New Pathways to Teaching24 Hour Introduction to teaching

Drew Krumholz

Building a resume & cover letter

What Makes A Good Resume?*The resume should be thought of as a personal advertisement in which you and your skills are the products being sold.    *A good resume should be a one or two page summary of your skills, accomplishments, experiences, and education designed to capture a prospective employer's interest.     *The purpose of a resume is to secure an interview. It is the primary tool of your job search and may take several drafts to prepare effectively.

Here is some advice on writing a resume:   • Keep your resume short and sweet. One to two pages should be

enough. • Resumes should be considered evolving documents. • Use proper grammar and double-check the spelling. Even small

errors will get your application eliminated from the resume pool. • Keep your descriptions brief and precise. Employers are not likely

to read an autobiographical sketch of your work history. • Make sure your resume is not a compilation of unrelated events of

your life. Your history should be ordered and meaningful. • Your resume should be visually appealing, not too disordered or

wordy. The alignment of the overall document should be neat and orderly.

• Be professional. Print your final copy using a laser-jet printer on a good to high-quality bond paper. Stay with white, off-white, or ivory. This is the first impression you will give to a prospective employer.

Why Do I Need A Cover Letter?

*Whenever a resume is submitted to the human resource center of a school district it must be accompanied by a cover letter.  *A resume describes who you are professionally, where you studied, and where you have worked.  *Candace Davies of resumes-for-teachers explains using a cover letter will dramatically increase your chance of securing an interview.  *Cover letters give you the opportunity to personalize your resume and target your skills to that specific teaching position.

What Should I Put In My Cover Letter?* A cover letter should not be more than one page. While what you say is important, school districts are more likely to be interested in the information your cover letter says about you, your communication skills, professionalism, and knowledge writing.  * Introductory Paragraph: State the reason for writing. Name the specific teaching position which you are applying. You should include any mention of how you learned of the position.  * Second Paragraph: Explain why you are interested in teaching for this school district and specify what you bring to this teaching position. Do not repeat the information on your resume. Include anything special or unique about yourself that will "benefit" the students, the school, of the district. Remember, whoever evaluates this will consider this an example of your writing skills.

The conclusion

* Final Paragraph: Mention your resume is enclosed and indicate your desire to meet with the principal. You may want to suggest alternate dates and times or simply advise them of your flexibility to the time and place. Include day and evening contact information.  * Include a statement or question that will encourage the reader to respond. Be sure to communicate your plan to follow-up. You might state that you will be in the area on a certain date and would like to set up a meeting, or you will call on a certain date to set up a meeting. Never leave it up to the school district to get in touch with you.  * Finally, thank the involved persons for their time.

Group task - Working with resumes & cover letters  In groups of 5-6, please share your resumes with one another.  Work on revising them and/or peer editing.  Then, as a group, visit a NJ school website and draft a group cover letter as if you are planning to apply to this school district.  You will share your group cover letters with the rest of the class.  I will be around to assist groups.  Feel free to use my cover letter as a jumping point for your own. 

Sources

All information obtained from MyEducationLab documents which accompanies the textbook for this course.