New Teacher Resume With No Experience (Entry Level Sample)

The structure of a new teacher resume will usually depend on the type of resume format you choose. There are three resume formats you can choose from: 

• Chronological: The chronological resume format focuses on employment history. This format is best for those with extensive work experience.
• Functional: Functional resume formats focus on skills, making them beneficial for inexperienced candidates. This is the best option for new teachers who don’t have much professional experience.
• Combination: A combination resume format showcases both skills and experience, making it a good choice for candidates with some teaching experience, or transferable skills and experiences from other jobs.

Header

Resume headers contain your primary contact information, which is important so hiring managers can contact you with updates about your application. You should include the following in this section: 

• Name 
• Email address
• Phone number 
• Location (City and State) 

You can also include links to your professional social media links, like your LinkedIn, in this section. A social media profile is a good way of giving the hiring manager more information about your training and key accomplishments without cluttering up your resume. 

 

As a new teacher, it’s likely that you won’t have a lot of teaching experience outside of your education and training. To combat this, provide a resume objective. A resume objective is a 2-3 sentence paragraph that outlines your career goals, and a description of top skills and training you already have. 

 

School teachers need an extensive list of skills to fulfill a teaching job. As a new teacher, you need to show the hiring manager that you understand the types of skills that allow you to manage a classroom and assess student progress. 

 

This section should contain a combination of both hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are role-specific and gained through training and experience as a student teacher. Soft skills are transferable across many industries (e.g., communication skills or interpersonal skills). 

 

Here are some bullet points to consider adding to your skills section: 

• Classroom management 
• Knowledge of reaching different types of learners 
• Time management 
• Communication 
• Facilitating a safe and effective learning environment 
• Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) 
• Designing lesson plans 
• Special education 
• English literature and language teaching 
• Interpersonal skills 
• Empathy
• Patience

Work history

As a new teacher, you are likely to choose a functional resume format, but you will still need to include a section that gives a brief overview of any professional work experience you do have. When listing work history, include the dates and the name of the company you worked, and focus on relevant experiences in your work history section. For example, you could experience teaching at elementary education, middle school or high school level, but you could also include extracurricular or volunteer activities that displayed teaching and organization skills, such as serving as a summer camp counselor. 

 

You can also include teaching experience from your training or bachelor’s degree, listing your primary duties in brief bullet points. List your experience in reverse chronological order, starting from the most recent position. This gives the hiring manager the most up-to-date account of your subject knowledge and skills. 

 

As a new teacher, your education section is important to show that you have the right certifications for a teacher job. In the United States, you will usually need a Bachelor’s Degree in Education as well as certification and training in a state-approved program. 

 

You will also need to pass a general teaching certification or licensure exam. If you’re interested in special education, you should consider additional qualifications depending on the school district. 

For each major academic credential you have, you should include this information in this section: 

• Title of your qualification 
• Year you graduated 
• Name and location of institution

Here are some do’s and don’ts for a new teacher resume: 

 

Do:

• Proofread your resume before you submit it. Schools will likely want teachers who have exemplary written communication skills. So, removing any spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors can improve your chances of securing an interview. 
• Customize your resume for each application by picking out specific skills and requirements from the job description and highlighting them in your resume’s objective, skills and work experience section.
• Use a teacher resume template or resume builder to provide a professional structure and layout for your resume. 

Don’t:

• Include your high school GPA, especially if you have college credentials. Focus on your most recent, top academic achievements. 
• Forget to use teacher resume samples as inspiration for your professional resume. We’ve got plenty of resume examples you can use as a foundation for your own.
• Forget to scan the job description for keywords. This can help you get past the applicant tracking system (ATS).