As you know, I have been working the last two years to be a musher. I am, at heart, an educator. And every good educator knows that learning is a big part of teaching. Not only that, but being aware of how we learn is quintessential. 

So this means that my mind is always on and alert thinking and learning from all my experiences, including dog mushing. In the past year I have had to learn how to manage a team of 4, 6, and 10 dogs. This year I have to learn how to manage 16 dogs. This is really not as easy as some people may think. Imagine 16 kindergarten age kids that you must get to run in one direction without being side tracked by one another or distracted by objects in their environment. Good luck! 

So, after the first day of running a 16 dog team with help, I realized that it was possible and I just need to adjust my perspective a bit. The following run however changed everything, again. I had to run my 16 dog team on my own. This meant if there was a problem, I had to fix it on my own, and what was even more of an issue was the break on the 4-wheeler was not at its best. Trying to get off to fix a problem would mean some creative parking so the 4-wheeler would not be pulled away even if it was in gear. 

If this was not bad enough, 15 minutes before the run we discovered we were out of gas. Now, as a teacher I have to be constantly on my toes ready to deal with any problem that presents itself. This is one of the reasons I enjoy working with dogs, it is a lot like working in a classroom. Fast paced, exciting, sometimes dangerous. Finding out about the gas set me into a mode of wearing my administrative teacher hat and quickly finding a solution.

I proposed that the other musher run ahead of me get gas and meet me on the trail for a fill up. The other musher, Rich, cocked his head and thought for a minute. And then he said, " sure I think the dogs can do that." I froze in my steps and thought about what he said, looking at him with "Deer-in-the-headlight-eyes."  He was really looking at the solution from the dogs perspective. Would it hurt them at all if they had to  pull the 4-wheeler for awhile without gas on the trail we were choosing for the day. I on the other hand saw the problem from the perspective of an administrator, which was how could we get the run done as soon as possible without sacrificing time to run out and get gas, wasting more gas in the process. 

Now these are some broad and sweeping statements of perspectives that are represented by teachers and administrators, but in a general sense, this is what happens in a school. As an experienced and comfortable classroom teacher,  I am constantly thinking of my students first, questioning the use of curriculum, technology, methodology I use in the classroom. As a beginner musher, I am not always so great to take off my manage the family and time hat, and put on my teacher hat. But it really needs to be done. If my end goal is for my dogs and myself to be a successful musher, I need to be willing to change my perspective for the benefit of the dogs in this partnership. 

What perspectives have you tried on lately? 

Kigluait Adventures Videoconference October Special Events: Adopt a Sled Dog and Meet a Musher!
You asked, and they are back. Two popular Special events that are Multi-Point!  Virtually Adopt a Sled Dog and Meet a Musher!

**Virtually Adopt a Sled Dog**
This is a special event offered only once this year. Participating classrooms will adopt their very own sled dog, collect data on the current health of the dog and then track them through the web for the remaining for the school year through math, science, writing and art activities provided by Kigluait. Registration is limited, first come first serve basis for  virtual adoptions.
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Cost: $100 for grades 3-12 $75 for Grades 1-2
Time: October 21st, 2010
***Session 1 Grades k-2: 7:00-8:00 Alaska Time (8:00-9:00 Pacific)(9:00-10:00 Mtn)(10:00-11:00 Central)(11:00-12:00 Eastern )
***Session 2 Grades 3-5: 8:15-9:15 Alaska Time (9:15-10:15 Pacific)(10:15-11:15 Mtn)(11:15-12:15 Central)(12:15-1:15 Eastern)
***Session 3 Grades 3-5: 9:30-10:30 Alaska Time (10:30-11:30 Pacific)(11:30-12:30 Mtn)(12:30-1:30 Central)(1:30-2:30 Eastern)
***Session 4: Grades 6-12: 10:45-11:45 Alaska Time (11:45-12:45 Pacific)(12:45-1:45 Mtn)(1:45-2:45 Central)(2:45-3:45 Eastern)

Grades: 1-12
Standards: NCTM Math Standards 5-12: Data Analysis and Probability
***Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer.
***Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data.
NPH-H.K-4.6, NPH-H.5-8.6: Setting goals for good health
***Predict outcomes of positive health decisions.
***Apply strategies and skills needed to attain personal health goals.
Registration: Go to http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/adoptdog
For more information: Contact Us
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The goal of this special event is to allow students a closer connection to the dogs in our kennel by having classrooms adopt a dog in the kennel that they will examine their base maintenance level during the videoconference. Afterwards students can compare and analyze data throughout the year on the health of their adopted sled dog, through a variety of content area activities, provided free to the participating classroom.

For more information go to http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/adoptdog or to register go to http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/specialeventsreg 

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**Multi-Point Meet a Musher**
Join us for this Multi-Point Special Event to interview and investigate the life of a musher, and help us welcome our new 13 year old Junior Iditarod Musher. This special Mutli-point will investigate life as a musher from a variety of perspectives, while helping kids to understand the concept of goal setting and character building. This program is a great complement to curriculums that include Call of the Wild, Togo, Balto, The Great Serum Run, Winter Dance, and Storm Run.

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Cost: $100 for grades 3-12 $75 for Grades 1-2
Time: October 7th, 2010
***Session 1 Grades k-2: 7:00-8:00 Alaska Time (8:00-9:00 Pacific)(9:00-10:00 Mtn)(10:00-11:00Central)(11:00-12:00 Eastern)
***Session 2 Grades 3-5: 8:15-9:15 Alaska Time (9:15-10:15 Pacific)(10:15-11:15 Mtn)(11:15-12:15 Central)(12:15-1:15 Eastern)
***Session 3 Grades 3-5: 9:30-10:30 Alaska Time (10:30-11:30 Pacific)(11:30-12:30 Mtn)(12:30-1:30 Central)(1:30-2:30 Eastern)
***Session 4: Grades 6-12: 10:45-11:45 Alaska Time (11:45-12:45 Pacific)(12:45-1:45 Mtn)(1:45-2:45 Central)(2:45-3:45 Eastern)
Grades: 1-12
Standards:
NPH-H.K-4.3 REDUCING HEALTH RISK
NPH-H.5-8.1 and 9-12.4 Health promotion and Disease Prevention
*analyze how environment and personal health are interrelated.
*Analyze how the environment influences the health of the community.

Registration: Go to http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/multipointmonthreg
For more information: Contact Us
 

School has started, not just for children, but also for adults. Though we are very active learners and researchers, we have decided to go back to school officially. So this years postings will mix with muses and learnings from our school experiences and how best we can use it to improve videoconferencing.

So getting feedback from the videoconference audience on ideas and projects is very useful, thus the reason for posting on the blog.

This semester I will be creating an action research plan as part of a Classroom Research class. Now I am sure this may seem like a no-brainer for many, but I love the idea of formally researching yourself to make improvements. I am sure that we as teachers naturally do this already, we simply do not formally record the results, force ourselves to look at them, evaluate them and draw conclusions. And then make changes based on these results. I imagine, like for many, we as teachers already have little time to collect and look at results. But when you consider it, we really do this on a subconscious level, so why not simply write the results down? That is what I will be doing this semester.

I will be running an action research plan on how best to create 1 hour quality learning experiences via videoconference. The unusual thing I notice during our distance interactions is the amount of interaction between different classes. We know from experience and research that the more interaction we have during a conference, the more learning occurs and the better experience the students have. The question is then, what exactly must be done to create a consistent learning environment so students have a quality interaction during a video conference. Even more interesting is what level of interaction is most needed by a student (child and adult) to interact at a distance in order to learn? In my experience it has been different among people (both adults and children). Some people only prefer to interact through audio, some through video and some through just text or email. So what must be met in the learning environment for a student to be comfortable to learn in a video conference setting?

Question: What comfort-level (positive learning environment) must be created for students to have the best 1 hour quality distance learning experience? Is it the same for adults as kids? (Comfort level meaning that a student is comfortable enough to interact and learn on a video conference.) (Or is there some level of un-comfort that must be experienced in order for change to occur and thus learning?)

Fact Finding: Research articles about elements of quality distance learning for video conferencing (though a great side bit of research is elements of a quality distance learning over all and then consider how this could incorporate into videoconferencing to build more comfort level.)

Planning: Provide three different types of real-time (synchronous) interactive content for a student and a teacher in 3 different manners; audio, video, text (and possibly a combination.) After interacting with the content, have them evaluate the usefulness of the learning on a scale. Also collect qualitative data on amount and type of interactions during each experience.

If you have thoughts or suggestions on this, share away. (Or if you are having trouble with our comment form below, let us know.)