Childhood, Adolescent, & Physical Education Resume & Cover Letter Guide

Tips for Creating a Successful Resume

Do design your descriptions to focus on your accomplishments, using action verbs to clearly indicate the skills you’ve used. See Sample Action Verb list on the next section.
Do try quantifying results in your descriptions, such as “Created marketing campaign that increased club membership by 25%.”
Do accompany your resume with a cover letter in most cases.
Do have others look over your resume for content and grammar. Your Career Coach is available to critique your resume.

Don’t make your margins and font size too small: margins no smaller than one inch and font size no smaller than 10 point.
Don’t include personal pronouns (e.g., I, me, we).
Don’t include personal information, physical characteristics, or photographs on your resume.
Don’t include the last line: “References available upon request” (see Sample Reference Document below).

Spelling and grammar errors
Missing email and phone information
Using passive language instead of “action” words
Not well organized, concise, or easy to skim
Not demonstrating results

There is no single way to format your resume. The format you choose should clearly present your strengths. However, the College of Education and Health at SUNY Brockport does have a recommended format that can be found on the following sections.

Chronological Format

This format is most familiar to employers and is most commonly used by Brockport students.

This style of resume presents your experience and education in reverse chronological sequence, starting with the most recent.

The experience section lists the date, job title, organization’s name, location, and a description of your activities.

This format is simple, straightforward, and especially useful for anyone with a history of directly relevant experience.

Combination Format

This format is suitable when you have relevant work experience in multiple skill areas and combines both the chronological and functional formats.

This style allows you to group your experiences or key selling points by functional areas (such as Research Experience and Teaching Experience), and then list those experiences in reverse chronological order within each section.

PDFs

Don’t forget to save your resume as a PDF if you have it in a PDF file. The PDF version will allow the employer the opportunity to see your resume in an attractive format, utilizing bold and underlines. When emailing resume files, name them so the employer can easily identify them as your resume. Last name, followed by first name, and the word “resume” is most helpful.

Constructing an Accomplishment Statement (Bullet Point)

Under each position you have on your resume, list bulleted accomplishment statements. These statements should explain what you did in the position, how you did it and the results of your actions. The skills you feel you have gained from your teaching related experiences should be represented through your accomplishment statements.

Bullet Point “Formula”

Action Verb + What + So What/How or Why

Action Verb: Always begin a bullet point with an action verb.

Use a variety of action verbs to show the variety of skills you have.

Average Bullet Point with Action Verb

Tutored an eighth-grade student

What: Give specifics as to what you did at that position.

This will make you unique.

Better Bullet Point with Action Verb and the What

Tutored an eighth-grade student in pre-algebra

So What: State what you achieved from your example; What was your purpose for doing what you did?

Perfect Achievement Statement with all three parts.

Tutored an eighth grade student in pre-algebra, using NYS Math curriculum
to raise her grade from a C to B+ over the course of a year.

Verbs

If the experience is ongoing, use the present tense of these verbs. No “ing”. When describing past experience, verbs should be in past tense “ed”.

When you were the teacher…
- Adapted, Advised, Clarified, Coached, Communicated, Conducted, Coordinated, Critiqued, Developed, Enabled, Encouraged, Evaluated, Explained, Facilitated, Focused, Guided, Individualized, Informed, Installed, Instructed, Motivated, Persuaded, Simulated, Stimulated, Taught, Tested, Trained, Transmitted, Tutored.
When you created or wrote something…
- Adapted, Combined, Composed, Conceptualized, Condensed, Created, Customized, Designed, Developed, Devised, Directed, Displayed, Established, Formulated, Founded, Illustrated, Initiated, Instituted, Integrated, Introduced, Invented, Modeled, Modified, Performed, Planned, Revised.
When you creatively brought an idea to life…
- Acted, Adapted, Combined, Composed, Conceptualized, Condensed, Created, Customized, Designed, Developed, Devised, Directed, Displayed, Entertained, Established, Fashioned, Formulated, Founded, Illustrated, Initiated, Invented, Modeled, Modified, Originated, Performed, Photographed, Planned, Revised, Revitalized, Shaped, Solved.
When you managed a project or group…
- Administered, Advanced, Analyzed, Assigned, Attained, Chaired, Controlled, Coordinated, Decided, Developed, Directed, Emphasized, Enhanced, Established, Generated, Headed, Hosted, Incorporated, Instituted, Led, Managed, Motivated, Organized, Oversaw, Planned, Prioritized, Produced, Recommended, Replaced, Reviewed, Scheduled, Supervised.
When numbers and figures are your thing…
- Administered, Adjusted, Allocated, Analyzed, Appraised, Assessed, Balanced, Calculated, Computed, Controlled, Corrected, Decreased, Determined, Developed, Estimated, Managed, Measured, Planned, Prepared, Programmed, Projected, Reduced, Researched, Retrieved.
When you were a research machine…
- Analyzed, Clarified, Collected, Compared, Conducted, Critiqued, Detected, Determined, Diagnosed, Evaluated, Examined, Experimented, Explored, Extracted, Gathered, Identified, Inspected, Interpreted, Interviewed, Invented, Investigated, Located, Measured, Organized, Researched, Reviewed, Searched, Solved, Summarized.

Buzz Words

These are terms you should be familiar with as you embark on a teaching career. Buzz words are particularly effective when used sparingly on a resume, accompanied by direct examples to support their claims. Reflect on any teaching-specific language and resources you have employed in your instruction.

Below is a list of potential buzzwords:

Multi-cultural instruction
Team teaching
Guided reading
Technology
Thematic unit
Critical thinking
Literacy (Literature) circles
Differentiated instruction
Modified instruction
Interactive exercises

Interdisciplinary learning
Manipulatives
Student centers
Peer teaching
Response to Intervention (RtI)
Cooperative Learning
Balanced Literacy
IEP (Individual Education Plan)
ESL/ELL Students
Student Assessment

Resumes

A resume is a concise summary of your qualifications, education, and relevant work experiences that support your job search objectives. The purpose of a resume is to obtain an interview. Employers will spend less than 30 seconds reviewing your resume; therefore, the information must be conveyed in a clear, well-organized style.

The sections of a resume are listed below:

Using AI to Write or Edit Your Documents

Your resume and cover letter should authentically represent who you are and what you have to offer. To this end, generative AI can be a useful tool in the editing process.

For example, it can help you brainstorm revisions to bullet points, incorporate keywords gleaned from a job description, or otherwise improve what you already have.

Generative AI should not be the primary author, not least because its output will likely be very generic.

Cover Letters

Tips for creating an effective cover letter:

Collect your thoughts. Your ideas may not come out logically or sequentially, but write them down. Don’t judge or evaluate; simply collect them.
Spend time on your letter. As the adage goes, “With part-time effort, you get part-time results.”
Write a draft, let it cool off overnight, and then rewrite if necessary.
Use a strong close, e.g.., “After you have had an opportunity to review this letter, I will call you…” Avoid weak endings such as “I look forward to your reply” or “Please call me at your earliest convenience.”
Limit your letter to one page; a letter is an opportunity to sell, so say something about you, while also focusing on the needs of the employer. Write the way you talk. It should be well-worded, concise, and controlled in the use of the pronoun “I”.
While a general cover letter can be used, best results come from personalizing each letter to fit the specific circumstances, position, or organization.
Ask for opinions, advice, and feedback from friends, a counselor, or someone in the profession. Check spelling and grammar.
Business letters should look conservative. If you want to be creative, do so in your choice of words. If should be aesthetically appealing with careful attention to spacing and format.
Don’t use someone else’s letter. If you are using the same letter for several companies, remember to update the name in the body of your letter.
Devise a system to keep track of the follow-up steps you will take and the responses you receive. Most students have found that binders or file folders for organizing the job search and its correspondence are essential.
Follow up, follow up. People will call you, but you’ll improve your odds dramatically if you follow up your letters with a phone call.
Don’t mark letters “personal and confidential” unless there is a solid reason why a secretary or an administrative assistant can’t open them. If your letter is persuasive enough, it will get through.

Cover Letters Online

Increasingly, job seekers are being asked to submit their resumes and cover letters online.

These letters are about half the length of a regular cover letter. It is important to mention in your letter how you found out about the position, what you are looking for, and what you have to offer. You might also mention a few keywords the organization might want to hear. Most importantly, be succinct.

Most experts recommend that you compose your cover letter offline first before importing it into an outgoing email message.

Additional Tips

Resumes are only as good as the letter accompanying them. So make sure that you spend some time on your letter and direct it to the appropriate person.
What you write and how you write, it tells potential employers a great deal about your professional competency and personality.
In a job search aimed at business and professional circles, proper procedures, and communication etiquette are important.
A cover letter should entice an employer to want to take action on your résumé. It should persuade the employer to invite you for a job interview.