A teacher’s professional summary is a brief summary of all their professional life, goals, work experience, qualifications, expertise, and achievements of a teacher. To put it simply, a teacher’s professional summary tries to draw a holistic picture of a teacher’s professional life. Such a summary can be used by employers to ascertain the employability of teachers whether one becomes a teacher the conventional way or through online teacher training programmes; one should know how to create a teacher’s professional summary.
How to craft an excellent teacher’s professional summary
It may not always be easy to craft a teacher’s professional summary as people often get confused about what to include and what not to include. For making this decision easy, the following tips are recommended:
- Do not confuse a teacher’s professional summary with a career objective.
The first essential tip for preparing a teacher’s professional summary is not to confuse it with a career objective. While a career objective may be included in a teacher’s professional summary, the latter is more than a mere statement of objective and can be much bigger. Moreover, a teacher’s professional summary will also contain an account of abilities, achievements, etc.
- Always keep a teacher’s professional summary short and concise.
A teacher’s professional summary should not be too big. About 60 to 80 words can make for a good teacher’s summary though it can be shorter too. Too big a professional summary might be ignored by the interviewer, and professional summaries are written solely with the object of ensuring they will catch the eye of the interviewer.
- Make a point of showing teaching hours.
An easy tip while preparing a teacher’s professional summary is to include the teaching hours. The number will be big and seem impressive, and there is no better way to register one’s experience. A phrase like ‘with over 1200 hours of teaching experience is going to leave an impact.
- Refer to experience with modern teaching technologies.
Since the beginning of the recent COVID-19, the use of modern technologies for the purpose of teaching has taken a whole new level. As such, one’s dexterity with these technologies and online class management experience can make a powerful addition to the teacher’s professional summary.
- Show emotional intelligence in a teacher’s professional summary.
A good tip for preparing a good teacher’s professional summary is to show that one possesses a great deal of emotional intelligence – a tremendously desirable trait in a teacher as teachers are responsible kids who may not be able to express their own emotions very well. Merely mentioning in some way that one is emotionally intelligent is enough for an interviewer to give more weightage to one’s resume.
- Display leadership skills in a teacher’s professional summary.
Handling a class is not easy and handling a class in an effective manner while also keeping students motivated and active in their learning is quite an act of leadership. One should make a point of mentioning any occasions where one may have shown leadership quality.
- Include only the most relevant achievements and qualities in a teacher’s professional summary.
A smart tip is to include only the most relevant achievements in the teacher’s professional summary. That is because the achievements may be numerous, and one has to keep the summary brief. Thus it is better to mention only the qualities most relevant to the job. What is relevant may depend on a number of factors – for example, being multilingual may be relevant in places where it is a rare and desirable trait. Similarly, mentioning that one has won a Maths quiz will be a good addition to a teacher’s professional summary for those applying to be Maths or Physics teacher but not so much for a language teacher.
- Use statistics wherever possible to make it impactful.
One can also use a few statistical figures in a teacher’s professional summary wherever possible. Numbers tend to give a solid, confirmable strength to the whole summary. The number of teaching hours is a good start to mention; the number of research papers written (if any) might be another.
- Add a small slogan.
A small slogan such as ‘loves helping kids grow for a bright future’ will look powerful in a teacher’s professional summary, and one can easily include a small slogan like that.
- Show oneself to be an all-rounder
The last but not the least important tip for preparing an effective teacher’s professional summary is ensuring that one is not focusing on merely a few aspects of personality but actually showing oneself to be an all-rounder. Thus, it should mention qualities relating to a good moral and strong character, professional achievements, social skills, proficiency in various aspects of the job, etc.
A teacher’s professional summary and their resume
A teacher’s professional summary is an essential part of their resume, yet, merely writing a teacher’s professional summary is not enough. There are certain other things one can do with the resume itself to get the best benefits from a well-written teacher’s professional summary.
- Place a teacher’s professional summary at or near the beginning, giving it a central place.
One wants a teacher’s professional summary to be the first thing that the interviewer will notice. Thus, it is wise to give it a location in the beginning, just after the name and basic information.
- Only professional words should be used in the resume.
Whether it be the teacher’s professional summary or any other part of the resume, one should always keep the tone strictly professional while composing one’s CV.
- Try to use a standardised format for resumes only.
It is also imperative that one should go for a resume in a standardised format only if one wishes to be accepted as an employee by a reputed organisation.
The Bottom Line
One can easily wrap up the above discussion by concluding that teachers’ professional summaries can be potent means to captivate the attention of school authorities when applying for a job.
