We have recently scoured blogs and articles to find advice for teachers who would like to change jobs in our new post-Covid marketplace. We looked at advice on blogs such as Vault.com, the Rutgers Center for Effective School Practices blog, Futurity.com, and other sources.
In today’s blog, we would like to share some of the better advice we found.
Add New Skills to Your Resume
If you have been an English teacher, for example, consider training to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) and adding that skill to your resume. Also consider adding other skills, such as the ability to direct school plays, to serve as an athletic coach, or two serve as a social worker (with appropriate training) to families that have students who are returning to the physical classroom.
Adding new skills makes you a more attractive candidate.
Stress Your Fluency with Meeting Technologies, Social Networking, and Other Current Skills
Boards of education are more likely to hire teachers who not only survived the pandemic but who proactively added new skills that are needed today. Don’t passively wait for hiring schools to discover these abilities in you. Put them on your resume and talk about them energetically in interviews.
Be Positive
Granted, it is only natural to complain or seem glum when discussing what it has been like to teach during the last two years. Instead, be positive. Remember that educational systems are looking for teachers who energetically tackled and mastered the discipline of teaching remotely. And above all, resist the temptation to discuss what your current school system did wrong in navigating the pandemic.
One way to do this is to relate positive case study-style stories of your successes during Covid-19. You could, for example, tell the story of how you changed your lesson plans or how you went the extra mile to help a student who was having a difficult time adapting to remote learning.
Add visual materials to your portfolio. Share lesson plans, classroom materials that you created, and other colorful materials that illustrate your accomplishments more vividly than words can.
Stress Your Abilities as a Team Player
Strive to talk about projects you have successfully undertaking as part of a team of fellow teachers. Perhaps you and they revised your curriculum, revamped classroom layouts, and found new ways to engage students who were learning remotely.
Across the country, teachers are coming back to their schools. Your ability to position yourself as a strong team player can help make you a candidate of choice.
Visit Schools and Meet with Interviewers Face-to-Face
Representatives of the schools where you are interviewing, just like you, have probably grown weary of interacting with others via video calls. So if you possibly can, arrange to meet your interviewers personally. When you do, ask to tour school facilities, to meet with other teachers on staff, and become a physical presence to the people who are evaluating your application.
In this way, you can become more than just another postage-stamp-sized talking head on a computer screen.
Talk about Commuting and Logistical Issues
If you live within easy commuting distance of the school where you are interviewing, be sure to stress that. Or if you are willing to relocate in order to be closer to the school, mention that too. The goal is to seem as eager as you can to be a new member of the school community.
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