How do you write a great teaching CV?

What Should a Teacher CV Look Like?

Teaching is difficult yet rewarding work, and the demand for teachers in your geographical area may be high. Further, certain subjects may see more shortages of qualified professionals than others, and the specific direction you choose to take in your teaching career may provide you with even more opportunities to stand out. The first step in getting noticed like this is to create an excellent and precise curriculum vitae that showcases all of your relevant skills. At a minimum, it is important to include student teaching experiences, courses you took at university, professional development information, and any relevant skills that may be useful in the field. The field can have some high standards, but you can create a great CV for teachers that will give employers a good first impression of you. We have some basic guidelines here that can help.

Why Do You Need a CV for Teaching?

Many of these roles require a detailed CV for teachers before an employer starts thinking about the hiring process. Some examples of these fields include research roles, grants or other financial assistance applications, or your standard teaching positions at any educational institution. In addition to rigorous interviews and background checks, prospective candidates need to show that they have the requisite knowledge to teach in the subject areas of interest to them. The CV is one of the best ways to show this experience quickly. Additionally, you’ll also be able to list the soft skills that many administrators in education feel are important to managing classrooms full of students.

How To Write a CV for Teaching

Every part of the application process is important for teachers, but the CV will catch the interest of hiring managers and lead you to the next steps. We here at J1Teachers help many people from around the world secure visas to expressly teach foreign students about different languages, cultures, and other subjects. Part of our job is to make sure that any candidates have the skills necessary to shine, and writing a good CV falls under this umbrella. In particular, highlighting things you’ve already accomplished to become a competent teacher can be useful. Your drive and determination should also shine through in your writing. We can help you take care of each step in the relevant sections below.

Write an Impactful Personal Statement

This section usually comes first in a CV. You don’t need a long life story, but you should include a few sentences on how you’ve come this far, and you can talk about why you would be a good fit for the role. Here is where it can be a good idea to highlight your knowledge of the specific school or job for which you are applying and some of the skills you would bring to the table.

Highlight Your Education

Almost every teaching job worldwide has some educational milestones you must meet. For the most part, this is because specific degrees or certifications are necessary for the institutions to see that you have knowledge in a subject area. In a more general sense, some places also want to know that you have a minimum level of education, and the degrees that you hold will signal this to them. Adding special conferences or extra courses you decide to take is something you can do here, too.

Include All Relevant Teaching Experience

After formal education, most teaching programs require students to complete some kind of experience in the classroom. If you have already held a few positions in your life, it is possible that you can name several jobs you’ve had over the years. However, even if you are new to your teaching career, your teaching degree probably requires you to complete a minimum number of hours as a new student teacher. List that experience here in this section. Try to go for specific responsibilities that you have at each job. Be sure to include any times you developed new or better ways of doing something.

Outline Relevant Skills and Achievements

This section will be somewhat similar to the previous one, but it is here that we should give some focus to the soft and hard skills that might be unique to you. By now, your prospective hiring manager knows that you have some of the knowledge and work experience that they need. At this time, it is important to highlight special knowledge that you might have. You can also detail what kinds of educational equipment with which you have experience already. These kinds of things can be computer programs that you can use in class, ways that you’ve administered tests to students, and how your personality and abilities can keep order and learning going in the classroom.

Add Optional Additional Sections

The above sections represent some of the basic areas which we here at J1Teachers would say are essential for a good teaching CV. However, there is a place to add some optional details that may help push you in the right direction when prospective employers see your documents. For example, you can talk a bit about academic journals that may have published articles on you, volunteer work you have done, papers you’ve written yourself, or awards you have won for scholastic achievements. How this section looks can depend on your skills, or it might highlight what you’ve done outside of your teaching program.

What Not To Include on a Teacher Resume or Teacher CV

Just as there are some essential components to every teacher’s CV, there are a few things you should avoid putting on there. For the most part, you want to keep the CV as relevant to the position you want as possible. It can branch out into the field of teaching in general, and it must do this in order to show your experience. However, don’t include skills, awards, education, or other things that you cannot connect back to teaching in some way. The hiring manager’s time is valuable, and they cannot spend too much of it looking through information that does not pertain to the job. Don’t be inconsistent in how you talk about yourself, either. This is particularly true for the verbiage you use. Avoid passive voice as much as possible. Use action verbs whenever you can to describe what you’ve done and what you can do.

Should a Teacher CV Include a Photo?

Generally, no curriculum vitae outside of modeling or other jobs that really focus on physical appearance should include a photo. Your words and experiences should speak for themselves, and you may open up avenues of positive or negative unconscious bias by including a photo.

Who Should Provide a Reference for Your CV?

Typically, you will want at least one current or former employer to provide a good reference for you. You can also use someone who knows you very well and can speak objectively about your skills. A former teaching mentor with whom you have a good rapport could be a good start.

Teacher CV or Teacher Resume?

In some places or situations, you’ll hear people use “resume” and “CV” interchangeably. They aren’t necessarily the same thing, but most people would associate them with each other. However, many countries use “CV” as a way to describe any and all job applications. For those that do not, the CV tends to be something one would use for getting positions in academia and highlighting personal and professional accomplishments. The resume usually has a fixed length that is not longer than two pages, focuses on work experience, and is the choice for people looking for industrial positions.

CV Template for Teachers

Many online companies can help you find or create your own templates for a teaching CV. You can find one such example here. Just follow the prompts to try out your own CV-making skills.

Teacher CV Sample

You can find a sample CV or resume for teachers at the high school level in the middle of this page

Conclusion

As you can see from the sample links we have, there is no one standard way that you must write a CV for a teacher. However, there are some basic guidelines that most hiring managers will expect to see. You can follow our tips above to create a curriculum vitae that helps you move to the front of the pack.