Uncovering and including education accomplishments in your academic resume are two of the best ways to land an education job interview. By including teaching or administrative leadership-related achievements, you can concretely demonstrate in your resume why you would be an asset to any school district. You may not think you have many accomplishments that stand out, but if you dig deep enough, you will find several!
The most effective way to uncover education accomplishments is to use the CAR acronym – Challenge, Action, and Result.
Think of a time when you faced a particular challenge at school or in the classroom. What was the action you took? What were the results of your action? When developing these achievements for your teacher resume, try to think of the relevant teaching skill set you exhibited and incorporate it into your job application document. Also, use as many facts as possible – numbers and facts help portray a more vivid picture for the reader.
Below are three examples of how you can turn CAR accomplishments into concrete classroom achievements to proudly display your educational resume or academic application letter.
Challenge: My 3rd-grade class started the school year reading just below grade level.
Action: I canvassed the students to discover what books they found most intriguing and designed lessons based on this information.
Result: By the end of the school year, students were reading at- or above grade-level.
Resume Job Accomplishment: Students started the school year reading below grade level. Determined students’ unique literary interests to effectively incorporate books and activities to engage and excite the learners. Administered formal reading assessments at the end of the year – all students completed the year reading at- or above grade level.
Challenge: My 5th-grade class was very unruly at the beginning of the school year.
Action: I worked with the class to establish a reward system that would help keep them focused and motivated.
Result: By mid-term, student discipline did a complete 180-degree turn, with very few disciplinary referrals.
Education Resume Job Accomplishment: Students started the school year as a very unfocused and disruptive group. Collaborated with students to create a reward system that would boost their focus, motivation, and enthusiasm. For every day the class went without incident or a major disruption, they earned one star. When 30 stars had been accumulated, students were given a class pizza party. By mid-term, student focus had improved immensely, resulting in several pizza parties and only one disciplinary referral.
Challenge: I suspected a kindergarten student had special needs and was not getting the proper support he required.
Action: I collaborated with the Special Education Teacher and the student’s parents to administer several assessments.
Result: The student proved to be on the spectrum (Autistic) and required additional assistance from his parents, the Special Education Teacher, and me.
Resume Job Education Accomplishment: Coordinated with parents and the Special Education Teacher to successfully assess and diagnose a suspected student being Autistic. Worked with colleagues, parents, and the student to provide him with one-on-one support and additional resources in the home, thus ensuring he was able to reach his full potential.
These education accomplishments should be listed in a bullet point under the respective job position in your resume. If you have faced the same challenges in different positions and handled them in the same way, there is no need to repeat the achievements – use the space to highlight different professional achievements.
There are certain things that all school administrators look for in potential teaching candidates.
Education Accomplishments – Focus Areas
Main themes to focus on when uncovering your CAR education accomplishments related to teaching are:
* Classroom Management
* Student Behavior
* Literacy and Reading Levels
* Student Success Rates
* Differentiated Instruction
* Student Assessment
* Parent Involvement
* Individualized Instruction and Assistance
* Growth Mindset
* Creative Lesson Planning
* Multicultural Themes
* Multidisciplinary Lessons and Activities
* Technology Integration
You do not need to touch on all of these education keywords. Still, you try to incorporate as many as possible within your educational accomplishments and throughout other areas of your resume and cover letter. Once these classroom achievements have been polished and utilized appropriately in your resume, they can be incorporated into your teacher cover letter too.
If you are trying to discover your school administrator accomplishments, you need to ask yourself questions to uncover your success stories related to educational leadership.
Reviewing the abundance of teacher resume samples on the site will help explain how accomplishments should be worked.
The education accomplishments relevant to teaching exceptional for building credibility in your job application documents are essential for your teacher job interview as well!
Many educational job interviews are conducted in a BDI format – Behavioral Descriptive Interview.
This type of interview is designed so the interviewee can concretely demonstrate his or her skill sets, talents, and experience. Your answers in a BDI interview should be set up and executed in the same manner as your resume, using the CAR acronym. When preparing for your instructional interview, practice answering various kinds of questions with the CAR method. Develop more than one answer for each question, as you may be asked to provide the interviewer with numerous answers to the same question or types of questions.