Sprout Spiral (4-6yo) Lead Educator - Full Time
About the role
School Around Us (SAU) in Arundel, Maine is seeking a full-time early childhood educator to join our team and lead our sprout spiral (ages 4-6) starting in August 2026. SAU's mission is to create a participatory, learner-driven environment grounded in meaningful relationships, supporting self-awareness and global citizenship.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement holistic, learner-driven educational programming for a group of children ages 4-6.
- Collaborate with fellow teachers, parents, and learners to co-create educational experiences.
- Achieve learners' desired paths to learning and development.
- Adapt an integrated, hands-on curriculum appropriate to developmental stages, knowledge, and abilities.
- Share personal passions with the SAU community.
- Implement SAU's philosophy of holistic education through the framing of Eight Knowledge Areas.
- Address issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity with learners.
- Balance freedom with co-created structure.
- Establish strong relationships with learners and their families.
- Communicate regularly with families via email and phone.
- Facilitate supportive conflict resolution processes.
- Participate in democratic organizational and staff culture.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent educational and training experience.
- Minimum 3 years of experience working as a teacher (need not be in traditional schooling context) with learners ages 4-14.
- Exposure to and interest in holistic education + self-directed learning.
- Knowledge of, and ability to use, conflict resolution skills that are supportive of an equitable and inclusive learning environment.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Able to give and receive honest and thoughtful feedback.
- Willingness to use feedback to grow as an educator and support the SAU community.
- Excitement to create educational experiences in a non-prescriptive context and is not attached to assessments and curriculum looking a certain way.
- Able to give structure and spontaneity and utilize both as a teacher.
- Able to work within a collaborative organizational environment.
- Able to design effective, clear, and meaningful learning experiences.
- Willingness to engage with parents/families consistently, nurturing these relationships.
- Willingness to spend substantial time outdoors with learners throughout all four seasons.
- Openness to team teaching / working in a collaborative teaching environment.
Preferred
- Master’s Degree.
- Maine Teaching license/certification.
- Experience guiding project-based, experiential learning programs and environments.
- Experience in holistic learning (i.e. child-led education, montessori, waldorf, reggio, free schools, democratic education, agile learning, etc.).
- Demonstrated ability to facilitate group processes.
- Experience with participatory decision-making processes such as consent (as used in sociocracy/holacracy), consensus, robert’s rules, etc.
- Experience working with children ages 4-8.
- Ability to create unexpected, spontaneous, and unimaginable things based on student interest and passion.
- First-Aid and CPR certifications.
Compensation + Benefits
Salary Range: $43,000-44,500 (depending on experience and qualifications)
- 10 days Paid Time Off (includes both sick and personal days).
- 50% Tuition Discount.
- Professional Development Stipend.
- Certification Support (if needed).
Job Requirements
Initial Interviews for qualified applicants will be scheduled during the weeks of July 6th & 13th in the afternoons / evenings.
School Around Us is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture and workforce reflective of our mission, values and communities we serve. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.