Assistant Guide

Acton Academy Columbus; Dublin (OH); On-site; USD 30,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Acton Academy Columbus in Dublin, Ohio seeks an Assistant Guide for our Spark Studio (ages 4.5–7). This full-time role supports learners across studios with a trust-based, question-driven approach, focusing on independence, curiosity, and kindness.

You’ll move between Growth, Discovery, and Adventure studios as needs arise, prioritizing warmth and a learner-led culture. You’ll join a community that invites inquiry over instruction, builds self-management habits, and upholds studio contracts

Qualifications

• Experience working with children ages 4–8.
• Ability to pass a background check.
• Physical ability to be active outdoors daily, in all seasons.
• Reliability and punctuality — our studios depend on consistent adult presence.

Responsibilities

• Support the Hero’s Journey by guiding learners with Socratic questioning and celebrating effort.
• Strengthen the Spark Studio by helping young learners practice independence and manage their materials.
• Hold the standard with warmth by upholding contracts and guiding behavior without lecturing.
• Support daily rhythms including launches, closings, meals, transitions, and studio upkeep.
• Partner with the guide team by sharing observations and contributing to a joyful, orderly environment across studios.

Skills

Delighted by children

Asks questions

Flexible and self-directed

Character first

Job description

A flexible, relational role serving learners across our studios — with a home base among our youngest heroes.

Full‑Time Primarily Spark Studio (Ages 4.5–7) Dublin, Ohio

About This Role

One role. Every studio.

The Assistant Guide strengthens our studios wherever support is needed most. Your home base is our Spark Studio, where learners ages 4.5–7 are building the foundational habits of independence, curiosity, and kindness. From there, you’ll move between studios as needs arise — supporting a Growth Studio quest one morning, helping with a Discovery Studio exhibition the next.

You won’t be handed a curriculum to deliver. You’ll be invited into a community to serve it — asking questions instead of giving answers, holding boundaries with warmth, and trusting learners to lead their own journeys.

This role is ideal for someone who is energized by young children, comfortable with ambiguity, and drawn to a model of education built on trust rather than control.

The Work

What you’ll do

Support the Hero’s Journey

Sit alongside learners during core skills time, ask Socratic questions instead of giving answers, and celebrate effort and character growth over correctness.

Strengthen the Spark Studio

Help our youngest learners practice independence — managing their own materials, resolving conflicts with guidance, and building the self‑management habits that carry them through every studio that follows.

Provide support in Growth, Discovery, and Adventure studios during quests, exhibitions, guide absences, and high‑need moments — adapting to each studio’s culture and stage of development.

Hold the standard with warmth

Uphold studio contracts and community promises without lecturing or punishing. Trust the systems learners have built to govern themselves, and redirect with questions rather than commands.

Support daily rhythms

Assist with launches, closings, lunch, transitions, studio upkeep, and daily outdoor time in every season — rain, shine, or snow.

Partner with the guide team

Share observations about learner growth and studio needs, contribute to weekly guide collaboration, and help maintain a joyful, orderly environment across the school.

Who You Are

The person this role is waiting for

• Delighted by children. You see young learners as capable, not fragile — and a room full of five‑year‑olds energizes rather than exhausts you.
• Asks, never rescues. You can resist the urge to fix or answer, and instead ask, “What do you think you could try?”
• Flexible and self‑directed. A role that looks different every day unsettles some people. It excites you. You see what needs doing and you do it.
• Character first. You model what you hope to see: honesty, humility, grit, and kindness. Curiosity about learner‑driven education matters more than credentials — a willingness to unlearn traditional teaching habits matters most.

What we’ll ask of you

• Experience working with children ages 4–8 — classroom, camp, childcare, or similar
• Ability to pass a background check
• Physical ability to be active outdoors daily, in all seasons
• Reliability and punctuality — our studios depend on consistent adult presence

If this stirred something in you, we want to hear your story.

A few reflection questions below — we’d rather hear your genuine story than a formal cover letter.