STEAM Lab

PHE Garden Educator Position 

Teach Science and Nutrition in the Garden to K-5 Students! 

Our ideal garden educator is someone with teaching experience and garden knowledge/experience who is part of the PHE or surrounding community.  All teaching is outside in the garden, with the exception of winter cooking lessons, so the garden educator must be comfortable teaching hands-on lessons outdoors. This is a contractual position at $34/hr, teaching two days a week for a total of 32 weeks spread into blocks in the fall, winter, and spring. Garden maintenance is year round.  Days and times are somewhat flexible, but once the schedule is decided, it remains the same for the duration of the year.  Educators will contract directly with Life Lab, the fiscal sponsor of Growing Healthy Kids, and must pass a background check with MDUSD. 

Job Duties include:

• Teach 24 weeks of Next Generation Science Lessons in the garden to K-5 students, in the fall and spring seasons.

• Teach 8 weeks of CA Health Standards through cooking & nutrition lessons to K-5 students, in the winter season.

• Incorporate sustainable education and actions such as how to reduce, reuse and recycle in lessons.

• Maintain and improve the educational garden at Pleasant Hill Elementary.

• Plan and procure materials for all garden and nutrition lessons.

• Gather data on new foods tried and student proficiency in science and health concepts through various assessment tools and methods.

• Participate in monthly meetings with the Growing Healthy Kids garden education team.

• Participate in Growing Healthy Kids Workshops, Open School Gardens Weekend,  and other community education efforts throughout the school year.

• Participate in professional development whenever possible to improve delivery of garden-based education and related topics.

• Coordinate and communicate with the PHE principal, teachers, custodian, cafeteria staff, CARES after school program staff, GHK Program Director and GHK garden educators as needed for effective delivery of garden and nutrition lessons. 

Work together with Growing Healthy Kids Program Director and other Growing Healthy Kids garden educators and MDUSD teachers to procure and/or produce garden and wellness curriculum that is integrated and correlated with Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards, Career Technical Education Standards, and other MDUSD curricular and wellness standards, in alignment with the goals of the Growing Healthy Kids program.

If interested, please email Laney Cline King, Growing Healthy Kids Program Director, at growinghealthykidsbayarea@gmail.com.