The Teaching Cover Letter: Out Of The Classroom And Into Reality

A teacher has a great job to do: he or she must be mentor and supervisor in the classroom, and counselor outside of it. Such a job requires people skills, passion, enthusiasm, and a lot of patience. Such a job is actually in great demand: there are thousands of schools all over the world with so many students, but with very few good teachers.

If you are looking for a job as a teacher, then you might be preparing your documents right now. Your resume will probably outline all your educational and career achievements, and will show all the awards you received, all the work you had peer-reviewed or published, and all the workshops or seminars you participated in and attended. Your transcript will show all the wonderful grades you got. Your cover letter will act as the complement to both these documents, and showcase your personality.

But wait, you think: can the cover letter be so important? How can one sheet of paper hold so much power? Do prospective employers actually read the cover letter?

Believe it or not, a cover letter is actually the most important part of your job application. Your teaching cover letter can show your passion for teaching, as well as your enthusiasm in dealing with different people. Your resume and transcript can only go so far in providing your prospective employers a glimpse of your personality.

So what goes into the great teaching cover letter? Your cover letter has to grab your reader's attention, and make the attention stay there. There are so many ways by which you can do this - but there are also so many ways by which you can get it wrong. First, you need to use direct, terse language that does not alienate your letter's reader. Stay away from deep English words, long paragraphs, or run-on sentences. Check your grammar: if you are careful about how you write your letters, you can be careful with how you handle your job, and your prospective employers can sense this.

Don't make your letter boring: use language that is conversational and exciting, but be polite and tactful. You want your teaching cover letter to be bold, and to show your passion. You want to be a personality in the classroom, not a cardboard cutout reading lessons to a bunch of sleepy students. Your letter should reflect this desire, so make every word count.

Your teaching cover letter should also be relevant to the school's mission and goals. State your experience as a teacher, and make sure that you align all these experiences with how you want your career to progress, and how this career progression is in line with the school's own aims. Show that you can offer the school something, and that you can make its students better than ever. You have only a few sentences at your disposal, however, so avoid gushing about what you can do and what you want to do.

Lastly, use an active, exciting voice in your letter. State that you are looking forward to being interviewed, and that you anticipate a positive response from your prospective employers. Provide contact information, and make sure that all the information is valid. Don't make any promises that you can't keep: wait for the phone call or email from the school, and respond immediately. If you don't hear from your prospective employers, make a follow-up call. Show persistence and dedication at this stage of the job application, and chances are, you might be hired as a teacher.

Your teaching cover letter should show what kind of a teacher you will be. You have to show personality and be exciting, but you have to be mature and professional at the same time. If you can show your passion and make your teaching cover letter matter, then your teaching career may soon blossom into the kind of career that you really want.