The Complex Art of the Teacher Resume

I have multiple versions of my resume, and they were all relatively easy for me to put together. However, when it came to starting my teacher resume, I was at a loss.

I’ve heard a lot of different ideas surrounding the teacher resume. I’ve been told that it has to be two pages, no exceptions, no excuses. But I’ve also heard that for recently graduated teachers, it should only be a page.

Currently, I’ve managed to keep my resume to one page, and as I go on to teach and obtain a master’s degree, I’m sure that my resume will expand to two pages.

As with all resumes, it should look clean and professional and at the very top you should have your name and contact information. In terms of formatting, I found it easiest to use a template from Microsoft Word and then I made it my own. This helped me create a professional looking resume with relative ease.

In terms of the content I have included on my resume, I start with my objective, which is a simple statement about what it is that I hope to obtain in terms of employment. Through my objective, it makes it clear that I am seeking a job as an English teacher, which makes it easy for a potential employer to see quickly what it is I am seeking.

After my objective, I have my education. This is a relatively small section, as I only have included my bachelor’s degree from Miami and my minors, as well as my GPA. Once I obtain my master’s degree, this will be included in this section as well.

Immediately after my education, I jump into my educational experience and I move from the most recent to the earliest experiences I have had. The first item under this header is my student teaching experience, which is clearly marked as such. Under this, I list where I student taught, when I student taught, and then I offer a few bullet points explaining key points from my experience.

After student teaching, I move on to my general field experiences in schools in the Cincinnati area. For each school, I also create a bulleted point list for key points from the experience, but they are much more abbreviated than my student teaching experience, as not all of these experiences took place in an English classroom, let alone in a middle/high school.

The section I have following this does not apply to everyone. After my educational experience, I have a section for education-related work experience. If I ever have more than one teaching position in my career, this is where I would notate those positions. However, under this section, I list my other job on Miami’s campus as a tutor. For this section, I format it as I would for any of my resumes with a bulleted list of my duties.

From here, I go on to a quick and abbreviated list of accomplishments, awards, and activities where I give a brief overview of awards I have received and any accomplishments or activities I’ve been a apart of that relate to my future as an English teacher.

It really doesn’t take much time to put a resume together, the key is simply to make sure it is professional and that it accurately reflects you as an individual and that it reflects your goals as a professional.