The Iditarod is known as "The Last Great Race on Earth" and when the dogs and mushers hit the trail next winter, Gilman third grade teacher Jennifer Reiter will be along for the ride. Reiter was chosen from teachers across the country to travel the entire Iditarod route during the 2014 sled dog race in Alaska as the winner of the race's "Teacher on the Trail" program.
Reiter was selected from among three finalists who ventured to Alaska in late February for a variety of interviews, assignments and activities surrounding the 2013 Iditarod, which concluded in mid-March. Included in those activities was a comprehensive blog detailing her experiences, entitled Dancing Down the Trail.
"As Teacher on the Trail, I hope to bring the value, joy, and energy I have found in using the Iditarod in my classroom to teachers, students, and their families around the country and world," Reiter says. "I look forward to submersing myself in the trail experience of a lifetime!”
Next year's visit to Alaska as the Teacher on the Trail in 2014 will actually mark Mrs. Reiter's third-straight trip to the Iditarod. In 2012, she attended the Iditarod Winter Conference for Teachers beginning the adventure that led to this month's Teacher on the Trail announcement.
Since that first trip to Alaska, Reiter has used the race as part of the curriculum in her classroom. This year, for instance, the Iditarod became a part of a math lesson about area and perimeter, with students taking on the challenge of designing fencing that would best create individual dog runs. Her class also had the chance to chat online with "musher" Ken Anderson (who finished 12th in this year's race). Additionally, for the last two years her students have made centerpieces for the Iditarod pre-race banquet.
The 1,150-mile race, over the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer, goes from Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast. Each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover the route in a span of 10 to 17 days. This year's winner Mitch Seavey and his team finished the race in less than nine and a half days.
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