Firstlight Teaching Positions are currently filled, but you can apply for consideration as a sub and/or for any future openings.

Thank you!

First Step: Apply Here.

If you enjoy teaching, want to thrive at work with an especially friendly group of people, and work part time, Firstlight is exactly what you’re looking for.

We’ve taught over 4000 students and are in our 20th year – in Cool Springs, just south of Nashville, Tennessee.

Teaching at Firstlight is a lot of fun, because you get to do the fun part the most – just teach. All the curriculum has been written. All the materials have been printed or ready to reprint. All the supplies are right there. There is no grading or evaluation. There are no tests.

Our lessons are written out in detail, step-by-step in a weekly online sylabus. Every step has a timer. With 20 years of refinement, the lessons work very well. There is even a special art class just for the staff right before the weekly staff meeting.

We’re looking for the following qualifications, in order of importance.

1. More than one year teaching children in a classroom program.
2. Enjoy working with children
3. A love for art
4. Some experience in creating art
5. A willingness to learn
6. Some knowledge of artistic concepts

Hours may vary, but should be between 15 and 25 hours at this time, and are negotiable.

To apply, please fill out the form below. We will get back to you soon. Thank you!

Inquiry Form

To begin your application for the Firstlight Teaching Position, fill out this form and submit.

Fields with an asterisk are required. Feel free to follow up with a text message if you want, using our main number.

If you’ve been contacted to submit the following forms. download them below. Don’t submit until asked. Thanks!

We need two government forms and a bank deposit for or canceled check, for you to begin work. Here are links to download the all three forms as PDFs. We usually only need the first page of these forms.

I9 form

W4 form

Make sure you fill in the ss number and sign the forms.

Direct Deposit form

Make sure to fill in the account and routing numbers, and sign the Deposit form.

Your bank may also have a direct deposit authorization form – or they can print out a blank check for you. Don’t sign the check, just write VOID across it, nice and big.

Bring these to the studio, preferably in an envelope with your full name on it. Thank you.

To apply for a teaching position, please go to THIS PAGE.

Note: this application can be used for a school-year afterschool assistant position too. Just skip down to the form. Thanks!

SUMMER info:

At Firstlight Art, we have two summer camp programs. There are themed morning camps that are weekly, Mon-Fri each, and there is a daily camp in the afternoons that is every weekday. These are scheduled for every week for 9 weeks starting June 2 and ending Aug 1.

Note: Training sessions for teachers and assistants, and studio preparation sessions will be scheduled during week of Tuesday through Friday, May 27-30.

Morning camps run for one week at a time, with students attending from 9 am to 12 noon. Each camp meets Monday through Friday. There are no camps on Saturdays.

Workers need to commit for a full weeks at a time. There are 4 different morning camps every week, each with one teacher and one assistant. Each camp uses one studio room.

Camps have a limit of 8-12 students depending on age and room size.

There are several morning camp age groups:
6-8
9-12
11-16

Themes include:
Art Monsters
Art Jungle
ArtoSaurs
Art Castle
Artchanted
Toons
Animation
and more.

We also have the afternoon Summer Art Buffet every week from 1:30-3:45 each weekday. We usually schedule workers for each full week for the Buffet as well.

There are two Art Buffet age groups:
Ages 6 – 8 – back studio
Ages 9-19 – front studio (often with overflow in side studio)

Students who are signed up for both a morning camp and the afternoon Art Buffet stay for sack lunch from noon until 1:30, when the Art Buffet starts. We have picnic tables outside and tv cartoons and games inside. The age groups eat in a couple of shifts outside.

July 4th, has morning camps but no afternoon Art Buffet.

Assistants and teachers arrive at 8 or 8:30 (depending on camp) to get ready, and morning assistants stay to help manage students during lunchtime and for afternoon preparations. Assistants and teachers leave at either 1, 1:30, or 4 pm depending on schedules (we need fewer assistants in the afternoons).

Assistant pay is $14/hour. We require a questionnaire, and an interview to begin. Then prospective assistants will be asked to work in a trial session as a paid assistant, for one or two afternoons during the school year to assess capability.

1. Kindness and patience.
2. Strong focus on others: what teachers and students need – before, during, and after class.
3. Ability to instruct clearly.
4. Respect for others.
5. self-confidence.

Firstlight is not like grade school or high school, where everyone is required to attend. Students are here because they want to come, and because their parents paid for them to attend.

We want everyone to leave feeling great about their camp or class, and having some artwork and projects to take home that they’re really proud of. We want parents to think they got way more than they expected. Happy kids. Happy parents.

And happy art teachers and assistants, too. This is work, but it’s very fun and rewarding!

We need two government forms and a bank deposit for or canceled check, for you to begin work. Here are links to download the all three forms as PDFs. We usually only need the first page of these forms.

I9 form

W4 form

Make sure you fill in the ss number and sign the forms.

Direct Deposit form

Make sure to fill in the account and routing numbers, and sign the Deposit form.

Your bank may also have a direct deposit authorization form – or they can print out a blank check for you. Don’t sign the check, just write VOID across it, nice and big.

Bring these to the studio, preferably in an envelope with your full name on it. Thank you.

Only submit if you ARE requesting masks for your class.

If you need your art class to help you attend by continuing to mask, please fill out this form and use the Submit button at the bottom. Thank you! (We will keep this information confidential, but cannot guarantee that children will not share, or may already have shared with friends).

I’ve shared some good insights in my book, and I hope it will help everyone understand the weird and wonderful world of art a little better. If you’re an artist, want to be an artist, or have an artist in your life, I wrote this for you.

Let me know what you think about it, and/or check it out on Kindle and leave a review.

Thanks for reading!