Teacher Resume & Cover
Letters
Aesthetics:
·
Classic, professional, appropriate font, amount
of white space, consistency
·
Name should be the biggest item on your resume
·
No pictures, colors or designs
·
Paper Quality – paper stock 24-32 lb, 25%
cotton fiber – white, ivory, or light grey
·
Highlight and draw focus to name, phone number,
email, address, website if applicable
·
Order of headings: Certification, Education,
Relevant Teaching Experience
o Additional Possible Headings:
Honors, Awards, Affiliations, Key Qualifications, Multicultural Experience, or
Other Work Experience
Content:
·
Most important section, what will make you stand
out from the crowd
·
Reverse Chronological Order – new to old
·
Career Objective – not needed if for a specific
job, if going to a career fair might be applicable
·
Student teachers/new teachers should keep
resume to 1 page – rare exceptions**
·
List all certifications & expectation date,
also expected endorsements
·
See transferable skills & action verbs (DePaul)
·
When formulating a bullet point use formula - Action
Verb + Example + Result
o Tutored an eighth grade
student in pre-algebra, using teacher’s curriculum raised student’s grade from
a C to B+ over the course of a year
·
Try to work in “buzz words” when appropriate
·
Try never use – “I, he, she, they”
·
Eliminate articles (a, an, the) when possible,
place focus on your verbs
Teaching Experience
·
Student teaching most relevant teaching
experience
·
Directly follows education section
·
Include specific lesson plans, classroom
management skills, and teaching styles that make you unique
Teaching Related Experience
·
Highlight paid or unpaid experiences through
which you have gained teaching related skills.
·
Examples include, but are not limited to: camp
counselor, tutor, coach, and nanny.
Cover Letter Information:
·
Your chance to show writing capabilities as
well as get them interested in you and your resume
·
A cover letter’s goal is to highlight your
knowledge, skills, and related experience and establish yourself as a viable
candidate
·
2 types of cover letters – Application &
General Inquiry (blanket statement of interest)
·
Address to specific individual
o Hiring contacts are often
listed in directories for school district, if no name – “Dear Administrator”
·
Address the key points relating to the
position, school and district – mentioned in job description (if applicable)
·
3-4 paragraphs on one page
·
Should be a PDF, and signed my you in
blue/black ink (same font as resume)
·
Mention how you found out about the job, which
job you’re applying for, address qualities in the job announcement, emphasize
internships, coursework, and relevant job experiences
o Same Cover Letter (MVille)
·
Stay away from: I feel, I think, I believe
·
Personal attributes that relate to school
culture or fit within the organization
·
State interest in interview, provide contact
info, thank employer for time/consideration
·
(More
Cover Letter Examples WWU) – see spacing, also job description + Cover
Letter
Experience/Observations:
·
My experience with teaching resumes revolves solely
around our Mock Interview Assignment and internet searches for formatting. It
appears that there are many various types of formats for resumes that are
appropriate and acceptable, as long as they conform to certain requirements.
The “meat and potatoes” of the resume is really about your experiences and the
content section of the resume and the applicant’s ability to sell themselves,
not as much about the most creative style of formatting.
·
As far as cover letters, I learned a ton about
formatting specifications and was informed of detailed content expectations,
which I hadn’t known previously. I have written MANY cover letters for
educational positions but have never seen any actual examples that I know to be
exemplary. I was surprised to learn that they want a shorter letter and that
the items pointed out in the cover letter are relatively basic. As specified by
various university Career Center websites, the point of the cover letter is to entice
the readers to look (again) at your resume and to lock down an interview. They
key is to write a cover letter that is not overwhelming the reader with information but rather enticing them to
want to read more and get to know the applicant.
·
I was surprised to learn about the objective
section for resumes. I was under the impression that the objection section for
resumes was mostly obsolete, but apparently they are appropriate for job fairs
in which the specific job/school is unknown.
Applicable to Teacher:
·
This information is applicable to all of us who
plan to apply for a teaching position. Knowing how to format a resume/cover
letter as well as the desired content allows us to stay in the pack of possible
applications for jobs. A simple error or lack of information can get an
applicant immediately disqualified, even if they are the best candidate.
·
For this focus day topic the information I’ve
learned will not affect my teaching style, rather my teaching style and
instruction will affect my resume and cover letter. That is one aspect you are
suggested to highlight in your cover letter and resume is your teaching style
and how that makes you unique.
·
Thinking about your teaching style in order to
identify it for the resume will help the candidate realize what kind of teacher
they are, or their strengths and weaknesses, and that is a great way to reflect
in itself.
Applicable to Students:
·
This information is applicable to students
because it helps teach us about basic principles and guidelines for resumes and
cover letters for all jobs. Though some information is specific to the teaching
field and education, many of the suggestions and helpful hints are the same for
all kinds of resumes and allows us to be better instructors to our students in
helping them along with resume building and cover letter writing.
·
Also, for students who want to be teachers as
well, we know the kinds of things they need to include on their resume, or what
items will make them more appealing for jobs and can instruct them in ways that
are most helpful to beefing up their resume or cover letter content.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment