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However, before you even make it to the interview phase, you’ll need a strong teacher resume that shows off your unique credentials. Otherwise, your application might get passed over.
This guide breaks down everything you need to include in a resume for teaching jobs, from certifications to tech skills. It also shares practical tips for tailoring your materials to different roles and mastering the art of formatting.
Essential Skills and Credentials for a Strong Teacher Resume
Your resume should help potential employers understand what you can bring to a classroom. Here’s what to include to help jumpstart your career.
1. Highlight Your Educational Background
As a current or aspiring teacher, you know that degrees matter — a lot. If you’re a new graduate, your education should go at the top of your resume. More seasoned teachers might choose to showcase their professional experience first.
List your most advanced degrees first. For example, a teaching master’s should go above a bachelor’s in education. Include the university where you earned each degree and any special honors that may come with it.
If you earned a degree in the last five years, consider listing your graduation dates. This could be a major perk for employers looking for teachers with cutting-edge knowledge. However, you can probably leave off dates for older degrees — age discrimination is the last thing you want to deal with on the job search.
2. Showcase Certifications and Licenses
Of course, your resume should also include your teacher certification. This tells schools that you’re authorized to teach for specific grade levels or subjects.
Include any specific credentials you’ve earned, too. At CityU, for instance, certified teachers can pursue an additional Elementary Ed Endorsement. Or you could specialize in areas like Special Education.
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3. Emphasize Classroom Experience
Use the work experience section of your resume to spotlight any relevant teaching positions. This could include:
- Your time as a student teacher
- Substitute teaching jobs
- Tutoring roles
Add the job titles for each role, followed by a few bullet points describing what you did. Beneath “Student Teacher,” for instance, you might write:
- Handled daily lesson planning for second-grade English and social studies classes
- Used differentiated instruction to create engaging activities for students with various learning styles
- Used project-based learning to help students strengthen their critical analysis and leadership skills
Depending on how much space you have left, you might also include professional experience working with children outside the classroom. Even unpaid roles could fit here. For example, that nanny job you had two summers ago could showcase your organizational skills. Similarly, the three seasons you spent coaching your daughter’s soccer team would be excellent proof of your leadership abilities.
4. Demonstrate Technological Proficiency
Many schools have embraced digital tools, even for their youngest students. Use your resume to spotlight your technical skills, such as:
- Ability to use popular learning management systems
- Experience creating interactive lessons with tools like Padlet and Perusall
- Knowledge of video conferencing platforms
- Media literacy skills
- Proficiency with classroom software, such as Google Classroom and Kahoot!
You could also reference specific projects to show that you’re tech-savvy. As an elementary school teacher, for example, you might briefly describe a short video or podcast that you created with students. This type of activity demonstrates that you’re an innovator who goes beyond old-fashioned handouts.
5. Illustrate Strong Communication Skills
Your teacher resume skills section should also emphasize your communication abilities. After all, you’ll spend a huge portion of your time interacting with students and parents. If you can’t communicate clearly, you’ll confuse your pupils instead of helping them.
Here are a few relevant soft skills you might address:
- Active listening
- Classroom management
- Collaboration
- Conflict resolution
- Presenting
- Writing
Your resume and your teacher cover letter are evidence of your communication skills, so make sure they’re flawless. Even a few grammar errors or unclear sentences will have potential employers immediately questioning your claim of being an “excellent writer” with “strong attention to detail.”
Teacher Resume Example
Reading resume tips can only get you so far. You should also check out online teaching forums for real examples or ask your colleagues if they’d be willing to share their materials.
Here’s a sample teaching resume that educational consultant Evan Pressman shared on LinkedIn:
When you skim this resume, the numbers immediately jump out. Angela, the author, uses specific data to quantify the impact of her work. She didn’t just teach some classes — she “delivered instruction to more than 1,500 students.” Similarly, she notes that her teaching strategies “achieve[d] a 10% increase in growth for 100 learners.” These figures help potential employers grasp the extent of her experience and understand just how much she’s helped her students.
Going back to the first section, the resume starts with an executive summary showcasing Angela’s top achievements. It also includes a list of her most relevant skills, from cross-functional collaboration to program performance assessment. These keywords can increase the chances that an applicant tracking system (ATS) will select her resume for the next phase.
Next, Angela lists her work experience, including her teaching position and relevant writing jobs. Note how specific her bullet points are. For example, she notes that her feedback “helped to achieve an increase in proficiency for over 100 students.” Details like these can help show your passion for teaching, along with your impact.
Angela includes a list of technical skills, too. She mentions popular e-learning tools, video conferencing platforms, and more. These proficiencies suggest that she would need minimal tech training at a new school — always a perk for administrators stretched too thin.
Tailoring Your Resume to Specific Teaching Roles
As you explore teacher resume examples, you’ll quickly notice that the strongest ones are tailored to certain career paths. This makes sense. A preschool teacher and a middle school special education teacher might work for the same school district but would obviously have very different responsibilities.
Use these better resume tips to design the perfect document for your dream job:
Preschool and Elementary Teacher Resume Tips
If you follow the preschool or elementary teacher path, you’ll need to become a jack of all trades. Follow these best practices as you prepare your job materials:
- Highlight your curriculum development skills in multiple subject areas, such as math and literacy.
- For an elementary teacher resume, mention that you follow your state’s educational and assessment guidelines.
- Include a bullet point describing how you communicate with families, whether that’s weekly email newsletters or old-fashioned parent-teacher conferences.
- Describe one or two field trips and immersive learning activities you’ve organized.
A preschool teacher resume could also mention skills related to play. (Yes, playing is a skill.) Feel free to boast about your ability to act out stories like an award-winning voice actor or teach four-year-olds how to play the tambourine.
Substitute Teacher Resume Tips
You might only be applying for a temporary role, but your materials should still look polished. Get started with these tips:
- Spotlight transferable skills from other positions. The communication skills you developed as a receptionist, for instance, will come in handy for your substitute teaching career.
- Call attention to your classroom management skills so employers know you’re capable of handling rowdy students.
- Mention soft skills, such as patience (absolutely essential) and conflict resolution.
Special Education Teacher Resume Tips
It’s no secret that teachers who focus on special education need additional skills. Include these areas in your resume:
- Explain how you tailor student learning for individuals with different needs and individualized education programs (IEPs).
- Emphasize your commitment to inclusivity with specific examples, such as how you adapted reading activities for students with dyslexia.
- Detail any training you’ve received in behavior management.
Formatting and Content Strategies
Once you’ve got a decent grasp of what you want to include in your teacher resume, it’s time to put it all together.
Start by writing an intriguing summary statement at the top of the resume. It should be two to four sentences and hit all the high points of your career. For a new teacher, a summary might look something like this:
“New graduate with two years of experience as a substitute teacher at two elementary schools. Adept at creating innovative lesson plans using art and digital tools. Committed to helping students from all backgrounds succeed.”
More experienced teachers should focus on achievements from the last ten years or so. Anything older might come across as resume padding.
You should also use action verbs throughout your resume. These powerful words will help you subtly convey your energy and passion. And be sure to study each job ad and sprinkle keywords from the description into your resume. This step reduces the chances that it will get filtered out by ATS software.
Enhancing Your Resume with CityU’s Offerings
Education can be an incredibly fulfilling career. At CityU, you can gain the skills you need to instruct students. Plus, you’ll become a whiz at classroom management.
If you already have work experience, our Alternate Route to Teacher Certification can prepare you for a teaching career in as little as a year. We also offer a variety of certificates and graduate degrees to help you expand your knowledge. For example, graduate students with several years of teaching experience can earn an Administrator Certificate or a Superintendent Certification.
Request more information today to learn about how we can help you jumpstart your teaching career.
Reviewed by Melissa Myers, Enrollment and Persistence Manager at CityU of Seattle.
