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Kids Go To Idita-College!

A Teacher's Experience

by Finney, 1999 Teacher on the Trail

08/04/2008

My "College for Kids" Teaching Experience

By Finney
1999 Teacher on the Trail
First Teacher on the Trail

During the third week in June, I had a delightful experience of teaching middle 'schoolers' through a program at our Ivy Tech College called "College for Kids". The director decided to call my program, "Alaskan Adventures", which was apt since I did teach about the animals, land, natives and the Iditarod. Students paid a fee for attending, but since the classes are for students who would never have this opportunity, our community provided the financial support. Most of the students chose the classes they wanted to participate in, and if the classes were filled they had the option to choose other classes that weren't at the maximum of 15 students. Thus, sometimes you were NOT the student's first choice and a poor attitude could be a problem.

Something else I learned was that the students liked "projects" and hands on activities, so I needed to arrive every day loaded with things to do. I knew my challenge was to "hook" these kids on what I am passionate about, and to engage them none stop for 90 minutes!

Even though I was a bit apprehensive at first, I looked forward to immersing my class in AK and the Iditarod. I have CD's of my AK pictures and each CD is a Power Point focusing on something different, i.e. animals, trail, Anchorage, natives, kennel, training dogs, etc. So I planned what I would show and discuss each day, before we began the activities. I provided most of the materials for my activities and coordinated the Power Points with the activities. They began by creating their own AK tee shirt using stencils I had of sled dogs. I was thrilled to see how they used the fabric paint creating their own individual designs. I had scraps of fur from AK animals in a huge bag, and they had a super time trying to figure out the animal that belonged to the fur and then they each created a collage with the scraps. They made neat bracelets creating their own designs after looking at some of my jewelry treasures I shared with them. The girls used elastic string f or their bracelets and the boys used much thicker raw hide. They built sleds out of craft sticks, and made booties out of felt and cleverly designed the front of the bootie. They had a ball helping each other into my gear, trying to walk around in it, and they each even crawled into my sleeping bag! I was going to have them look at all my things in my sled bag for a few minutes, then close the bag and see how many objects they could remember, alas....we simply ran out of time. (I was always the last class to finish up every day!) The kids were more interested in taking pictures of each other in my gear, and then on the day Annui, my Alaskan sled dog, came with me, they wanted pictures of themselves putting her gear on. It all was great fun!!

I truly had a wonderful experience with the older kids and I know I had a bit of an impact on one of my students. I knew from the first day that he hadn't been exposed to much beyond our community, he was very quiet and tried to look disengaged. Boy, he immediately was MY challenge and I was determined to have him loving it all by Friday. I knocked myself out for all of them, but my eye was on him!

On Friday, I took in Annui, who is an amazingly well trained and behaved sled dog (I worked hard with her, too.) and before taking her into the college, I had her running free in a huge area out front. All of a sudden a car pulled up and a voice in the back seat began yelling, "Finney, Finney!" I walked from the open area to the car to see none other than my "challenge" in the back seat and an identical twin in the front. The grandmother leaned forward so she could speak to me and told me that my "challenge" (she didn't know that) was so excited about what he had been learning and that now he wanted to go to AK to live, work, and run dogs!!!! She also thanked me for taking the time to teach the class. Before I knew it, I was thanking HER for sending her grandson to my class and telling her how much I adored teaching the class.

In education we never know how or when we will touch someone's life, but that is really what inspires us to teach something we are passionate about. I was given the gift of a "challenge" for one week and I absolutely embraced him. Another magical moment in my life, all because of my adventures in Alaska and being a teacher on the Iditarod Trail! It just seems to NEVER end and how lucky I am!

"Finney"---Andrea Aufder Heyde

Finney was the first Iditarod Teacher on the Trail and a driving force behind the establishment of that program.

*** Attention Teachers in Indiana! Finney is available for school programs. Contact Iditarod's Education Department for further details!