First Year Teacher Resume: Examples and Tips

There’s one thing first year teachers have more of than even the most experienced teachers—

The passion and energy to get into the classroom and educate the next generation of youth to be the best possible version of themselves.

The only problem?

The thing first year teachers are lacking—experience—is what school administrators are most interested in. 

But with a great resume, you can convince the school principal that you have what it takes to become an amazing instructor. You just need write a first year teacher resume that looks like this:

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Sample First Year Teacher Resume Template

This is how to write a job-winning first year teacher resume:

1. Pick the Best Format for Your First Year Teacher Resume

First year teachers are teachers at the beginning of their career, leading classrooms for the first time since graduating with a degree in teaching. The goal of a first year teacher resume is to convince a school principal you have educational knowledge and skills to excel even in any classroom environment. 

With that said—if you’re applying for teaching positions, you can’t make elementary mistakes regarding your resume layout and formatting.

Here are resume formatting rules to avoid getting red marks:

• Make sure to include the right contact info on a resume: full professional name, email, and phone number. 
• Choose the right format among all the different types of resumes. For first year teachers, the reverse-chronological resume is a good choice as you can highlight any experience relevant to teaching, and it’s a format recruiters are comfortable with.
• Use the professional resume fonts and white space to make your resume easy to read.
• Include the most important resume categories so that nothing is lacking.
• Take irrelevant experience and skills so that you can make a one-page resume.
• Save your resume as a PDF so that the formatting stays consistent across different computers and applications.

Pro Tip: Check your online profile before applying for any teaching jobs. Teachers interact with hundreds of children on a daily basis, so you have to be careful how you’ll be portrayed by teachers and students.

2. Lead with a Resume Objective 

Let’s start off by putting a resume introduction at the top of your first year teacher resume. This will act like an executive summary, explaining why you’re ready to handle a classroom even if you are inexperienced. 

Since first year teachers don’t have much classroom experience yet, go with a resume objective statement: 

• Highlight the most relevant knowledge and skills you’ve developed for the school at hand.
• Mention your achievements in a quantifiable way as much as possible.

Every school and teaching position has its differences. A generic resume objective won’t impress any principal. So, keep it brief (3-4 sentences) and make your resume match the job you’re applying for. 

Read more: Professional Resume Profile Examples

3. Write the Perfect First Year Teacher Resume Job Description

Like it or not, experience is what employers want to see. Even if you don’t have much full-time teaching experience, writing a good resume experience section is crucial:

• Include all the relevant experience you have, starting with your most recent position and working backwards chronologically. 
• Make sure each job has the school/company name, your job title, dates of employment, and up to 6 bullet points.
• Begin each bullet point with power verbs like taught, organized, prepared, managed, etc.
• Spend less time on duties and responsibilities, making each job description look more like a summary of accomplishments. 

• Tailor your work experience to match the teaching position you’re applying for.

Pro Tip: Relevant experience doesn’t have to mean being the sole licensed teacher in a classroom. Tutoring experience would look great on your resume, as well as any classroom experience you got while getting your teaching certification.

4. Impress With Your First Year Teacher Resume Education Section 

They say that education opens doors, and that applies to your future students as much as it does for your resume. 

Here’s how to unlock any door with your resume education section:

• If you have several years of work experience, just list the college name, location, years of study, degree, and major and minors.
• If you just received your teaching certificate and this’ll be your first job, go into more detail. Think about adding your GPA (if it’s above 3.5), relevant coursework, and any academic honors.

If the ink on your teaching certificate still hasn't dried yet and you don’t have any relevant experience, put your education section above your experience section to make a strong first impression.

Read more: How to Write an Entry-Level Resume

5. Highlight Your First Year Teacher Skills

Research suggests that teacher quality is the largest in-school factor to student achievement. Without years of experience, the best way to show you can be an excellent teacher is by displaying your skills.

Here's how to put skills on your resume as a first time teacher:

• Start by building a master list of your current resume skill set by including soft skills, hard skills, technical skills, and any other skills relevant to teaching.
• Find the key skills mentioned in the job ad. If you have these (or related) skills on your master list, this will be the overlap you need to include on your resume.
• Incorporate the overlapping skills by weaving them into your experience and education sections.

First Year Teacher Resume Skills

• Classroom Management
• Curriculum Development
• Special Education
• Teaching Literacy
• Electronic Grading Software
• Classroom Technology (Smartboard, etc.)
• Positive Encouragement
• Science and Laboratory Experiments
• Physical Education (P.E.)
• Empathy
• Patience
• Problem-solving skills
• Time management skills
• Communication skills
• Writing skills
• Organizational skills
• Interpersonal skills

Pro Tip: Prepare great answers to common interview questions for teachers so that you can provide great examples of your skills in action.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Add Other Sections to Your first year teacher Resume

School administrators are trying to hire the best teacher possible. Use additional resume sections to set give your first year teacher resume some personality so that you can stand out:

• Add any language skills you have, especially if the school is located in a multilingual neighborhood.
• Make sure to include relevant certifications, achievements, hobbies, volunteer work, or anything else that could be applicable. Something like volunteer work or hobbies could show you’d be interested in helping with extracurricular activities at the school. 

Pro Tip: Public schools and private schools have different hiring requirements for teachers. If you’re applying at a public school, a teaching certification is must so make it more visible on your resume.

7. Attach a Cover Letter to Your First Year Teacher Resume

Do you need a cover letter? Let’s put it this way. If you write a cover letter, the worst case scenario is that it’s ignored. If you don’t write one, the worst case scenario is you’re automatically disqualified for the job. So play it safe and write a cover letter better than all the other teachers graduating every year. 

Use these guidelines to write a first year teacher cover letter:

• Use a modern cover letter template and learn how to format a cover letter to look professional.
• Write a cover letter opening that hooks the reader from the start.
• Prove your skills and experience will translate into success in the classroom. 
• Sign off the cover letter with an enticing call to action.
• How long should a cover letter be? One page. Don’t expect the school principal to read anything longer.

Read more: Teacher Cover Letter Examples

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Now you just need to follow up on your job application and you’re good to go! You should be on your way to receiving a Teacher (Resume) of the Year Award.

Thanks for reading. Do you have any questions regarding first time teacher resumes? Or are you an experienced teacher with advice for those new to the profession? Please share your comments and questions below!