Mount Rainier National Park offers a variety of free education workshops each year. These interdisciplinary workshops combine instruction, activities, field sessions, curriculum development, and curriculum review focus groups. Washington State clock hours are usually available. An academic credit option is also available for some workshops at an additional cost of $40/credit through The Heritage Institute; all credits are based on quarter system. Unless otherwise noted, workshops will occur at the park's Education Center.

To register for a Mount Rainier Teacher Workshop, complete this form.

Teacher-Ranger-Teacher Program

The Teacher-Ranger-Teacher (TRT) program provides opportunities for selected teachers to connect to resources in a national park by spending the summer working as a park ranger. The program focuses on teachers from schools with ethnically diverse student populations, who have had little or no experience with a national park, or little opportunity to explore the relevance parks can have in their lives or the lives of their students. The Teacher-Ranger-Teacher Program is a partnership relationship between the teacher, their school district, and the park and is managed through a formal agreement.

Teacher-Ranger-Teachers perform various duties depending on their interests and the needs of the park, including developing curriculum-based materials, presenting interpretive programs for the general public, staffing the visitor centers, helping to lead teacher workshops or taking on special projects.

Once teachers return to their schools, teacher-rangers bring their national park experience into their classroom throughout the school year. During National Park Week in April, teacher-rangers wear their NPS uniform to school and engage students and other teachers in activities that relate to their NPS experience.

The Teacher-Ranger-Teacher program provides a $300/week stipend for full-time work. Shared park housing is also provided. You can receive free Washington State Clock Hours for workshop meetings, and for the summer employment period.

Check here to learn about the three TRT opportunities available at Mount Rainier in 2011.

All Teacher-Ranger-Teacher positions have been filled for 2011.

Sister Mountain Project Workshop

The Mount Rainier-Mount Fuji Sister Mountain Project

The Sister Mountain Project builds upon the long history of connections between Mount Rainier and Mount Fuji. The project teaches middle and high school teacher in the U.S. and Japan about two iconic mountains, Mount Fuji and Mount Rainier. Comprehensive, interdisciplinary curriculum materials were developed about the natural and cultural values of these two famous peaks, which serve as a lens to focus student awareness of each mountain's history, culture, geography, physical processes, and environmental uses of each other's countries. By highlighting similarities and differences between these two volcanoes and their people, the project also enhances international understanding. In 2010, Japanese teachers visited Mount Rainier to meet with a group of American teachers, and in 2011, the Japanese teachers will host a similar workshop in Japan