"My dog team is like a family. They all help each other and they all support each other throughout the (season) so I'm lucky and blessed that I get to work with dogs like these," said Iditarod champion Martin Buser. My students need to learn how to work together without bullying.
My school is located near 2 military bases and many of my students are the children of deployed military personnel.
My students are racially and ethnically diverse--39% Caucasian; 14% African American/Black; 16% Alaskan Native and American Indian; 7% Asian; 6% Hispanic; 3% Filipino; 15% multiracial. 10% are in bilingual/bi-cultural programs or ELL. Over 1/2 of my students qualify for free & reduced breakfast/lunch but we are not a Title I school. Although they represent the very best in America, many do not have the funds for school supplies or frills like books.
This year, when we became a "safe harbor" school we had students bussed from other sections of town & we have a problem with bullies. We are not a common community yet--we need to build one. We have had problems with teasing and bullying in classrooms and on the playground. Students are not good team members--YET.
My Project
We desperately need some help to turn our school around. We live in Alaska and the Iditarod Dog Sled Race is a big thing but few of our children get to see any part of it. Few of our children know the amount of planning, training and team work that goes into having a successful sled dog team.
I plan to create an Iditarod curriculum for my school. This project will team reading and research about the Iditarod with an opportunity for students to form Idit-a-read teams to work together to read 1049 pages during the actual race. Paper dog sled teams will advance from check point to check point as classroom teams read and tally the number of pages they read each week.
At the end of the actual Iditarod race we will have a celebration and student teams will have a field day complete with races.
The idea behind this project is to bring the entire school together to study a central topic for a month. We will need books and harnesses to recreate the Iditarod. As a team will defeat bullies.
I need books about the dog teams and 3 harnesses to teach students how to work together and not bully.
The books in this project were selected to teach students important lessons. I plan to use the books as discussion starters and to stimulate thinking about how to build successful teams, the special qualities of team members and how to work together to achieve a common goal. I have only 3 books on the topic. I desperately need more. An Idit-a-read will create a common community in our school.
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