You’re passionate about helping kids through one of their first school experiences. Basic skills are taught, groups are managed, and a patient mindset is used when working with your students.
Can your resume template and complementary preschool teacher cover letter provide the platform to help launch your teaching career?
It’s common for entry-level teaching candidates to be confused about what to put on their resumes. Use our entry-level preschool teacher resume examples as effective templates to display the most desirable teaching skills in today’s job market. Also, try our free cover letter builder and create the perfect application.
Why this resume works
- Recommendations are one of the best things you can add to your entry-level preschool teacher resume. Since you’re fairly new, they’ll boost your credibility right off the bat and that’s just the beginning.
- Having certificates of recommendation is a great way to assert that you’ve got what it takes to impress industry-related employers in the past and are ready to take on a new role.
What Matters Most: Your Entry-Level Preschool Teacher Skills & Work Experience
Early education is a prime time for kids to develop the essential skills they’ll need to succeed in their upcoming learning years. Schools will want to know what you bring to the table that will help in that process.
Finding the right skills to include for teachers who don’t have much experience is a common struggle. However, there’s lots of information you can list here. Prior customer service experience, volunteer work where you assisted others, or what you learned in your education can all be listed as skills.
Here are some of the top entry-level preschool teacher skills to get you started.
9 top entry-level preschool teacher skills
- Lesson Plans
- Parent Interaction
- Early Age Education
- Classroom Supervision
- Child CPR Certified
- Cooperative Learning
- Experiential Learning
- Growth Portfolios
- Classroom Safety
Sample entry-level preschool teacher work experience bullet points
Teachers without much experience can also struggle with listing relevant work experiences on their resumes.
Pulling relevant examples from previous work experience can help a lot. For instance, if you achieved 97% positive customer satisfaction scores at a retail job, it still shows you can work with others effectively.
You can also use educational experiences. Maintaining high grades in early education courses or completing a research project on childhood development where you received great scores would show you have the knowledge needed for the job.
Here are a few samples:
- Completed coursework preparing curriculum and lesson plans using experiential learning principles, receiving a 98% overall grade.
- Trained retail team members in proper customer service protocols, resulting in 58% higher customer satisfaction scores.
- Taught and directed group lesson plans as a teaching aide, using group management skills to ensure all students grasped the material, resulting in 45% higher information retention.
- Diligently studied proper safety protocols and emergency practices to complete the child CPR certificate with a 96% overall grade on the final exam.
Top 5 Tips for Your Entry-Level Preschool Teacher Resume
- Each example should be measurable
- Schools will want to see the results you can achieve for the children in your class. Examples that can be measured in numerical metrics will help show your abilities. For instance, you could explain how you facilitated a supportive environment as a teaching aide, resulting in 57% more student participation.
- One page is optimal
- It can be challenging for some entry-level teaching candidates to fill out enough details on a one-page resume but aim for a full page of relevant information. Fill in with examples from your early childhood educational courses, work in other fields, or hobbies & interests wherever needed to showcase enough relevant skills.
- Consider an objective
- Entry-level preschool teachers can benefit from a resume objective. You could write a few sentences about how you’re a caring educator with three years of customer service experience that you’re eager to apply to provide a great classroom environment.
- Proofread thoroughly
- Attentiveness will be one of your top priorities when managing a classroom. You can immediately show your detail-oriented abilities by submitting a resume free of grammatical errors.
- Care and knowledge should be emphasized
- Your examples should include details about how you’ll exhibit care for your students and have the knowledge to provide the best education. For instance, your knowledge and ability to facilitate an inclusive learning environment as a teaching assistant could show your use of both skills.
Reverse chronological formatting will work best. Your most recent experiences will be the most relevant to your current classroom management and educational planning skills, so they should be listed first.
Many schools emphasize their culture, so a hobbies & interests section could be beneficial. For instance, volunteering for a youth literacy program at your local library would be a great example of your passion for early childhood education.
You should submit a cover letter to portray a well-rounded overview of your teaching skills. Your cover letter can fill in additional details like why you want to work for a specific school, your passion for early-age education, or how your knowledge makes you well-equipped for the position.
Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of BeamJobs. He started his career in data fulfilling the dream of little kids everywhere: working for an insurance company. He then moved on to work in edtech for a company called Chegg before venturing out to start BeamJobs. Things have come a long way after countless “learnings” (fancy word for mistakes), and BeamJobs has now helped 2.5M+ people create their perfect resume. Stephen and BeamJobs have been featured on awesome sites like Business Insider, Chicago Tribune, Dallas News, Baltimore Sun, the Daily Press, Zendesk, HubSpot, and loads more.
