Job Opportunity – Growing Schools Outdoor Education

Growing Schools Outdoor Educator

Anticipated Start Date: week of February 26
Location: Victoria, BC
Hours per week: 20
Wage: $16-18/hr (experience dependent)

Application deadline: February 12, 2018

Please attach a short resume (no more than 2 pages) to an email describing your interest in and suitability for this role. Please send emails to diggers@lifecyclesproject.ca with the subject heading: Growing Schools Outdoor Educator.

OVERVIEW

LifeCycles is a charitable society working to cultivate community health by connecting people with the food they eat and the land it comes from. We support the region in growing, accessing and eating local food in ways that foster biodiversity and enhance our urban environment.

LifeCycles’ Growing Schools Program provides integrated school garden support across the Capital Region. We work with educators who believe in the power of food to bring health to our communities and to the land, air and sea from which it comes.

Our program helps school communities integrate native plants and cultivated food crops into outdoor classrooms and playgrounds. We offer a variety of services to educators in the Capital Region (from K-12), including: consultation, garden design, garden installation, professional development and curriculum linked classroom workshop facilitation.

For more information on our organization visit: www.lifecyclesproject.ca

OVERVIEW OF POSITION

The Growing Schools Outdoor Educator will be responsible for curating Reynolds Secondary’s large courtyard garden as a teaching/learning space that can serve all schools in the Reynold’s Family of Schools (catchment area). They will also be responsible for coordinating the delivery of various Growing Schools Workshops, in partnership with Growing Schools Volunteers. The Growing Schools Outdoor Educator is supported by LifeCycles Program Manager.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Curate learning opportunities in schoolyard garden spaces

● Develop and communicate lesson ideas to school staff
● Work with teachers to develop and test curriculum
● Support development of LifeCycles lesson bank and curate learning opportunities
● Support articulation and communication of our approach to outdoor, inquiry based, experiential learning
● Support youth engagement and leadership

School Garden Care

● Coordinate harvest and use of food from schoolyard garden
● Develop and implement seasonal planting plan with participating schools
● Install and maintain basic garden infrastructure
● Plant and maintain school gardens in collaboration with school community
● Help coordinate summer maintenance and care
● Photo documentation

Reynolds Garden infrastructure

● Source and install outdoor wash station
● Support signage installation
● Repair cold frames and support small plant nursery
● Develop compost area and help coordinate the sorting of existing organic waste pile

Support Growing Schools Program Development

● Explore development of spring and summer break programming for youth
● Create and test Growing Schools curriculum
● Support delivery of professional development for teachers

SKILLS & ABILITIES

● Ability to work with diverse perspectives to support shared visioning and collaborative work;
● Experience working with children and/or youth an asset;
● Knowledge of vegetable gardening and experience planting and caring for a mixed garden that incorporate a diversity of annual and perennial plants;
● Skill with professional writing and public speaking;
● Knowledge and experience with BC Public Education an asset;
● Ability to work in complex environment and manage multiple tasks.