English Teacher Resume Examples to Help You Build Yours

How to write your English teacher resume

The structure of your resume will largely depend on the type of resume format you choose. There are three main types of resume formats:

• Chronological: Chronological resumes are the most common type of format. This resume focuses on employment history, showing employers that you have in-depth knowledge of working with different learners, distributing course materials and working with students. 
• Functional: Functional resumes are a good option for candidates without experience but many industry skills and qualifications. You can talk about extracurricular activities that you think contribute to your career in this resume type. 
• Combination: This resume combines both skills and employment focus and is a great option for candidates with over a decade’s worth of experience and skills. 

Regardless of the type of resume you choose, your resume will probably have similar sections such as: 

• Summary/objective 
• Work experience 
• Skills 
• Education 

Header

The resume header section is an important part of your resume that presents your contact information. In this section, you should include:

• Your name 
• Location (Not exact address) 
• Phone number 
• Email address

If you have lots of industry experience and skills but can’t fit all of your information into a resume, then you can include a link to professional networking sites like LinkedIn. This is a great way of giving the hiring manager or recruiter more information about your key achievements and industry contacts without cluttering your resume. 

Resume summary or objective

Your resume summary is an opportunity for you to briefly summarize the content of your resume. You should provide two to three sentences that provide eye-catching information designed to hook the hiring manager or recruiter. 

In this section, you can talk about your main achievements, certifications, or skills that you think make you the ideal candidate for the role.

If you don’t have a lot of experience in teaching, then you can use a resume objective. This is similar to a summary but focuses on your career goals instead of achievements. You can state your intentions for the role and why you think the role is perfect for you and your idea of career progression. 

Skills

An effective resume will have a skills section that clearly outlines the types of skills you’ll take into a classroom. If you’re a newly qualified teacher without a lot of work experience, your skills section might be the most important part of your functional resume. 

Regardless of the type of resume you choose, all English teacher resumes should have a good combination of hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are role-specific and soft skills are personality type traits that are transferable across many industries. 

If you’re struggling to think of the right terms that sum up your professional and personal qualities, then you can include these bullet points in your resume:

• Time management 
• Monitoring student performance 
• Organizational skills 
• Classroom management 
• Behavior management 
• Conflict resolution 
• Interpersonal skills 
• Patience 
• Empathy 
• Critical thinking 
• ESL (Teaching as Second Language Certification)
• Research skills 
• Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) 
• Written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of multiple teaching methods 
• Reinforcement of a positive learning environment 

Work history

If you have previous work experience
as a teacher without specialization or you have many years of experience as an English teacher, then your work experience section might be the main focus of your chronological or combination resume. 

In this section, you should list your previous employment experience in reverse chronological order. You can do this by starting from the most recent example and working backward. Below each job title, you should include your previous school’s name, location and the date you started and finished.

You can also include brief bullet points below each job title that explain your primary duties and key accomplishments while working, such as preparing coursework, creating lesson plans and other teaching duties. You shouldn’t go into too much detail, but you can use an English teacher cover letter to explain further. 

Education

If you’re looking for an English teacher role, then you’ll usually need a bachelor’s degree in education, majoring in your sub-specialty. You can major in English Language or English Literature, learning the curriculum before working with pupils as a student-teacher.

Depending on your state, you might need to go through additional licensure before you’re eligible to teach English. Under this heading, you can state the title of your degree, the college you studied at and the year you obtained your degree. 

You can also include your college GPA in this section and any additional achievements such as making the Dean’s List or graduating cum laude.