Martha Dobson, Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™

Teachers will be arriving at Iditarod Headquarters today to attend the 2010 Iditarod Summer Camp for Teachers.

Journey with us at this link to get a glimpse of camp activities!

Meet Martha Dobson, the  Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ by following this link. Martha will be sharing highlights from this year’s summer camp.

Plan to attend the 2011 Summer Camp.  Learn more and save $100 through early registration for next summer’s camp.

The 2010 Iditarod Summer Camp begins June 20 in Wasilla, Alaska!

2009 Summer Camp Alumni

Starting on June 20, teachers will spend 9 days at summer camp in Alaska, proving that summer camp isn’t just for kids.

Iditarod’s Summer Camp for Teachers is an opportunity for educators to spend time immersed in Iditarod and Alaska as they develop content driven standards aligned learning opportunities for their students.

Visit the Summer Camp Blog.  Meet the teachers and join them ‘via’ Internet during this 9 day adventure.

Make plans to attend the 2011 Iditarod Teacher Summer Camp, June 19 – 27.

Download, print, and register for the 2011 Summer Camp and save $100.

Martha Dobson

Martha Dobson, Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, has been selected as the Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™.

Martha, an educator at Mount Pleasant Middle School, North Carolina, teaches sixth grade English and Language Arts.  After returning to the classroom eight years ago, her prophetic choice of a Gary Paulsen novel to teach her students, led her to the Iditarod and a trip to Alaska.  After experiencing the race as an IditaRider and attending an Iditarod Teacher Conference in Alaska, Martha discovered that for students, the race seemed to spark an interest like none other and that the race is relevant to the daily life of students. “The challenge the race presents to mushers, dogs, students, and me is a metaphor for the challenges of life and life opportunities, a strong example of setting goals, determination, and perseverance to run one’s personal race.”

Beginning in June and throughout the next year, Martha will be creating an on line educational resource for teachers to use with students.  The resource will include standards aligned curriculum and a year long journal of information.  During the race, the journal will reflect experiences and observations  from her journey along the Iditarod Trail.  The resource is located at http://itcteacheronthetrail.wordpress.com

Martha’s lessons will help teachers around the world strengthen their own curriculum to meet the educational needs of students.

Click here to read Martha’s Bio.  (Link to be added soon.)

During the 2011 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Martha, will be flying from checkpoint to checkpoint along the Iditarod Trail.  Via Internet, she will share her observations and lesson ideas.  Using Skype and other technologies, Martha will bring the experiences and the race from Alaska to within the walls of classrooms around the world.

Teachers in all 50 states and many foreign countries use the race as a teaching tool.  Students in preschool through university level are involved in Iditarod lessons.  The lessons support content in all curriculum areas.

The Iditarod Teacher on the Trail^TM program began in 1999 with an inspirational idea from “Finney”, who became the first  Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ and has grown into a nationally acclaimed and globally followed 21^st century technology project. With the support of Target® this program is able to reach out to children around the United States and the world, bringing “The Last Great Race on Earth” a little closer to their imaginations in a real-time, research based project that inspires students to read, write, and solve problems using 21^st century skills.

The Iditarod Trail Committee is proud to welcome Martha to this very elite group of educators from around the country.  Martha will be sharing a preview of her Target® 2011 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail™ curriculum at the Summer Camp for Educators to be held in Wasilla, Alaska, June 20 – 28 and at the Iditarod Winter Conference for Teachers, March 1 – 4, 2011.    Martha is the 13th Teacher on the Trail.

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Students are counting the days until summer vacation begins! Now you can make plans to join us at Iditarod’s Summer Camp for Teachers and count the days until YOU take steps on the Iditarod Trail to improve your teaching skills while developing a real time, reality based, technology enhanced, adventure learning project! You know Iditarod works as a teaching tool for your students! Take the next steps along the trail with us!

This daily schedule sample only gives you a glimpse of what we’ll be doing!

Sunday, June 20:

Iditarod Headquarters is the location for the introductory session for the Teacher Campers. Visit the museum to view artifacts from Iditarod’s history. Get a behind the scenes glimpse of the race. Ride a summer dog cart (weather permitting) and begin your Iditarod journey with us!

Sunday evening, June 20 – Wednesday, June 23

It’s all happening at the Dream a Dream Dog Farm! Spend 3 days and nights at a musher’s kennel and experience what it takes to raise and train the K9 athletes. Participate in the daily dog chores, go on nature hikes with puppies, learn about veterinarian care, and experience life at a dog kennel. Speakers and sessions provide campers with information about Iditarod and cutting edge techniques to impact and create content driven curriculum. Improve technology skills. Develop standards aligned lessons. Science, math, language arts, and other content areas are easily integrated through Iditarod Based Education. Character education and assets to healthy living are addressed throughout the nine day camp experience.

Wednesday, June 23 – Monday, June 28

Fieldtrips and speakers provide information to build on the core concepts addressed during the first days of the camp. Campers will meet Jona and Jon Van Zyle and enjoy an exclusive visit to their dog kennel and home, Pam Flowers, Arctic Explore and past Iditarod musher, and others. Asset/Character Education, team building, and leadership skills provide campers with opportunities to grow professionally and personally. Saturday, June 26, campers attend the 2010 Volunteer Picnic and 2011 Musher Sign Up event. Each day of camp is an enlightening and empowering experience!

That’s just a sample! There is much more in store for the teacher campers! This 9 day event provides a guided glimpse of Iditarod and numerous opportunities for each teacher to expand their current Iditarod unit/curriculum into a 21st century teaching tool. Each camper will be awarded the opportunity to be a member of the 2011 Iditarod Teaching Team.

You CAN’T afford to miss this opportunity! The experiences, educational value, and possibilities are priceless and endless!

Learn more about Iditarod’s Summer Camp for Teachers. Download, print out, and share this PDF document with others!

Download and print out the registration form. (PDF)

University credit will be available! Each teacher will receive a special teacher’s gift pack and other materials and opportunities.

Email questions and/or requests for additional information and we’ll provide you with what you need to know.

If you are teaching in Alaska, click here to receive special information about our offerings for Alaska’s teachers.

ATTENTION TEACHERS! Subscribe to Iditarod Insider Video on Demand and GPS Tracker.

Bring the race to your classroom in real time!

Iditarod Insider in the Schools is a year round tool, with lesson connections for all curriculum areas, a fly by map, and archived historic video segments. Insider can be used any time of the school year. During the race, daily video segments will be uploaded to Iditarod Insider. You don’t want to miss a minute of Iditarod coverage!

ANY SCHOOL in any place can subscribe to Iditarod Insider.

The fee is $39.95 for a classroom subscription (or $67.95 for Video on Demand and GPS Tracker) that is licensed to allow the teacher and the teacher’s students to access the site with one computer or up to one computer for each student.

A school wide subscription, $99.95, (or $169.95 for Video on Demand and GPS Tracker) is licensed for every teacher, staff member, and all students to access the Insider site on one or as many computers as there are staff and students in a building.  (Please note, an individual subscription IS NOT licensed for public sharing and may not be used with your students.  PLEASE upgrade to the appropriate fee structure if necessary to ensure your students don’t miss a moment of this  year’s race. Contact the Education Department if you have questions about how to upgrade your account.  *THIS MEANS:  even if you are showing the Video on Demand or GPS Tracker to your students by projecting it so everyone sees it at once, an individual subscription is not licensed to do this.  You must have at the minimum, a classroom subscription.)

For the best experience possible to follow the mushers, we do recommend the purchase of  GPS Tracker, making it possible to track all of the mushers during the race.  Insider GPS Tracker lets you follow the entire field of mushers 24 hours a day until the last team reaches Nome. You’ll know how fast teams are traveling, distance between teams and checkpoints along with current temperatures on the trail.  The fee structure for GPS Tracker only is $39.95 (classroom) $99.95 (school wide) This does not include the Video on Demand, only the Tracker.

The easiest way to subscribe to Iditarod Insider is by using a credit card and clicking on the Iditarod Insider link to purchase — click here to go to the site. Follow the directions and fill out information on the form to ‘Become a member’. Choose a classroom or school wide subscription, a password, and an email address that is used as the user name. The same user name and password will work for all of those included on the subscription. When you subscribe, you will receive an email which can be used as a receipt should you need one.

Should you need to order using a purchase order, download, print, and use this purchase order form. (PDF doc)

Iditarod Insider in the Schools is a year round tool, with lesson connections for all curriculum areas, a fly by map, and archived historic video segments. Insider can be used any time of the school year. During the race, daily video segments will be uploaded to Iditarod Insider. You don’t want to miss a minute of Iditarod coverage!

For details about subscription levels, payment fees, and instructions on ordering, read the article and follow the links below.  If you need a purchase order, click here for the PO (Purchase Order) form and instructions.

No matter where you live!  No matter where you teach!  Iditarod Insider is offered to you in a special classroom price allowing you to share the incredible tool with your students!

“Where’s my musher?” is a common chant heard in classrooms around the world. Today more than ever, Iditarod provides resources to help students not only read the race data, but see the sights of the race, and hear the sounds of the runners on the ice via Internet adventures thanks to Iditarod Insider.

Here’s what Government Hill Elementary School Teacher, Mrs. Morris from Anchorage, had to say about Iditarod Insider:

“The most exciting part of our Iditarod unit in my second grade classroom was for the kids to come to the computer lab and be able to see the heli-fly-overs from Insider on the big screen. We also used the virtual map. We put a map of the trail on the bulletin board in the hall and tracked the mushers with musher/sled/dogs down the trail. We utilized the musher biographies from your website. I purchased Insider last year (2006) and loved it. However, I was so impressed this year (2007) with the new additions, particularly the heli-video-clips. Thanks to all!”
For additional information on getting your school or classroom plugged into Iditarod Insider Video or GPS Tracking, contact Diane Johnson (Click here to email!).

Iditarod Insider subscriptions are valid for a year.  GPS Tracker subscriptions are good for one race.

If you need to renew your subscription prior to or during the race, consider renewing early so should you need assistance, we are available to help you. Don’t miss a moment of the Iditarod!  If you need assistance, keep in mind that to get help quickly, the best advice is to take care of subscription issues by the end of January.

Contact Information

Iditarod Education Department
1412 South Melgaard Road
Aberdeen, South Dakota 57401

Diane Johnson, Director
Email
(605) 228-6071