Teacher-Ranger-Teacher Experiences

Summer 2009 Teacher-Rangers

Teacher-Ranger Barb:

"Imagine spending some time with historians, storytellers, and 18th century artifacts in a place that brings history alive everyday to hundreds of visitors. Also imagine spending part of your summer enriching your history knowledge through a week-long Summer Teacher Institute, discovering new places for field trips, working with a host of talented people and getting paid for it at the same time.

This is my experience participating in the Teacher to Ranger to Teacher program at Valley Forge National Historical Park this summer.

As part of this assignment, I will take back to the Great Valley School District a partnership, application of my knowledge and experience to enrich my classroom teaching and the presentation of professional development workshops for our teachers.

Hopefully, my role has been to help the rangers meet the requirements of a school district's standards and to energize their programs during class visits. I believe I was instrumental in facilitating preparations for the 09/10 school field trip season by helping to design new pre and post visit creative activities, idea exchanged and interactive lesson plans between the schools and park.

I highly recommend to other teachers this opportunity to partner with the rangers and the staff at Valley Forge. I now really appreciate the significance of their National Park as a treasure, right in my neighborhood."

 

Teacher-ranger Mike:

"The Teacher-Ranger-Teacher program at Valley Forge National Park has been an invaluable experience for me. Not only have I had the opportunity to meet the amazing rangers at the park, but I have learned so much about the history of the Valley Forge encampment as well as the Revolutionary War. The teacher-ranger-teacher program has also provided me the opportunity to work with staff of the park in order to develop a better partnership with the surrounding community.

I believe that Valley Forge Park is an experience that schools should not miss. I would recommend people who are interested in learning more about the history of the park and who would like to help bring our National Park system into the classroom should definitely check out this program in the future.

The National Park rangers are very open to new ideas and would love to see more teachers utilizing their parks. Furthermore, the Summer Workshop for teachers held this year was informative, entertaining, and one of the best programs in the country."