Top Skills for Teachers

• Discernment: To create customized learning plans for both the group and sometimes for individual students, the teacher needs to recognize students’ needs.
• Excellent communication: You have to know how to communicate effectively at different levels of education and understanding. For example, communicating with your students verbally and in writing differs depending on the grade and their capacity. You also need to know how to communicate respectfully and thoughtfully with parents and colleagues.
• Teaching cooperative learning: Learning how to work well with others is essential in any job. That’s why knowing how to conduct classes and to teach through puzzles, experiments, games and tests is very important.
• Adaptability: Teachers have to handle children with many different types of personalities effectively and know how to guide them in the right direction. They must balance enforcing strict discipline with times of relaxation.
• Prioritizing: How will students do things right, in the proper sequence, if teachers don't know how to prioritize their work and time? That’s why prioritization is a crucial skill.
• Attention to detail: You have to pay attention to what is happening in your classroom at all times.
• Innovative: Teachers have to sustain students’ interest in their various lessons through out-of-the-box thinking. For example, some use singing in their classes, or create contests between children to motivate them to learn.
• Documenting: Teachers have to write progress reports, attendance reports, evaluation reports and other types of accounts. This skill helps capture each student’s various aptitudes.

Educational Requirements for Teachers

• Degree

  Teachers must have a bachelor’s degree in education or teaching. A degree in child psychology and child development can also enhance job prospects. To educate children with learning disabilities or other special needs, teachers must have a bachelor’s degree in special education. Many teachers in the U.S. tend to receive master’s degrees.

• Licensure

  Though not a must if you want to teach at a private school, licensing by the state is mandatory in public schools. Requirements do vary from state to state. However, most U.S. states require
  
  There are licensure programs offered by colleges that last for one or two years for professionals who hold a bachelor’s degree in any field other than education. Through this program, this segment of people work as teachers under mentors to gain sufficient teaching experience.
  
  
  • A bachelor’s degree
  • Completion of a teacher education program
  • Supervised teaching experience.
  • ompletion of a basic writing and math skills test.

• Certifications

  This is a must for teaching in K-12 public schools in the U.S. State agencies award these certifications, and teachers looking for a job use them as proof they’ve completed all training and educational requirements. The cost of these credentials vary across states.Different certifications exist for elementary, middle, high school and early childhood education. A National Board Certification gives teachers the authority to educate children from kindergarten through 12th grade. Research has found that students with board-certified teachers do better in school than those without. If you’re worried about their certification price, most states and school districts do offer financial support in the form of loans or grants to attain certification.

Teacher Resume-Writing Tips

• Mention your specific training and related teaching experience Adding your experience gained in tutoring, holding voluntary positions, taking leadership roles in extracurricular activities, attending workshops about raising children, and the ability to spot educational deficiencies all are bound to attract favorable attention from school administrators.
• Emphasize impactful teaching in the skills and experience sections of your resume A teacher must have the ability to impact their students through a broad set of skills. So when you are writing your resume, make sure several skills directly reference impact and solutions.Instead of writing that you are “good at empowering children,” for example, it’s better to note that you “create a nurturing environment through order, connection and learning.”Putting numeric values to accomplishments, specifically in your resume’s experience section, also definitely catches the eye. Change a statement like “managed a class” to “managed a class of 35 students.”
• Add technology expertise In this online learning age, a proper understanding of software like MS Office, Google Drive, Skype, Zoom and Microsoft Teams is essential. The ability to insert video and multimedia presentations in lessons is also good.
• Stress your experience writing learning plans Like a football coach who knows how to call the team’s plays before they get to the field, a good teacher needs to set-up full lesson plans days, weeks and sometimes months ahead of time. When you’re writing your resume, make sure you describe the types of lesson plans you know how to execute. Probably the most common types are inquiry-based units, the five-step lesson plan, and the five-E lesson plan (which involves engaging, explaining, exploring, elaborating and evaluating.)In the experience section of your resume, for example, you can combine the need to add a writing plan with a useful statistic that shows your results. For example, suppose the applicant has developed customized lesson plans in English. In that case, it can be effectively written as “Developed customized English lesson plans for individual students, improving overall fifth-grade test scores by 60% year-over-year.”
• Use perfect grammar This is basic. Verbs and tenses should be in agreement. Proofreading is a must before final submissions. Use a consistent font and be professional.

Looking for Cover Letter ideas? See our sample for Teacher cover letter.