This summer, a handful of school teachers will spend weeks exploring Acadia National Park, learning about the park’s history and wildlife and, more importantly, learning how to bring those outdoor experiences back to the children they teach. This new Acadia Teacher Fellowship program has an application deadline of March 31, and program organizers are specifically seeking Maine applicants.
“We tend to get a lot more [applications] from out of state, and we want to work with local teachers as much as possible,” Cynthia Ocel, education coordinator for Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, said.
Acadia National Park has been a part of the nationwide Teacher-Ranger-Teacher Program for several years. But this year, Acadia education coordinators have modified the syllabus and renamed it the Teacher Fellowship Program. Funded by nonprofit Friends of Acadia, the new program will be similar to the nationwide program, but it’s designed to allow participants more time outdoors, exploring the park and participating in public nature programs.
The program is open to all public school teachers for kindergarten through grade 12. Those who are selected to be teacher fellows will be expected to commit four to eight weeks between June and September to the program. Friends of Acadia will provide them with uniforms, shared housing, if needed, as well as a $400 weekly stipend, a certificate of completion and continuing education hours.
Teacher fellows will spend time with trained park interpreters, field researchers, protection rangers, resource management staff and trail crews.
“It was really interesting to see Acadia from different points of view,” said Genevieve Smith, a Bangor teacher who participated in the Teacher-Ranger-Teacher Program last summer. “I wasn’t aware that there were so many programs going on in Acadia.”
Smith, a seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher James F. Doughty School, spent eight weeks at Acadia’s onshore division at Schoodic Head in Winter Harbor. During that time, she learned how to create a variety of outdoor classrooms for her students and learned about the multitude of public programs at Acadia that are available to schools. She also learned more about the outdoors by participating in a variety of ranger-led programs and citizen science projects, including salamander surveys and research on green crabs.
Her favorite part of the program was leading her students on a field trip to the park at the end of the summer. Transportation, entrance and program fees and substitute teachers were paid for by Friends of Acadia.
“Some of them had never been to Acadia and maybe never would have gone,” Smith said. “We went tidal pooling out on Little Moose Island, and they just walked around on the shore and collected different species. It was really fun because they’re city kids, and many were afraid at first to pick up stuff. It was so cool to let them just be kids outside.”
Acadia’s teacher program has been growing over the years, thanks to the support of Friends of Acadia. This year, the program will be accepting four teachers for the park on Mount Desert Island, two for the Schoodic Peninsula section of the park and one teacher to be stationed at St. Croix Island International Historic Site in Calais.
For information about the program and to apply, visit nps.gov/acad/learn/education/development/teacher-fellowship.htm or call Cynthia Ocel at 288-8812.