Weekly Update

I don't know about you, but this week is just flying by!

We are fully-immersed in our Iditarod unit. The students are seeing just how all of those traits that we've been talking about--perseverence, determination, independence--really come into play during the race. As we learn about situations that call for these traits on the trail, we are talking about how they apply in our own lives. The students are also enjoying following their mushers and moving them along the map we have in our room. Additionally, each evening, the students need to watch at least two videos on the Iditarod Insider and write down what they learned or enjoyed from the clips. They also have to locate their musher on the GPS Tracker and record their mushers' GPS coordinates, speed and the temperature.

The Iditarod display in our room. The students check the race standings several times throughout the day and move their paw prints from check poin to checkpoint.

In the classroom, we have begun reading Gary Paulsen's Woodsong. Many of our students have enjoyed reading Paulsen's books in the past, and I'm sure this one will be no different. Gary Paulsen ran the Iditarod in 1983 and 1985, and this is his story of training and running the race. If you are at all interested in reading his version of this story targeted for older audiences, it is called Winterdance, and I highly recommend it. The movie Snow Dogs is supposed to be LOOSELY based on this book. Frankly, the only resemblance I see is that there are dogs, sleds, mushers, and snow!


In English we are looking at the idea of media and how it often does not portray facts accurately, and that we need to realize that just because we see something in a movie or on TV, it isn't necessarily true. If you ask most people about the "Balto" story, they will probably tell you what they have seen in the cartoon movie by the same name or what they have heard from people (who have probably learned their information from the movie). As you might imagine, the movie doesn't tell the entire truth about Balto and the 1925 Serum Run to Nome. What we are doing this week and next, is watching the Weather Channel-produced documentary When Weather Changed History: Run to Nome and the movie Balto. While watching both videos, the students are taking notes. Then they are going to write a comparison/contrast paper showing the similarities and differences between the true facts and the movie. More on that next week.


In Religion we are studying the Roman Empire from 300-500. During this time, the Christians found that they went from being persecuted to being "cool." We are looking at what this new-found freedom meant for Christians and the spread of the faith.


Tomorrow at Mass, we will be collecting gently-used toys for our Lenten collection. And tomorrow afternoon, we will be participating in a school-wide stations of the cross service at 2:15. You are welcome to join us.