Purpose: One Cool Earth believes everyone deserves a place to grow. Our One Cool Earth program creates school gardens to grow healthy, happy, smart youth at SLO County public schools. We are focused on creating real impacts on childhood health, academics, and well-being using school gardens. Our program’s topics focus on Food Forests, Zero Waste, and Water Wise. We depend on a Garden Educator as the on-the-ground ambassadors for school gardens, caring for and improving the gardens, providing nutrition and science lessons for students, and supporting teachers in using the gardens as outdoor learning labs.
Locations: San Luis Obispo County Elementary Schools
Start Date: Mid-August 2024 - June 2025. Seasonal Position
Hours/Duration: Part-time, 20-40 hours per week, dependent on your availability
Preferred Qualifications
● Excellent rapport with children, with at least one year experience in educational settings
● Familiarity and confidence working in a garden or strong motivation to learn in a hands-on
environment
● Knowledge and skills in facilitating social emotional learning
● Knowledge of Indigenous communities; a willingness to learn and teach about them
● Strong oral and written communication skills; including public speaking skills
● Ability to work independently and be self-directed
● Able to work with people of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
● Creative, flexible, and hard-working; able to manage your commitments responsibly
● Enjoy learning new things and challenging yourself
● A good sense of humor, wonder, and curiosity
Desired Skills
● Proficiency with Google Docs and Google Calendar
Primary Responsibilities
The Garden Educator is self-directed and a self-starter who works to:
● Improve student science understanding by providing engaging lessons based on ecology,
earth, and life sciences, especially on the subjects of watersheds, food forests, and zero
waste
● Increase student knowledge of the food cycle, interest in growing fresh fruits and
vegetables, and willingness to try new fruits and vegetables
● Teach engaging garden-based lessons (30 - 60 min.) to 25 students at a time (3 to 6 classes
per day)
● Coordinates, oversees and facilitates students’ hands-on experiences in the garden(planting, tending, harvesting, cooking, tasting)
● Consistent and reliable communication with classroom teachers; reminders for upcoming
lessons and collaboration to ensure lessons in the garden support the classroom
curriculum
● Works effectively with community members, volunteers, and others to coordinate
school-wide garden events
● Maintain accurate and timely garden records and reports
● Provide basic maintenance for gardens: planting, weeding, pruning, composting,
harvesting, minor irrigation adjustments and repairs
● Share garden updates with school via a monthly newsletter and Facebook post
● Communicate effectively with the Leadership staff to meet performance expectations
● Attend team meetings and training
Physical Demands: The physical demands described here represent those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. The ability to perform normal garden tasks, including digging, carrying, stooping, weeding, reaching, walking on varied terrain, and lifting and carrying materials and potted plants weighing up to 50 lbs.
Garden Educators attend a mandatory weekly, 2-hour paid meeting session on Mondays starting August 19, 2024, through June 7, 2025. All Garden Educators must attend a beginning-of-the-school-year training in mid-August.
Certificates, Licenses, Registrations: The applicant must possess a valid driver’s license, a reliable vehicle with proof of insurance, and be able to pass a background check and TB test to work at schools.
Compensation & Benefits: Be part of a growing, mission-driven team; Change children’s lives for the better; Flexible scheduling; Optional 401(k); $20-$22 hour DOE. Extensive professional development/ training schedule.
To Apply: Please send your resume and a cover letter to the Craigslist email address.
We look forward to welcoming a passionate educator to our team!
We strongly encourage applications from Black and Indigenous people and other people of color, people from working-class backgrounds, women, LGBTQIA+ people, and other people of historically excluded identities. Data shows that women and BIPOC candidates more frequently do not apply for a job because they don’t feel that they meet all of the qualifications listed. If you feel passionate about our efforts and believe that you have the skills to accomplish the job, we want to hear from you!
Parents make excellent candidates as well, and we strive to accommodate the childcare needs of parents by providing flexible scheduling built around the school day and supporting the presence of children at our team meetings.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.