Teaching is a highly complex profession that requires a diverse set of skills. In the education sector, achievements are conveyed through increases in academic standards, such as student test scores. However, this can pose challenges for those employed in underfunded or poorly developed institutions. The profession is also heavily dependent on soft skills, which can be difficult to quantify. Whether you teach middle school, elementary school, preschool or are a substitute or musical teacher, we will outline the various methods you can use to create an achievement-oriented resume.
You should only include information that demonstrates your suitability for the desired position. In addition, before you start, it is necessary to conduct thorough research into job openings. Employers are looking for particular experiences, so they would expect your resume to meet their requirements. This means that if you are applying for a range of positions, you need to create several versions of your resume. Here are some rules that are important for any resume you will ever write.
Apart from contact information, you only need to include the facts that prove that you are a suitable candidate for this position: your motivation, achievements and relevant work experience. Identify the key requirements mentioned in the job description and present your experience in a way that mirrors each one of them. Focus on your teaching experience; document all of the hours you spent teaching, volunteering, and aiding kids.
Focus on what recruiters want to see on your resume. Recruiters don’t want to see you mentioning irrelevant work experience, strange hobbies and … bad grammar.
There are two main formats - chronological and functional. For those with extensive and relevant work experience, the chronological format is the appropriate choice. Use the following order for this format:
If you are an entry-level teacher or are changing careers, you may find the functional format to be more suitable. The sections go as follows:
Contact informationSummarySkillsAchievementsWork ExperienceEducationThis format allows you to list your skills and provide achievements to verify them.
Get creative by adding extra sections if they help you demonstrate your competencies (e.g. Awards, Publications).
Be overly creative with naming those sections. Online scanners look for particular words and may not recognize a section named ‘Relevant Background’. It is better to use a more conventional heading like, ‘Work Experience’.
Double-check your grammar and ask somebody to proofread your resume.Use a simple resume template. Stick to a professional looking font such as Arial, Calibri, Verdana or Times New Roman and keep the font size within 9-12 points.
Take a look at our examples of the resumes that landed jobs for their owners. Among them, you can find teachers who are changing careers, entry-level teachers, special education teachers. You can download one of our templates and adjust it to your qualifications and work experience.
Middle-school and high-school teacher. This is a good example of a rich career history and achievements. We included certifications as an evidence of high qualifications.
Dancing teacher. This resume is an excellent example of the person who has a lot of professional achievements that are included in her professional experience section.
Example of the resume for a teacher who decided to change careers. A different template was used to highlight the creative part of a person and make their skills more visible.
Teacher resume. A good example of how teaching background can help you switch to Kids in Distress helping job. Experience working with children is an additional asset.
Special Education Teacher template. We highlighted the skills relevant to special education field. Knowledge of TEACCH methods and background in students' inclusion should be showcased.
Another example of a Special Education Teacher template. Detailed descriptions of job responsibilities and achievements let us omit the skills section because the person's qualifications are obvious.
English language teacher template. This client decided to change careers and shift to Customer Service. Her teaching background is also a valuable asset to mention on her resume.
History Instructor. Highlighting professional experiences is important if you want to demonstrate all of your work experience. In this case skills can be placed on a second page.
This is the case when the person changed careers from Business Analyst to Teacher. The resume demonstrates research and volunteering experience along with work experience.
Along with professional work experience, you have probably had your share of sleepless nights and high levels of stress over the years. However, it is difficult to translate all of this work into a strictly formatted and concise resume. To ensure that this is no longer an obstacle in your career search, we have compiled a list of tips that will easily help you fill out our resume template and highlight your most notable achievements.
This is the first thing recruiters will see on your resume. The wording of this section is extremely important because it has to demonstrate your passion for teaching, and ability to build positive relations with your students. Research shows that student motivation and academic achievements are closely linked to the quality of student-teacher relationships. Mention your years of experience, your ability to engage students into activities, your most relevant achievements, and soft skills. Keep your summary statement short, not more than 5-6 lines but compelling and engaging. Don’t hesitate to use specific teaching jargon. You can also demonstrate your interpersonal skills in your cover letter.
Take a look at some great teacher summary examples:
Accomplished teaching professional possessing over 9 years of experience in delivering Special Education classes. A certified Chef able to teach culinary in a vocational program. Excels in the creation and implementation of educational programs for students based on their IEPs. Versed in using TEACCH method. Utilize strong communication abilities to engage students in the educational process and deliver learning material in a digestible way. A dedicated team player able to build strong and performance-generating relationships and guide students in aligning their personal goals with their academic goals.
Accomplished teacher with 9 years of experience in the creation and implementation of educational programs for students.
Another good example of a college teacher resume:
Enthusiastic education professional with 10+ years of experience in teaching and superb leadership and communication skills. Easily cultivates trusting and productive relationships with students, parents, teachers and administration. Adept at curriculum development, lesson planning, and classroom management. Versed in assessing children’s progress and ensuring safe learning environment.
Enthusiastic education professional with superb leadership and communication skills and 10+ years of experience.
If you are submitting your education resume online, it will most likely be scanned by an applicant tracking system. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a robot that scans your resume and looks for necessary keywords, work experience and additional requirements if there are any. However, it is still important to use professional terminology and jargon when sending a resume directly to a recruiter, despite it not being relevant to ATS. Using professional vocabulary will demonstrate that you are familiar with this field.
Include a fair number of teaching-related keywords like “classroom management”, “curriculum design”, “lesson planning” and “discipline strategies”.
Overuse keywords which serve no purpose in your sentences.
In the “Work Experience” section, you can use some action words that are popular among scanning software programs.
Use relevant action words, such as: assess, educate, motivate, mentor, encourage, plan, explore, showcase, develop, grade, guide, teach, discuss, instruct, tutor. It is also important that you present your skills in the best wording possible, so that the recruiter can immediately grasp your qualifications.
Here are some of the examples:
Avoid including vague skills like ‘Student achievement’, ‘Working with junior high students’ or ‘Kindergarten school teaching’.
Use your academic credentials as additional evidence of your achievements and experience. Being a gifted learner is halfway to becoming a gifted teacher.
Drop your technical experience. It’s the 21st century, and teachers are required to be tech-savvy - this is a clear advantage. If you have any knowledge of teaching softwares like Pearson ECollege, mention it explicitly. The same goes for using special devices that help you in your teaching career.
An example of Teacher work experience section
An example of Special Education Teacher work responsibilities
Write a good-quality achievement section is not that easy, and depends on your level of experience and field. Think of all the small accomplishments that you have done over the years. It is better to indicate some numbers and measurable impact.
For example:
• Directed a reading comprehension exercise which resulted in 60% increase in students engagement in reading exercises.
For science or maths teachers it may be easier to find some numbers to put on a resume. If you don’t have any measurable achievements, you can specify the number of people you trained or the number of works you supervised. You can come up with some measurable achievements even if you are a freelance teacher by indicating the number of students you worked with and their results. If you think good enough, you will be able to find a good wording for your achievements even if you are a music teacher, or an English teacher. Just remember the things that make you proud.
If you are an entry-level teacher, you can write about your academic achievements and coursework you’ve completed while studying for your Master’s degree.
Here are some good examples:
Assessed and monitored 250+ students’ progress throughout the term.
Assisted students with preparation for examinations in a 1,000+ student school.
We hope that these tips will help you with composing your new resume and landing your dream job. God luck!
Please use the following skills to your resume in order to make it more compelling and effective. Applicant Tracking Systems are looking for the specific words and skills so you are interested in mentioning each skill that you have on your resume. Don't be shy.
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Curriculum development |
Сreative lesson planning |
Сlassroom management |
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Peer tutoring |
Teacher-parent relations |
Parental involvement |
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Technology integration |
Curriculum planning |
Curriculum design |
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Special needs students |
Learner Assessment |
Student Success |
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Classroom monitoring |
Discipline strategies |
Student involvement |
33% of teachers leave within the first three years of beginning their careers and 46% leave within the first five. The numbers have been increasing since the late 1980s.
Teacher's profession could be compared to those of other high stress jobs like firefighters or pilots. On average, they work 10 hours per day and 52 hours per week.
An official teacher’s working day doesn’t include time spent at home planning lessons or grading student work, which can range from one hour up to 12 or even 16 hours grading students’ essays.
Technology literacy is indispensable nowadays. In order to perform their duties teachers have to be tech-savvy and stay up to date with modern technologies. No matter if you are involved in higher education, secondary education, elementary education, or special education, you have to catch up with fast-moving computer technology and learn to work with software, and it should not be limited to Microsoft Office. Here are some examples of professional software each teacher should be able to use. Classroom software:
Research Skills:
You could also add Windows MovieMaker and Adobe Photoshop to this list if you are working with images or video files.
