Acadia National Park

Educator opportunity

Acadia National Park is offering a great professional development experience this summer. The national park is recruiting six classroom teachers to spend time this summer as Acadia Teacher Fellows, learning about the national park’s diverse natural and cultural resources, and ways to protect them. Three teachers will be selected to work on Mount Desert Island, and two teachers will be stationed at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) in Winter Harbor while one teacher will work at Saint Croix Island International Historic Site in Calais.

Acadia National Park invites full-time, K-12 public school teachers to apply online by March 1 at
http://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/education/development/teacher-fellowship.htm. For specific questions regarding the Acadia Teacher Fellowship program, please call 207-288-8812 (Mount Desert Island), 207-288-1312 (Schoodic Peninsula), or 207-454-3871 (Saint Croix Island International Historic Site).

This is the 10th year of the  Acadia Teacher Fellowship program (formerly Teacher Ranger) which strives to connect teachers and students to our national parks. Priority is given to schools with students who are underrepresented, economically disadvantaged, or have limited access to parks. Preference is also given to Maine schools and to teachers not requiring housing. “Many classroom teachers dream about living in and learning about our national parks,” said Superintendent Kevin Schneider. “Acadia Teacher Fellowships are helping make those dreams come true.”

For six weeks during the summer, teacher fellows will interact with park visitors on public programs, along carriage roads and on hiking trails. They will attend ranger-led interpretive programs, be given place-based training, participate in citizen science activities, interact with park professionals and researchers, and much more. Teacher fellows will be asked to create a lesson plan related to Acadia’s resources to take back to their classroom and share with other educators.

Newly acquired, first-hand knowledge of our national parks will enrich the teacher’s classroom curriculum throughout the school year and, in particular, during National Park Week in April at which time teacher fellows introduce students beyond their own classroom to the important mission of the National Park Service.

Acadia Teacher Fellows receive a weekly stipend, teaching materials, and shared park housing as available. Additional benefits include a free class field trip to Acadia or a national park site near their school, plus assistance with designing an outdoor classroom at their home school. This unique opportunity is funded by Friends of Acadia with support from Eastern National.

For more information about Acadia National Park, please visit www.nps.gov/acad or call (207)288-3338. Join Acadia’s online conversations at www.facebook.com/AcadiaNPS and https://twitter.com/AcadiaNPS.