River Guide Jobs (NOW HIRING)

• $100,000/year W2 salary, paid weekly; day-one health, dental, vision benefits
• 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 provided)

You are not a teacher. You motivate.

The most supportive thing you can do for a six-year-old who hit 99% of their goal is refuse to call it done. If that standard makes you uncomfortable, stop reading. If it makes you light up because holding the bar is how you show a kindergartener you believe in them, keep going.

At Alpha, K-3 students learn academics through AI-powered apps in two hours a day. As a Guide you lead one cohort band — either K-1 (Kindergarten–1st) or 2-3 (2nd–3rd) — and tailor your energy, pacing, and workshops to that band. No lectures. No worksheets. Half your day you run one-hour life-skills workshops on public speaking, focus, and giving and receiving feedback. Workshops are a starting point, not a script — the best in this role adapt them to their cohort and design new ones when something's missing. The other half, you sit with students 1:1 or in tiny groups, review Coachbot analytics, and coach each of them to 100% of their weekly app goals. With five- and six-year-olds, energy and play are not extras; they are how you hold attention long enough to teach anything. Warmth earns you the right to push. Pushing shows them you believe they can get there.

A quarter succeeds when every student hits their weekly app goals, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90%+ say they love you. Missing any of those three is missing the job. In year one you master the playbook; as you prove you can hold the bar, the path opens to Lead Guide, where you coach newer hires while still working directly with kids.

If you love traditional teaching, want a curriculum handed to you, or believe warmth and high standards are in tension, this is not the job. If you've been an early-elementary teacher who thrived on circle time, a camp counselor for little kids, a youth sports coach, a children's theater performer, or anyone who can hold a room of kindergarteners through voice, play, and sheer energy, the final step before an offer is a shadow day on campus coaching real Alpha students. If that's the part that excites you most, apply today.

What you will be doing

• Leading one-hour life-skills workshops for cohorts of 10-15 K-3 students on public speaking, focus, feedback, and other durable skills
• Running daily 1:1 and small-group motivation sessions that keep students on pace for weekly app goals, using Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive systems (school currency, leaderboards), and the relationship you've built with each child
• Administering the Test2Pass (Alpha's mastery-based assessment) for each life skill, and coaching students who don't pass until they do
• Meeting kindergarteners where they are with songs, stories, movement, and silliness, while still holding second and third graders to real, measurable standards
• Being the warm adult kids light up to see at drop-off AND the adult who refuses to let them coast

What you won't be doing

• Lecturing from the whiteboard; academic instruction lives in the apps, not in you
• Writing curriculum from scratch; Alpha provides the playbook and you bring it to life
• Supervising kids at computers; motivation here is active, personal, and relentless
• Lowering a weekly goal so a kid can hit it; if a student is behind, the fix is the student, not the target
• Grading homework, running standardized test prep, or managing parent communication; Campus Leads own parent-facing work, and none of the rest exists here

Guide K-3 key responsibilities

Ensure every student in your K-3 cohort hits their weekly learning goals, masters each life skill, and leaves 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 provided)
• Bachelor's degree in any subject
• At least 3 years working directly with children ages 4 to 9 (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
• Able to attend a paid training program at our Austin, TX campus
• Willingness to let AI handle the instructional content while you focus on motivation and life-skills coaching
• 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.