Early Childhood Educator, Alpha - $100,000/year USD
6 - 10 years
Nashville, TN
Full-time
Hybrid
1 month ago
About the role
- $100,000/year W2 salary, paid weekly; health, dental, and vision benefits begin on day one
- On-site at an Alpha campus in Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX; or Park City (Salt Lake City), UT (relocation support available)
You are not here to teach. You are here to motivate.
The most supportive thing you can do for a six-year-old who has reached 99% of their goal is to refuse to call it finished. If that standard troubles you, this is not your role. If it energizes you because maintaining the standard is how you demonstrate belief in a kindergartener's capacity, read on.
At Alpha, K-2 students complete their academics through AI-powered applications in two hours each day. No lectures. No worksheets. Half of your day is spent running one-hour life-skills workshops focused on public speaking, concentration, and feedback exchange. Workshops serve as a foundation, not a rigid script—the most effective educators in this role customize them for their group and create new ones when gaps appear. The other half is spent working with students individually or in small groups, analyzing Coachbot data, and coaching each child toward 100% completion of their weekly app goals. With five- and six-year-olds, energy and play are not supplementary; they are the mechanisms through which you sustain attention and enable learning. Warmth earns trust. Trust creates the space to demand more. Demanding more shows them you know they are capable.
A successful quarter means every student completes their weekly app goals, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90%+ report that they love you. Falling short on any of these three is falling short of the role. In year one, you execute the playbook; as you demonstrate the ability to uphold standards, the path opens to Lead Guide, where you mentor new hires while continuing to work directly with children.
If you are drawn to traditional teaching, prefer a fully scripted curriculum, or see warmth and rigor as incompatible, this role is not for you. If you have been an early-elementary teacher who excelled in circle time, a camp counselor for young children, a youth sports coach, a children's theater performer, or anyone who can command a room of kindergarteners through voice, play, and presence, the final step before an offer is a shadow day on campus coaching actual Alpha students. If that is the part that excites you most, apply today.
What You Will Be Doing
- Facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops for cohorts of 10-15 K-2 students covering public speaking, focus, feedback, and other foundational skills
- Conducting daily 1:1 and small-group motivation sessions to keep students on track for weekly app goals, leveraging Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive structures (school currency, leaderboards), and the individual relationship you have built with each child
- Administering the Test2Pass (Alpha's mastery-based assessment) for each life skill, then coaching students who do not pass until mastery is achieved
- Meeting kindergarteners where they are using songs, stories, movement, and play, while holding first and second graders to concrete, measurable expectations
- Being the warm adult children are excited to see at drop-off AND the adult who will not allow them to settle for less
What You Won’t Be Doing
- Delivering lectures from the whiteboard; academic content is delivered through the apps, not by you
- Creating curriculum from the ground up; Alpha supplies the playbook and you execute it with energy and precision
- Passively supervising children at computers; motivation in this role is active, personal, and continuous
- Adjusting a weekly goal downward so a child can meet it; if a student is falling behind, the solution is to support the student, not lower the target
- Grading homework, running standardized test prep, or handling parent communication; Campus Leads manage parent-facing responsibilities, and the rest does not exist in this model
Early Childhood Educator Key Responsibilities
Ensure every student in your K-2 cohort completes their weekly learning goals, achieves mastery in each life skill, and finishes the year saying they loved you.
Basic Requirements
- Willing to work on-site at an Alpha campus in Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX; or Park City (Salt Lake City), UT (relocation support available)
- Bachelor's degree in any field
- At least 3 years of direct experience working with children ages 4 to 8 (early-elementary teaching, coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, or youth program leadership)
- A concrete example you can describe of motivating a young child toward a difficult goal: the goal itself, your actions, and the result
- Able to participate in a paid training program at our Austin, TX campus
- Willingness to allow AI to manage instructional content while you concentrate on motivation and life-skills coaching
- Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship
Nice-to-have Requirements
- Experience in youth sports coaching, children's theater, camp leadership, Montessori/progressive early education, or after-school programs where you held direct responsibility for motivating young children toward measurable goals
- Personal background of high achievement (academic, athletic, or professional), such that holding others to a rigorous standard is a consistent trait, not a role you adopt
- Natural performer's presence with young children—the ability to command a room of kindergarteners through voice, playfulness, and physical energy
- Proven ability to transform shy or hesitant young children into confident, engaged participants
About Alpha
Want to join a learning rebellion that’s transforming the traditional classroom?
Alpha School is on a mission to reshape education with a bold approach that harnesses AI to accelerate learning and unleash student potential.
They don’t play by the old rules.
Alpha is creating a new paradigm where students master core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for hands-on, passion-driven learning that truly prepares them for the real world.
Alpha School is rewriting the rules of education.
Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.
There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!
Working with us
This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.
Crossover Job Code: LJ-5149-US-Nashvill-EarlyChildhood1.018