Demo

2nd Grade Teacher, Alpha - $120,000/year USD

Crossover
Elgin, IL Full Time
POSTED ON 6/20/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 8/16/2026
AI can teach a six-year-old to read. It cannot make her want to. Filling that gap is your work.

At Alpha, students in grades K–3 complete their academics through AI-driven apps in a two-hour daily block. As a Guide, you are assigned to one cohort band—either K-1 (Kindergarten and 1st grade) or 2-3 (2nd and 3rd grade)—and you adjust your approach, rhythm, and workshop execution to match that band. There are no lectures. There are no worksheets. You spend half your day facilitating one-hour workshops on life skills: public speaking, focus, feedback exchange. A playbook is provided, but the strongest performers modify it for their cohort and create new material when gaps appear. The remaining half is spent in 1:1 sessions or small groups, where you examine Coachbot data and coach each child toward completing 100% of their weekly app targets. Warmth gives you permission to demand more. Demanding more signals your belief in their capacity.

A successful quarter means every student completes their weekly app goals, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90% or more report that they love you. Fall short on any one of those three metrics and the role was not fulfilled. In your first year, you internalize the playbook; after demonstrating that you can uphold the standard, the opportunity to advance to Lead Guide opens—where you mentor new hires while continuing to lead your own cohort.

If you are drawn to conventional teaching, prefer receiving a pre-built curriculum, or view warmth and rigor as contradictory, this role will not suit you. If your background includes early-elementary teaching centered on circle time, camp counseling with young children, coaching youth sports, or performing in children's theater, the final stage before receiving an offer is a shadow day spent coaching live Alpha students. Submit your application now.

What You Will Be Doing

  • Facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops for K–3 cohorts on topics such as public speaking, focus, and feedback, customizing the playbook for your group rather than delivering it verbatim.
  • Conducting daily one-on-one and small-group coaching sessions to ensure every student stays on track for their weekly app goals, informed by Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive structures (digital currency, leaderboards), and the individual rapport you establish with each child.
  • Delivering the Test2Pass—Alpha's mastery-based assessment—for each life skill, then coaching students who fall short until they achieve mastery.
  • Engaging kindergarteners with songs, storytelling, physical activity, and humor, while simultaneously upholding concrete, measurable expectations for second and third graders.
  • Serving as the warm presence children are excited to see at morning drop-off AND the adult who will not allow them to settle for less.

What You Won’t Be Doing

  • Teaching from the front of the room. Academic content is delivered through the apps, not by you.
  • Building curriculum from the ground up. Alpha supplies the playbook; your job is to execute and adapt it.
  • Passively monitoring students on devices. Motivation in this role is hands-on, individualized, and continuous.
  • Adjusting a weekly target downward so a child can meet it. When a student is falling behind, the solution is to support the student, not lower the bar.
  • Grading assignments, preparing for standardized tests, or handling parent outreach. Campus Leads manage parent communication, and the other tasks are not part of this model.

2nd Grade Teacher Key Responsibilities

Guarantee that every student in your K–3 cohort completes their weekly learning goals, achieves mastery in each life skill, and finishes the year reporting that they loved you.

Basic Requirements

  • Able to work on-site at an Alpha campus located 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 assistance available).
  • Bachelor's degree in any discipline.
  • Minimum of 3 years of direct work with children ages 4 to 9 (examples: early-elementary classroom teaching, sports coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, youth program coordination).
  • A concrete example you can share of motivating a young child toward a challenging goal: the goal itself, the actions you took, and the result.
  • Comfort with AI handling academic instruction while you concentrate on motivation and life-skills development.
  • Readiness to maintain high expectations with students even when met with resistance.
  • Legal authorization to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship.

Nice-to-have Requirements

  • Background in youth sports coaching, children's theater, camp program leadership, Montessori or progressive early childhood education, or after-school enrichment where you held direct accountability for motivating young children toward defined objectives.
  • History of personal excellence (academic, athletic, or career-related) that makes holding others to a demanding standard instinctive rather than performative.
  • Ability to command attention in a room full of kindergarteners using voice modulation, playfulness, and physicality.
  • Proven ability to transform timid or reluctant young children into confident, engaged contributors.

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-Elgin-2ndGradeTeache

Salary : $120,000

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