Teacher Resume Examples
Take a lesson from quality teacher resume examples! LiveCareer has professionally created samples you can personalize and use to create your resume and get hired.
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Teacher resume
summary examplesYour professional summary is two or three sentences that live right under your contact information. Since it’s at the top of your resume, you must write a powerful professional summary to get hiring managers to read further!
Recruiters only look at a resume for an average of seven seconds. Your professional summary needs to make a quick but convincing case for why you deserve the job.
Approach it like you would outline a lesson; focus on the most important information you want an employer to know about your career. These are the key elements they need to know about you and your teaching style.
Teachers with more than three years of work experience should use a professional summary.
If you’re a less experienced teacher, fresh out of school or with fewer than three years in the classroom, instead use an objective statement.
Next, we’ll review some teacher professional summary examples — one failing and one passing — to give you some advice on how to perfect yours:
Good example:
“Inspired teacher brings 11+ years experience as a high school history teacher with a track record of helping AP students. As evidenced, 83% of my AP European History students scored a four or higher on their exams over the past three years. Student motivation, interactive lessons and parent engagement have been the foundation of my success.”
Why this example passes:
- Feature candidate’s success statistic to grab attention. Numbers add detail about how big the results you deliver are, e.g., test scores, passing rate and more.
- Shows career length, 11 years.
- Mentions employer-desired skills: student motivation and interactive lessons.
Bad example:
“Dedicated teacher with a kind presence and a great knack for connecting with fourth graders. My lesson-planning skills are top-notch, and I use positive discipline methods. I’m great about communicating to parents and improving poor student performance.”
Why this example fails:
- Doesn’t include any numbers that quantify teacher’s performance
- Uses vague descriptions and skills.
- Doesn’t include years of teaching experience.
The fastest way to write your
professional summaryMost teachers are good communicators, so if you want to stand out, you need to communicate your expertise with an attention-grabbing professional summary. For expert guidance in writing an effective professional summary, try LiveCareer’s Resume Builder. It’s an automated tool that can help you complete a resume in 15 minutes!
- 1
Enter the details about the job title you held. The builder comes preloaded with auto-suggested phrasing written by resume experts.
- 2
Then, just pick from these suggested phrases that best frame your experience and customize them to your liking!
- 3
All you have to do is choose the summary phrases that best frame your experience. It’s like having a professional do it for you!
Our builder is the closest thing to a teacher’s aid that you’ll find unless you decide to get professional resume-writing help. Don’t miss out on the teaching opportunity of your dreams because you didn’t take advantage of all the modern resume-writing tools!
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Teacher resume work
experience examplesThe most important part of a teacher’s resume is the work experience section. It’s essential to nail this section to write a good resume. Hiring managers want to know where you’ve taught and what you achieved in the classroom. This is where you get down to the specifics of what you’ve accomplished in past roles. Learn from these two examples. One fails to be effective while the other passes:
Good example:
Rolling Meadows Middle School I Rolling Meadows, IL I 8/2018-current
- Improve average student IAR English Language Arts test scores 4% overall since my first year.
- Instruct 7th-grade language arts classes with sizes ranging from 20-25 students.
- Create highly individualized lesson plans to accommodate different learning styles.
- Recognized with the 2021 D214 “Innovator Award” for multimedia student essay project.
Why this example passes:
- Numbers and statistics add detail and quantify the results this teacher delivers: 4% improvement and a class size of 20-25.
- Good use of strong words and active language.
- References specialized value teacher provides with “individualized lesson plans.”
Bad example:
Emily Dickinson Elementary I Redmond, WA I 4/2022-present
- Led second-grade classroom in lessons, activities and assignments.
- Held after-school tutoring sessions for underperforming students.
- Communicated student improvement needs to parents.
- Assigned homework and daily tasks to reinforce material.
Why this example fails:
- Lacks numbers or statistics.
- Describes general tasks, not teaching achievements or career highlights.
- Uses active verbs, but doesn’t focus on results.
Teacher resume skills examples
Here are 18 sample skills for teachers:
- Enthusiasm
- Computer skills
- Communication
- Leadership
- Respectfulness
- Empathy
- Lesson planning
- Cultural competency
- Spreadsheet proficiency
- Discipline
- Critical thinking
- Positive reinforcement
- Stamina
- Patience
- Creative lessons
- Digital literacy
- Classroom management
- Attention to detail
You should sprinkle skills and abilities throughout your resume. Include them in your professional summary, work experience blurbs and a dedicated skills section.
Examples of additional
resume sectionsEvery basic teacher’s resume should include five sections: Your contact information, professional summary or objective statement, skills, work experience and education. For teachers, it never hurts to add sections that mention advanced training or subject specialization that you may have.
Here are some examples of optional teacher resume sections that you could add to provide greater detail:
- Qualifications
- Awards and honors
- Coaching experience
- Academic honors
- Publications
- Computer skills
- Languages
- Advanced certifications
- Coursework
- Hobbies and interests
You should include extra sections only if you feel like it’s fitting to the teaching role. If it’s not valuable or useful to the job, leave it out. Otherwise, it could take away emphasis from your meaningful work experience and skills.
Examples of resume formats
The way you organize your teaching resume is called a resume format. There are three main types of resume formats: chronological, functional and combination. Here are examples of each:
The main difference among them is whether or not they give more visual weight to your work history or to your skills section. The format you should select for your resume is based on your years of work experience as a teacher.
How to choose a resume format
0-3
Years of experienceFunctional formats
- Focus on skills.
- Best for first-time teachers who lack work experience.
- Good for people re-entering workforce.
- May omit dates in the work history section.
Organization:
- Skills listed above work experience.
3-10
Years of experienceCombination formats
- Balance skills and work history.
- Ideal for mid-career teachers.
- Suitable for career changers and people seeking promotion.
Organization:
- Skills next to or above work experience.
10+
Years of experienceChronological formats
- Put the most focus on work history.
- Best for teachers with a long, steady career.
- Most popular format.
- Preferred by recruiters.
Organization:
- Work experience listed above skills.
Once you know the best format for you, it’s easy to pick a teacher resume template.
Templates are preformatted layouts created by design professionals to ensure your resume looks amazing!
Don’t forget your teacher cover letter
A cover letter works hand-in-hand with your resume to make a stronger case for why you deserve the job.
Since communication is paramount to being an effective teacher, the cover letter you submit with your resume is critical to help you win the job.
A well-written cover letter should complement your resume and tell a story about your teaching career highlights.
To save time and take the guesswork out of writing your letter, many job seekers turn to our Cover Letter Builder!
The builder automates the cover letter writing process so that it’s faster. Instead of staring at a blank page, you can select and customize prewritten industry-specific phrases that were written by our team of career experts.
That saves you a lot of time!
Otherwise, if you just need inspiration on what to include in your letter, check out teacher teacher cover letter examples.
And, it never hurts to get a design jump-start by using cover letter templates. Templates are designs that you’re able to customize. That way, you don’t have to worry about having a designer’s eye to create a good-looking cover letter.
To create a great document from scratch, check out LiveCareer’s complete guide on How to Write a Cover Letter.
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