Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Postcards from theTrail

Barb and Colene have been working hard on their iTREC! Postcard Project and they would like to hear from you!  Please see their message below...

Dear iTREC! Teachers -

We have developed a postcard template which you can down load here.  Please scan pictures or photos and incsert into the left section of the postcard.  On the right side of the card, we would like to have each teacher write about and expereicen you ahve had on the Iditarod National Historic Trail.  We also would like to have you design your own stame that is unique to your area.  On the lines, please fill in your name and location.  If you need more space for writing, feel free to use some of the space on the picture side, or just switch the picture and text side as needed.  Also, if you want to use original are, let us know and you can mail it to us and we will make sure that it gets scanned.

We realize everyone is busy and it is a crazy time of year, but we need all final postcards by September 30th so we can have 2011 calendars ready for the November workshop.  Please email your final postcard to either Colene or Barb and we will get them off to Annette for publication.  Thanks so much for helping to make our first iTREC! calendar happen!  Hope your start to the new school year has been a good one.  See you in November!  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Colene Mead and Barb Johnson

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A Note from Galena

Debbie wasted no time in helping to raise the awareness of the Iditarod National Historic Trail (as well as the Appalachian Trail) among her students.  Check out the bulletin board she put together outside of her classroom! 

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Visitor Center Quest!

Attached is the quest that we developed as a group during the workshop. Two of the clues are missing - so if you worked on those, please send them to me and we will add them to the quest!

The Visitor Center Quest

Monday, August 16, 2010

Engaging the Health Community

Will your curriculum help get kids outdoors and active?  Then you might want to consider your local health community as a potential resource and partner!

Here are a few great websites to get you started:
  • Let's Move! - The Let's Move Campaign was launched by First Lady Michelle Obama to help combat childhood obesity.  The US Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior joined the campaign to encourage kids to "Let's Move Outside" as a way to get kids active and enjoying their public lands.
  • CDC Healthy Communities Program - The CDC has several great tools for community action on this site.  The local Alaska coordinator for this program is Joanie Fogel  (907-269-8689) joanie.fogel@alaska.gov  
  • Safe Routes to Schools -  This program was designed to improve safety and access to schools to encourage more students to safely walk or bike to school.
  • Healthy Futures - This grassroots movement is helping Alaskan kids build more positive physical fitness habits by encouraging them to get out and move!
This list is by no means complete, but should help jumpstart some ideas, potential partners and funding ideas!

Benefits of Place Based Education

Here's a great report on the benefits of place based education.  This could be useful as you try to garner support for your program ideas!
The Benefits of Place-Based Education

Check out the other useful links on the right hand side of this blog!

Bits of History with Lee Poleske - part 3

For more information on these and other "Bits of History", you can contact the Seward Museum at
(907-224-3902) P.O. Box 55; Seward, AK 99664

Bits of History with Lee Poleske - part 2

Friday, August 13, 2010

Bits of History with Lee Poleske - part 1

Check out these great videos on the history of the Iditarod Trail from the Seward Historical Society.


Resources from the Summer Institute

We had a lot of wonderful resources shared throughout the entire institute and we've attempted to capture them all here.  If we've left some great ones out, please let us know and we'll add them in!

Journaling resources from Delia:
  • Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie & Charles E. Roth
  • A Trail through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman
  • Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art by Jennifer New
  • What it is by Lynda Barry
  • The Artist Sketchbook by Albany Wiseman & Wendy Clouse
Where did we get those cool journals for the workshop?
At Bare Books!  They are very economical and come in various sizes.  Just a note though:  shipping takes a LONG time so plan ahead if you want to use these!

Cultural resources from Lori:
  • Our Stories Our Lives by A.J. McClanahan
  • A Yupiq World View by A. Oscar Kawagley
  • Another Culture Another World by Father Michael Olesksa
  • Villagers by Claire Fejes
  • Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar Schein

Welcome to the iTREC! blog!

We hope this blog will serve as a useful tool to share ideas, tools, random (or not so random) thoughts and more!  We'll be working to post all the great stuff from our Summer Institute on here over the next few weeks.  So check back often!