Stafford Teacher To Hit Iditarod Trail: Report

STAFFORD, VA — A teacher at Ferry Farm Elementary School in stafford County is heading off to the wilds of Alaska on Monday to follow the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, according to a media report. Heidi Sloan, a fifth-grade teacher, will travel along with mushers and sled-dog teams during the world-famous race from Willow to Nome, Alaska, the Free Lance-Star reported.

Sloan was selected from among thousands of applicants for the Iditarod Teacher on the Trail program, the Stafford County Public Schools announced this week. She will blog from each stop on the trail and report on the race via Skype with classrooms around the world.

The sled dog race will run next month for nearly 1,000 miles through the Alaskan wilderness in subzero temperatures. Sloan, who is from Northern Michigan, says that she relishes cold weather. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

She considers her adventure to be a "virtual field trip," and she's been preparing and posting lesson plans using the Iditarod as a theme, according to the Free-Lance Star. For example, in one of her math lesson plans, she describes the different formations in which dogs can be hitched to sleds.

Sloan, who has taught at Ferry Farm Elementary for 16 years, will spend five weeks in Alaska, the Fredericksburg newspaper reported.

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