Target Iditarod Teacher on the Trail^™ 2006 Teacher on the Trail^™

Terrie Hanke from Eau Claire, WI

• Return to 2006 Archived Materials

Terrie Hanke, a physical education teacher at Eau Claire, Wisconsin’s North High School, is in training for Iditarod’s Last Great “Teaching and Learning” Race. Terrie was selected as the 2006 Teacher on the Trail™. She is the eighth Teacher on the Trail™ to be selected by the Iditarod Trail Education Committee. Handling sled dogs, volunteering at the checkpoints, writing lesson plans on the fly, and linking up through the Internet from rural Alaska, along the 1,150-mile Iditarod Trail, are among the challenges facing the 2006 Teacher on the Trail™.

Terrie graduated from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, with a degree in Physical Education. She accepted a junior high position in southern Wisconsin. After a year, Terrie was desperate for snow and moved north, to teach and coach at her alma mater, North Senior High, the home of the Huskies.

“The greatest reward of coaching is to watch young athletes set goals and strive to maximize their potential,” Terrie stated. She has taken many teams and individuals to the state tournament level and is proud of the two WIAA State Championship golf teams and one individual WIAA State Champion who has competed on the LPGA Tour.

After attending Iditarod’s Summer Professional Development Conference for Educators and Fans in June 2003, Terrie implemented Iditarod as a thematic tool to deliver curriculum, creating a new level of excitement to planning, implementing, and evaluating lessons. Her students and athletes enjoy learning through the Iditarod for all the same reasons that elementary students do. The athletes journey each season from “Anchorage to Nome” as they track their progress and see improvement on their goals. Terrie has found that the player’s motivation level has increased and that they are eager to work to achieve their goals.

Iditarod has become a teaching tool and symbol for the character traits students and athletes must develop to be successful. Through the Iditarod, the golfers have learned that “together we succeed” and that “attitude is everything”.

When not teaching Physical Education, Driver’s Education, or coaching golf, Terrie enjoys the outdoors. She likes to golf, fish, camp, swim, run, bike, ski, snowshoe, and lift weights. She enjoys building, woodworking, caring for her lawn, nurturing her plants, reading and traveling. She lives with 3 cats and spends time with dogs at the Just Guts Kennel, as a dog handler.