my journey to my eighty-seven year old father, who, when I told him of my Iditarod® dream said, ‘You’ll never get there if you don’t try’. What a life skill he bestowed on me! His second remark was, “If you are selected, I want you to go with your maiden name.” And so I am Andrea Hobson Aufder-Heyde! I think you see the need for the simplicity of “Finney”. I am blessed with the love and undaunting support of my four children, Katy, Ben, Abigail and Samuel Finley. With their ‘training,’ I’ll be ready for the trail in Anchorage.”