Garden Educator

About Ground Education

At Ground Education, the natural world is our classroom, where we can learn to mutually thrive on the Earth we all share.  We are a growing nonprofit with a passion for bringing high-quality, inspiring, nature-based lessons to every elementary student as part of their school day. We currently provide 16 elementary schools and more than 10,000 students in the Long Beach Unified School District with edible and native plant learning gardens and teach hands-on lessons that nurture every student’s academic, physical and emotional well-being.

Come join our team!!!  GroundEd is a fun and growing environmental education organization!

We are looking for a Garden Educator to facilitate garden lessons, nurture our school partnerships and help maintain school garden spaces in local elementary schools.

If you would like to join an up-beat, driven, and fun culture and share our vision to have elementary students exploring, thinking and learning in nature spaces and want to help us grow, we look forward to hearing from you.

Job Details:

Facilitate/teach garden lessons (using GroundEd curriculum and lesson plans).
Plant and perform routine garden maintenance activities.
Build relationships with school staff, classroom teachers and parents to promote a culture of taking learning outdoors.
Coordinate occasional walking field trips, garden clean-up work parties and/or evening family nights.
Act as an on-site naturalist, facilitating our innovative approach to hands-on learning.
Collect and/or prepare supplies for lesson days.
Provide supervision and support to CSULB interns during their on-site days.
Participate in our ongoing documentation of student experiences by taking pictures, maintaining garden notes and assisting with participant data tracking.
Comply with our COVID-19 safety protocols.

Initially, Garden Educators will train alongside senior educators at various sites to learn our curriculum, processes, and program.  After training, Garden Educators will become responsible for coordinating a Ground Education school site.

Successful candidates will:

Most importantly, be a team player!
Successfully complete Live Scan fingerprint/background check and TB test.
Hold a Bachelor’s degree, preferably in education or natural sciences.
Have a desire to work with children and classroom teachers to help cultivate an interest in nature.
Have a demonstrated interest and track record with gardening, environmental science, and/or sustainability.
Possess excellent facilitation and problem-solving skills, a positive attitude, and a mission-driven work ethic.
Have personal skills including dependability, flexibility, and a willingness to get dirty.
Be able to organize work, take initiative, function independently, lift 50 pounds and work in an outdoor setting.
Be able to work effectively in collaboration with diverse groups of people.
Have experience working with young children in large group settings (preferred).
Have reliable transportation.

Schedule

This position is part time, approximately 8-22 hours per week during the school year. Flexible, but Garden Educators should have 1-3 days per week available to work in an elementary school during the school year from approximately 8:30am-3:00pm.