My Classroom Experience
by Amy Vargason
Teacher Explorer 2005
Abundant learning opportunities...you have my attention. Real-world application of educational technologies...hey, this is exactly what I've been looking for. Bitter cold, constant threat of danger, and no wages...are these people for real? Right, now your going to ask me to be a "Teacher Explorer" aren't you? Sleep in below zero temperatures, icy eyelashes, dragged by a dog team, cracking ice and SLUSH...okay, when do we leave?
The concept of incorporating adventure into the classroom has always been a dream of mine. I was open to an educational setting that intertwined adventure to make for unparalleled student interest. I knew that I could grab the students' and communities' interest if I could create an educational setting that invited adventure, unpredictable outcomes, and learning with a purpose. The curriculum path that I chose to follow led me to the Iditarod in 2003 to set the stage for my online classroom. I wrote curriculum for my classroom, created a web site, and was off to Alaska. After coming home from Alaska, it didn't take long to realize that the online classroom was a success. The students were inquisitive, full of excitement, and hungering for more. It just wasn't financially possible for my district to keep me in the field and out of the classroom. My search then began for the ultimate online experience that I could incorporate into my classroom. With my passion for the Arctic well known, and as fate would have it, I was introduced to two explorers presenting in PA...Mille Porsild and Dr. Aaron Doering. From that very sunny October day, my true Arctic online adventure was born! 
The elementary school building that I teach in lends itself to creative education, collaboration, and team teaching. I teach in a pod environment. Each grade level is housed in a large open room. Our classrooms are separated by two shoulder high partitions. Every educator has their own class and room, but many days we become four teachers of one hundred kids. If adventure is happening in one room, it is happening in all. Our pod setting is quite unique to the traditional classroom for it fosters the sharing of ideas and themes, team building, and cooperative experiences. My personal classroom and teaching style promote constructive learning, collaborative groups, and teacher as the facilitator for learning. Polarhusky.com lends itself to this style of teaching completely. As a team of teachers with different philosophies and styles, the vast dimensions of Polar Husky complimented each of us well. The possibilities were endless. The program was soon found to be very flexible to individual interests, schedules, and specific paths of our curriculum. Without any hesitation and with the support of my fifth grade colleagues, my team was ready for the adventure to begin! 
I believe everyone needs to have a vision, goals, and dreams. As an educator my vision is to instill in all students that everyone should become passionate in something that they believe in. My goal is to deeply incorporate authentic learning with a purpose into my students' daily lives. My dream for the online experience with Polarhusky.com was to have enough freedom with my curriculum to drop the textbooks, use them as references, and teach through Polarhusky.com while supplementing with curriculum that I developed. Through the blessing of my administration I was allowed to drop my texts for three months, teach with passion, and allow my kids the experience of technology, the Arctic, and current issues through real-world experiences.
I taught Polar husky through the months of February, March, and April. This sounds like a tremendous undertaking, but as schedules go, total instruction time was about 3 hours and 45 minutes each day. Polar Husky offered an extensive amount of material. From each themed unit of Polar Husky I selected materials from the intermediate section to use and supplemented state standard-based curriculum on my own. Reflecting on each subject area taught, my class constructed some of the most fabulous projects! 
During the months that I was teaching Polar Husky I was also preparing for the Pennsylvania State Assessments with my fifth grade students. Our district in the past few years has performed above the state's 50th percentile in both math and reading. Undertaking a new curriculum and developing my own items to meet the state standards was quite a risk, but one that I felt passionate enough about to take. The class was taught Polar Husky in 2004, and the state test scores indicated that they scored extremely well. In reading the advanced students across the state scored 1480 and above in the performance standards scaled scores. Proficient students scored 1300-1479 basic students scored 1160-1299, below basic students scored 1159 and below. In my individual classroom I had 7 kids score advanced, 6 score proficient, 2 basic, and 1 score below basic, in mathematics I had 6 kids score advanced, 7 kids score proficient, 2 basic, and 1 below basic. As a school comparing the percentage of tested students proficient or above compared to the state in reading we were 84% the state was 63%. In math we were 82% and the state was 62%. Integrating Polar Husky deeply into the fifth grade curriculum certainly proved that it was worthy to uphold to our state standards.
The Polar Husky curriculum was a beautiful experience for my students. As students they were filled with a wealth of authentic learning with a purpose. As an educator this curriculum kept me creative. In my eyes, creativity doesn't mean an astounding work of art, but the constant adjustment of practice, presentation, or materials to fit a situation. From my personal experience, if there is a vision, creativity comes to life. Authentic learning is a vision for many of us, which has become a passion, and in turn fosters creativity on its very own. How far would you go with authentic learning? I would go to ice of Lake Nipigon! Mush!
