First of all I must apologize, I never fully recapped my February of happiness. So I'll leave you with this there were only 7 or 9 days that I didn't do anything outside of work or hanging alone that I didn't do anything the entire month. Some days I did two or three things. I found myself quite happy at the end of the month- and am still writing down what makes me happy every single day.
This brings us back to my March goal of preparing for Job Search 2011. Today I decided I had to stop postponing things and requested letters of reference from a ton of people I work with. I'm still at a loss as to what to do about my cover letter and resume. I need a basic body for my cover letter that can be tweaked if there are any major differences in my job. But how do I show how AWESOME I am at teaching in a short letter or on a one page resume? Is it possible? I know I'm good, great even. I LOVE teaching, it's important to me, and I cannot wait to find myself in front of my own classroom again getting kids to learn and maybe even like literature- from the classics to new inspiring young adult lit.
It's been hard to be inspired about teaching as I keep hearing acquaintances, some friends, and the media talk about teachers in a somewhat negative way. There are perks to being a teacher too- but there is a lot of things that we do that no one ever recognizes. The extra hours before and after school, the original worksheets and assignments that we create specifically for classes, the hours and hours of grading on the weekends, the money we spend so that our students have pens, pencils, and paper. The general public doesn't know that even when I'm sitting on my couch watching The Office, I'm also googling lesson ideas, printing out worksheets, researching teaching methods and more. At my current job I get spit on, cussed at, and am at risk of injury daily. In fact one of my coworkers recently got a concussion. This isn't to complain- I like my job a lot, it's to point out that we go through a lot more than people realize, and I think deserve to be treated with a bit more respect because we are well educated professionals, just like private sector employees.
Anyone with any ideas on how to translate my passion into words and put it into a cover letter please let me know. Even as an English teacher I sometimes struggle with finding the right words to get my point across.
Are you searching for a job too? Any tips or tricks?
Are you restricted to a one page resume or cover letter? I know that at this point in my heard I should have a full cv and answer everything in a job posting, which may require going beyond the one page cover letter. I would ask around, I'm not sure what it looks like in teaching.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I work with applicants a bunch and am willing to read anything you may need help on. I may not be excellent, but I'd be a willing party.
Good point- I'm not 100 percent sure, but I do know last year the jobs I applied for were getting 250 plus applicants, so I just kind of assume that shorter is better because I'm sure they don't have a ton of time to look at every one's stuff. I also want to make sure I'm not rambling. Luckily the job postings are usually very simple "high school English 7-12 or 6-12 license required."
ReplyDeleteLet me ask my friend Beth what her application for her position at Westlake looked like. She is really good about sharing things and if she is willing to share with you, I'll send it your way? It's totally up to you, but just let me know. I'll fb you with my email address so we can communicate through there.
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