Company description

Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ) fights food insecurity and diet-related disease through school-based, youth-led hydroponic farming, providing local, sustainably-grown produce to food desert communities and building health equity for all New Yorkers and beyond. TFFJ works within NYC Title I middle and high schools in food desert communities, training students to build/maintain indoor hydroponic farms, each capable of growing up to 10,000 pounds of produce annually, that is served daily at school lunch and distributed to the surrounding community’s food-insecure residents. Further, students learn/master nutrition/health skills to share with peers/neighbors, empowering them to lead themselves and others towards healthier futures.

Job description

Curriculum Development & Program Assistant

Position Type: Full-time

Reports To: STEM Programming & School Partnership Manager

Hours: Monday through Friday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm with some evening or weekend hours required for event support. Daily schedule will vary depending on program hours that require attendance for supervision and support.

Location: Hybrid - to be discussed during interviews

Salary Range: $55,000-$60,000 annually. Additionally, TFFJ offers a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability insurance, plus a retirement 403(b) plan and substantial vacation.

Position Overview

TFFJ seeks a Curriculum Development Assistant to support our STEM Programming & School Partnership Manager and the rest of the Program team in editing, creating, revising, and standardizing school day and afterschool curricula for middle and high school grades. This position will provide feedback on existing lessons and create new curriculum materials for Career and Technical Education (CTE) program courses in development on the topics of urban farming, nutrition, environmental sustainability, food justice, and advocacy. All school day tracks are up to 36 lessons per school year, with lesson alignment to Next Generation Science Standards and NYS P-12 Science Learning Standards. This role will also provide on-site program support as well as feedback on program delivery, and will refine protocols for curriculum development and copyright permissions.

This position also supports TFFJ’s experimental system and grow kit package offerings to schools interested in growing food on a smaller scale. These packages offer lessons covering DIY grow kits (jar and microgreens hydroponic systems) and small-scale experimental hydroponic systems.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is comfortable working both on-site within public schools throughout New York City and independently in a virtual setting, has ample curriculum development experience, and is enthusiastic about urban agriculture, food justice, sustainability, and health/nutrition.

Responsibilities and Essential Functions

Program Implementation & Support (50%)

• Order supplies for grow kits and experimental systems for partner schools.
• Correspondence with lead teachers and administrators at partner schools to coordinate grow kit and experimental system materials.
• Share curriculum resources with partner schools by granting access to relevant Google Drive folders.
• Maintain a Google Classroom page with up-to-date TFFJ curriculum materials to share with partners.
• Co-facilitate grow kit lessons and experimental systems set-up lessons with lead teachers at partner sites.
• Train lead teachers to deliver grow kit & experimental lessons and maintain systems over time.

Curriculum Development (40%)

• Work with STEM Programming & School Partnership Manager, Youth Development Coordinator, and Farmer-Educators to continue to develop, write and standardize curricular day and afterschool curricula across sites.

• Collaborate with the STEM Programming & School Partnership Manager and lead teachers to develop various courses for the CTE program based at partner schools in NYC and Denver.

• Research relevant content from partners and open-sourced material to compile detailed outlines of content for use in curriculum development.
• Research and apply relevant academic standards to lesson plans.
• Contribute to the refining of copyrighting protocols and general curriculum development protocols.
• Review, revise, and edit existing curriculum materials to align with the CTE program’s goals and standards, as well as create new materials to support the CTE curriculum.
• Maintaining Google Classroom with TFFJ curriculum materials to be shared with partner schools.
• Visit the partner schools around NYC to make observations and recommendations on edits/revisions to the existing curriculum.

Program Administration (10%)

• Coordinate grow kit & experimental system programming logistics with partner schools.
• Consistently track inventory of grow kit & experimental system programming supplies.
• Log time according to various categories for accurate billing to partner schools.
• Log receipts and invoices to account for expenditures relating to materials procurement.

Required Qualifications and Competencies:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 3+ years of experience developing curriculum, including researching and aligning relevant standards to lesson plans and adapting curriculum to multiple grade levels
• Experience teaching or facilitating groups of middle or high school students
• Interest in urban agriculture, environmental sustainability, nutrition, and social justice
• Ability to clearly, consistently, and accurately communicate both verbally and electronically
• Comfortable using a Windows laptop for Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendars
• Ability to provide a writing sample showcasing experience in curriculum development
• Ability to clear a required criminal background check

An Ideal Candidate Will Have:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to multitask and manage multiple priorities and deadlines
• Ability to work collaboratively and be a team player
• Interest in hydroponic systems and urban agriculture
• Copyright experience (not required)
• Evaluation experience (not required)
• Spanish proficiency (not required)
• Experience with Google Classroom (not required)

Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other underrepresented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when in fact they often do. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $50,000 - $75,000

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline