2nd Grade Teacher, Alpha - , USD

AI-powered software can teach a six-year-old how to read. It cannot make that child want to. Closing that gap is your responsibility.

Alpha's K–2 students complete academic learning through AI-driven apps in two hours each day. No lectures. No worksheets. Half of your day is spent facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops focused on public speaking, concentration, and the exchange of feedback. A playbook is provided, but high performers in this role tailor it to their group and create new activities when gaps appear. The remaining half is dedicated to sitting with students individually or in small groups, analyzing Coachbot data, and coaching each child toward 100% completion of their weekly app targets. Warmth creates the foundation for high expectations. High expectations demonstrate your belief in their capacity.

A successful quarter means every student completes their weekly app targets, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90%+ report that they love you. If any of those three outcomes is missing, the role was not fulfilled. In your first year, you will master the playbook; once you demonstrate the ability to maintain standards, the pathway to Lead Guide opens, where you mentor newer hires while continuing to run your own cohort.

If you prefer traditional teaching, expect a fully prescribed curriculum, or view warmth and rigor as incompatible, this role is not for you. If you have been an early-elementary teacher who excelled at circle time, a camp counselor for young children, a youth sports coach, or a children's theater performer, the final step before an offer is a shadow day coaching actual Alpha students. Apply today.

What You Will Be Doing

• Facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops for K-2 cohorts on public speaking, concentration, feedback, and other foundational competencies, customizing the playbook to fit your group rather than following it verbatim.
• Conducting daily individual and small-group motivation sessions to keep every student on track for weekly app targets, leveraging Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive structures (school currency, leaderboards), and the individual relationship you've cultivated with each child.
• Administering Test2Pass, Alpha's mastery-based assessment, for each life skill and coaching students who do not pass on the first attempt until mastery is achieved.
• Meeting kindergarteners at their developmental stage with songs, stories, physical activity, and playfulness, while simultaneously holding first and second graders to concrete, measurable expectations.
• Serving as the warm adult children are excited to see at drop-off AND the adult who will not allow them to settle for less than their potential.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Delivering lectures from the front of the room. Academic instruction is embedded in the apps, not delivered by you.
• Creating curriculum from the ground up. Alpha supplies the playbook and you execute it with energy and adaptation.
• Passively supervising children at computers. Motivation in this role is active, individualized, and consistent.
• Adjusting a weekly goal downward so a child can meet it. When a student falls behind, the solution is supporting the student, not lowering the target.
• Grading homework, conducting standardized test preparation, or handling parent communication. Campus Leads manage parent-facing responsibilities, and the other tasks do not exist in this model.

2nd Grade Teacher Key Responsibilities

Ensure every student in your K-2 cohort completes their weekly learning targets, achieves mastery of each life skill, and finishes the year reporting that they loved you.

Basic Requirements

• Willing to work on-site at an Alpha campus in La Jolla (San Diego), Lake Forest (Orange County), Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, Santa Monica, or South Bay (LA), CA; Greenwich, CT; Boca Raton, Miami, Miami Beach, or Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Chicago, IL; or Boston, MA (relocation support provided).
• Bachelor's degree in any subject.
• At least 3 years working directly with children ages 4 to 7 (early-elementary teaching, coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, or youth program leadership).
• A specific example you can describe of motivating a young child to a hard goal: the goal, what you did, and the outcome.
• Willingness to let AI handle the instructional content while you focus on motivation and life-skills coaching.
• Willingness to hold high standards with students even when they push back.
• Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Experience in youth athletics coaching, children's theater, camp leadership, Montessori/progressive early education, or after-school programs where you were directly responsible for motivating young kids toward specific goals.
• Personal history of high achievement (academic, athletic, or professional), such that holding others to a hard bar is a pattern, not a posture.
• Natural performer's presence with little kids: the ability to hold a room of kindergarteners through voice, silliness, and movement.
• Track record of turning shy or resistant little kids into confident, active 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 $60 USD/hour, which equates to $120,000 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-5634-US-Alexandr-2ndGradeTeache.001