Part-time, weekly on Mondays (3rd-5th grade homeschoolers)
Job Title: Forest School Guide/Lead Teacher SY 2024-2025
Employment type: Part-time
Reports to: Notchcliff Program Director
Regular hours: Mondays
Location: Glen Meadows Retirement Community, Glen Arm, MD (fully outdoors)
Overview
Our playful, immersive outdoor program is a wonderful way for children to make lasting
connections with the natural world as part of their home school study. Essential social,
emotional, cognitive, and physical skills grow as does a genuine love for nature. We
cultivate gratitude, empathy, and appreciation of our diverse community and we honor
our elders through an intergenerational approach with residents at Glen Meadows
Retirement Community. Position works with children ages birth through ten years,
depending on the class. This is a project of the Eastern Region Association of Forest and
Nature Schools (ERAFANS.org). Learn more at naturalcommunity.org.
The goals of Notchcliff Nature Programs are:
● To honor young children as independent, capable thinkers through
child-directed, experiential, place-based approaches to learning;
● To engage in a rhythm of reflection, inquiry, observation, trial-and-error,
risk-taking, perseverance, discussion, problem-solving, expression, and
teamwork through a balance of emergent curriculum, intentional activities, and
unstructured nature play;
● To offer opportunities for children to explore identity in the context of nature
and the larger community, while cultivating kindness, empathy, compassion,
and gratitude; and
● To model best practices and approaches to nature-based early childhood
education.
The ideal candidate will:
● Be passionate about educating children in nature.
● Be self-motivated and self-directed with the flexibility to work independently and
collaboratively as part of a team.
● Have strong leadership abilities and excellent interpersonal skills, organizational,
and time-management skills.
● Be a skilled communicator, guided by a desire to listen to and speak
compassionately with both children and adults.
● Feel comfortable and confident about meeting the needs of children outdoors in all
seasons.
