Teacher on the Trail highlights Iditarod education

NOME – Texas teacher Laura Wright said being the Iditarod’s official Teacher on the Trail has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of her career.

“It really made me think about my philosophy of teaching,” she said.

Standing about 5-feet-2 and wrapped in a long black parka, Wright was easy to miss among mushers, media and other Iditarod officials and fans gathered on Front Street last week for big-name finishers like DeeDee Jonrowe and Dallas Seavey. But the amount of knowledge she said she gained on the trail and in the months leading up to the race was larger than life.

A couple months after submitting her application — which consisted of a brief biography, description of educational and professional experiences, goals, response to controversy and more — in December 2014, the fourth-grade teacher from Austin, Texas was selected as one of three finalists. Wright then flew to Alaska in March of 2015 for a personalized interview with the Iditarod Trail Committee. She and the other finalists were tasked with developing lesson plans and unique ways to engage students in the “The Last Great Race,” to be presented at a teacher conference that week before the Iditarod start.

“We were evaluated for quite some time,” Wright said.

At the end of the month, the Austin teacher came out on top.

She said her emphasis on a variety of subjects including science, technology, engineering, arts and math probably helped her chances.

“I really don’t believe in teaching things in isolation .... the Iditarod just has everything, it has everything that a teacher could want as a foundation for their classroom.”

But she didn’t realize that when she started teaching 20 years ago.

“People get confused and think the Iditarod race is about Balto and the serum run, but of course it isn’t — it’s about the whole history of mushing.”

Out on the trail during the race, Wright said she acted as a sort of reporter for students, or the “teacher version” of Iditarod Insider, which shares videos, photos and stories in real time. Her responsibilities ranged from collecting dog urine for post-race drug testing to collaborating with mushers to make educational videos for students.

For example, Oklahoma native and Iditarod musher Patrick Beall used a GoPro camera to illustrate a musher’s eye point of view.

“I’m just really interested in sharing the sport with youth,” Beall said.

Wright also recruited Wisconsin-born Kasilof musher Monica Zappa to talk to students via video about animals that can be observed in the Arctic for a class project they were working on.

Such projects are posted on the Iditarod Trail Committee’s Teacher on the Trail blog, where students and teachers can find links to various lessons, including math and science assignments that involve temperature conversion, geometry and understanding calories, as related to the Iditarod.

The Iditarod can also teach less concrete concepts, such as character development and respect for fellow competitors, Wright said. It’s one of the few sporting events in the world, for example, in which men and women compete equally, and there’s a prize for last place.

And no matter what a student’s background, he or she can always relate to dogs, Wright said.

“Kids love dogs, and that to me is the great connector,” she said. “Dogs don’t care if you’re a boy or a girl, they don’t care if you’re black or white, they don’t care if you’re rich or poor. And kids get that.”

Wright said it’s important that kids “get it,” because they are “the future of the Iditarod.”

“They are either going to grow up to be a supporter, be a fan, maybe be a sponsor, maybe very, very few will be a musher in the Iditarod, but I can’t tell you how many mushers I’ve talked to who’ve said, ‘Here I am in the Iditarod, but I learned about it in school.’”

To read more about Teacher on the Trail Laura Wright’s adventures and Iditarod curriculum, visit itcteacheronthetrail.com.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.