Job description

About Us:

Hudson Valley Seed empowers children to be informed ecological citizens through year-round garden education focused on healthy eating, food literacy, environmental stewardship and academic success.

As thousands of children across the Hudson Valley participate in weekly standards-based garden education, they develop a love of learning and the outdoors. As students plant seeds, steward the land, and share new foods with their peers, they are also cultivating compassion, patience and self discipline. By partnering with schools to provide students with innovative, experiential and project-based food education, Hudson Valley Seed helps students connect discoveries in the classroom to action in the community.

The Opportunity:

Hudson Valley Seed's Garden Educator will implement and help develop Hudson Valley Seed's curriculum-integrated garden program. The Garden Educator will be working in the Beacon City School District bringing elementary school students out to school gardens to teach academics and nutrition through experiential garden learning. The Garden Educator will administer lessons both indoors and outdoors, teaching students Hudson Valley Seed-curricula year round. The Garden Educator will work closely with participating school teachers, parents and community members, and will work to build the foundation of the organization as it grows to work with more school districts and students. The garden educator will work closely with the rest of the Hudson Valley Seed team as they collectively educate 1,500 students each week across Putnam, Dutchess and Orange Counties.

Responsibilities:

• Teach weekly garden programs to approximately 15 classes each week in the Beacon City School District, teaching in both an indoor classroom and outdoor garden setting.
• Assist with garden lesson planning including working with other staff to develop materials, communication with schools, and documentation of programs.
• Management and care of existing education program materials, supplies and equipment as well as the development of new ones as needed.
• Management and care of school gardens.
• Implement Hudson Valley Seed weekly garden programs including maintaining necessary annual paperwork, providing resources for teachers, modeling place-based and inquiry learning through teaching, assisting schools with correlating curriculum to NY Frameworks, keeping records of time spent on programs and writing an annual report.
• Participate in regular Hudson Valley Seed staff meetings.
• Assist in writing program descriptions for newsletters and program guides.
• Outreach into the Beacon community, including acting as liaison to PTAs and partnering community organizations.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Masters degree or commensurate experience – preferred work experience in environmental education, education, food justice or related field.
• Experience in environmental educational program planning, development and implementation.
• Gardening experience as well as experience using gardens as outdoor classrooms.
• Experience teaching in public schools.
• Experience working with people of all ages and backgrounds in an outdoor environmental education setting, with an emphasis on outdoor classroom management.
• Strong, demonstrable background in and passion for gardening & the natural world.
• Creative and enthusiastic communication/presentation skills.
• Ability to work as part of a team as well as independently.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office software.
• Must pass a criminal background check.

Status:

24 hours per week, part time, with the potential for full time work in the future.

Wage:

Salary consistent with the staffing of a non-profit organization and commensurate with experience, skills and preferred qualifications.

Reports to: Education Director.

Compensation

this position is: salaried

Application instructions

Deadline

July 22, 2015