Snow Buddy There?

Expedition 2: Teacher Trail
Feb 2008 - May 2008

Of the three message threads that I’ve looked at - the second expedition has the most postings (over 350). A key trend in the second expedition shows a interest in the trail of Wendy Gorton, a fourth-grade teacher from California – she is the recipient of over 121 messages. Over nine elementary schools are mentioned, many dropping by just to leave passing messages and comment on team’s work. The most frequent postings in this category come from Wendy’s fourth grade class at Hancok Park Elementary and regular postings from Walt Disney Magnet School from Chicago, Illinois, where the project is followed closely, in particular by the school librarian. Wendy’s journey on the expedition trail is something of an inspiration to other educators (she has now undertaken a number of adventure learning missions), and includes some one-off messages from elementary teachers across the US.

The early postings in February show an interest in the dogs as the team comes together in preparation for the expedition and this is a common thread amongst many of the children’s postings. Wendy Gorton’s class are likely to be aware of her (later role) in the expedition and start to post early message, wishing the team well and making general comments on the dogs. The questions (around 30 of them) tend to be questions around the dogs and how they are doing.

Wendy Gorton’s arrival at the camp mean that her fourth grade class start to make more frequent postings and there is upward spike in the number of postings around April, including messages from an aunt and her mother.

Walt Disney Magnet School adopts a husky, Ginger – there are several comments about this. Some of the other postings by the school reflect the multi-ethnic intake and are comments on various other countries and places.

One of the adult posters, Teddy (posting to Mille Porsild) has experience of these kinds of expeditions. He checks back on a number of occasions to follow the trail and update Mille on his own travels. Mille’s son, Aksel also makes a posting to the message boards.

A key contribution to the postings is made by Lourdes Hill College, Queensland, Australia. The college returns to the expedition in the next trail where I will be looking at the contents of some of their posts in detail.

Arctic Messages: Footprints in the Snow

Arctic Messages

The message postings that I’ve looked at span three years, each time a different expedition. They are mostly “footprint” messages from visitors, wishing the GoNorth! team or an individual well. A few questions are asked, though in general most make a comment about something they have discovered or liked. Though followed by up to 4000 schools, the visitor messages come largely from elementary aged school children from the US; for example, a fourth-grade class from California following the adventures of their grade teacher who has joined the expedition in 2008 and regular postings made by children from the Midwest (mostly Illinois and Minnesota). For the 2009 expedition, messages from high school visitors from Queensland, Australia (who made some postings the year before) feature as part of an IT elective class.

There are adult visitors; some family and friends and other educational professionals – a librarian from Walt Disney Magnet School in Chicago is a repeat poster and well wisher.

Expedition 1: Footprints in the Snow
Feb 2007 - May 2007

This is the shortest of the three message trails. Third, fourth and sixth graders from different schools follow the expedition trail from February through to April. In May most the messages are from people known to the team – often these are personal messages. A key exception is a posting made by a woman on behalf of a Minnesotan fourth grade grandson, whereby she compliments the team on their adventure and her grandson's teacher for being a school partner in the expedition trail. Another posting made to Mille Porsild by a Danish-American child makes the connection between her ancestry and and that of Mille's. Of the 30 postings, 14 are directly or indirectly about the husky dogs. The huskies are popular throughout the three expeditions and feature in many of the postings made by children.

The photo shows the northern lights in Greenland by Nick Russill. The light on the horizon is a fishing boat, and the smaller one behind, the entrance to the fjord into Tasiilaq. This photo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.