How to Write an Effective Teacher Cover Letter Includes Sample and Template Kathleen Jasper

hi there i'm kathleen jasper and today i'm going to teach you how to write an effective cover letter many of you are seeking teaching positions and you are sending out your resumes and you're stumped on how to write that cover letter so i'm going to give you some tips and tricks today to apply for any position let's get started all right so thank you for being here today we're going to talk about how to write cover letter i'm going to focus today specifically on teacher resume cover letter but you can use these techniques for any position you are seeking and specifically today i'm going to be talking about those who do not have experience as teachers know many of you are going out and trying to find teaching positions and you haven't taught yet in the classroom you can still get position without having experience but it does help to have you know effective cover letter so i'm going to show you how to do that today now i've already done whole series on how to write teacher resume you can get that here i'll link that up so after you watch this video definitely go and watch that resume series it will help you it has downloads it has templates and all kinds of things believe it's three video series and we'll help you with applying for any teaching positions but today we're going to focus mainly on the cover letter and how to write that effectively and have four main tips right off the bat for you to keep in mind when writing the cover letter now used to screen applicants when was an assistant principal so my summers consisted of going through different resumes and putting you know people in different piles who we were going to definitely interview who we might interview and who we were not going to interview so i've seen many cover letters i've seen many resumes and know what was looking for what my principal was looking for and what other principles and aps were looking for because we would always talk about that so the four points want you to keep in mind when writing your cover letter is first each cover letter should be specific and have specific details to the job you are seeking so if you are putting resume out to five different schools you want five different cover letters that are specific to that particular position okay now it doesn't mean that there are not going to be similarities and also you could have an overarching template or skeleton of your cover letter but you want to bring in some specifics from the job description from that school in order to make your cover letter pop the second tip want you to consider is to be direct too often i've read cover letters where someone's going around the world my favorite the first grade teacher was mrs jones and she did this and it's like you know what i'm sorry but don't care okay have hundred cover letters to go through need you to be direct and tell me exactly what you're trying to do okay so less is more when it comes to the cover letter and you want to get right in and say what you are trying to do am seeking 5th grade teaching position am seeking 10th grade social studies position whatever it is say it in the first sentence don't want to go around the world to read what you are trying to say the third tip want you to keep in mind is to keep it simple and short the people who are screening all of the applicants for the school are going through hundreds of cover letters and so when we see these long dissertations for cover letters it like makes me die little bit inside keep it short keep it simple and keep it direct and you will get to the top of the heap and you'll be on the good side of the assistant principal and the principal and finally the fourth and one of the most important parts of writing cover letter is to use the job descriptions and the key words in the job description inside of your cover letter you want to make sure that you are being specific and pulling some of those good words from the teaching position job description in your cover letter and i'm going to show you how to do that all right so went ahead and just pulled any teaching position job description here now it depends on what state you're in and it depends on what district you're in but typically teaching positions are going to look like this it's going to be under the supervision of the school principle here and then it's going to talk about that your job is really to facilitate student success here implement district approved curriculum always see that in every job description you're gonna be focusing on outcomes of students that has to do with student success and you're gonna create flexible and safe learning environments for students then you'll come down here into the essential functions and here's where things really get specific specific things about that school or about that teaching position that you are going to want to focus on so i'm going to use all of this when it comes to my cover letter all right now let's jump over and see what my cover letter looks like now you can see here that it is short it's only about two full paragraphs and one small ending at the end something like this would make me as an assistant principal screening cover letters very happy it looks manageable it is not an entire page with tiny little spacing it is short sweet and succinct i'm already happy you're already in my good graces because i'm looking at this and it is short because have lot to do today right so let's take look at the first paragraph here now the first paragraph here is going to match this kind of general position purpose here remember we want to go general little bit while being direct and then get more specific so i'm going to use this first kind of area here to start my cover letter and when do you can see it says dr mendez am applying for the position of fifth grade teacher at abc elementary school boom right away tell you exactly what am trying to do don't go around the world don't put bunch of fluff in there come right in and say i'm applying for the fifth grade position that helps especially at elementary school because might be sorting first grade teachers second grade teachers third grade teachers so right away know where you're going what pile you're going in you say it in the first sentence don't have to try to figure it out okay then it says over the last several months have been working towards my professional teaching certificate so many of you are not done yet you're not professionally certified that's okay in many states you can become teacher without having your professional certificate you can be eligible to teach with bachelor's degree and you know few things that you have done working towards your professional certification now have done video recently on how to become teacher basically and i'll link that up here as well and that outlines all of that so you've already watched that video hopefully if not go back and watch it and you know that because you have bachelor's and you're working towards your teaching certificate you can teach legally in the state you are in many states allow you to do that but every state is different so make sure you check with your state department of education so it's saying here i'm working towards it and here go have learned to now have not taught yet but through my work towards my professional teaching certificate have learned to and here is where i'm going to list specific things from that position statement in the top of the job description have learned to identify and implement district curriculum align to the standards you know that those are good words that's music to principal's ears because you have to teach to the academic standards for the state focus on student outcomes very good we want our students to be successful and so outcomes is very very important differentiate instruction based on student needs another awesome phrase good words not just on your teaching cover letter but also on any certification exam you know that if you've been watching my videos for long time and then finally create flexible safe and optimal learning environment all right now not only is this paragraph good start to my letter it is specific it is direct and listed the things that you see in this kind of position purpose of the job description very important another thing want to show you is it's grammatically correct you want to make sure that your grammar is on point when you're writing cover letter you do not want want mistakes so if you're someone who struggles in that you are going to want to have somebody read it proof it that type of thing okay now just something want to show you quickly for the grammar perspective let me zoom in here notice that my list of things is parallel so parallel structure is very important so we start here have learned to identify focus differentiate and create notice my verbs are present tense present tense present tense and then ident identify what i'm doing so say have learned to identify and implement district curriculum focus on student outcomes differentiate instruction based on student needs and create flexible safe and optimal learning environment everything is parallel there it's separated by commas it's grammatically correct and it uses the words and skill sets that they are looking for in that general job position statement on the job description now in the second paragraph i'm going to get specific about what have done and i'm going to use pieces of the job description in those bulleted points let's take look at that right here so want to tell the principal where am in my certification process in that second paragraph and i'm going to then apply that to these bullets i'm going to show you how to do that really quickly so first want to tell the principal or assistant principal what have done and you can see that right here have passed the praxis core and the praxis elementary education 5001. so let's say that am teaching in you know don't know arkansas or somewhere and i'm trying to you know get certified in that area and these are the tests that have to pass in that area so i'm telling the principal already i've passed the praxis core and i've passed my elementary education right away that's going to help me because the principal needs you to be at certain like level in order to hire you it's best if you've already started that process because then know you're close to being professionally certified if you haven't done anything yet it's little bit difficult because know that you have to pre pass these things within three years in most states it's three years some it's two and if you don't have to terminate you and then have to do this all over again so telling the principal that you've already passed these tests is going to be beneficial in your cover letter so right away have passed the praxis core and the praxis elementary education 5001. so that's already two tests and then say i'm finishing up my last exam principles of learning and teaching five six two two so let's just say i'm in state these are the tests have to take you may be in another state you may have different test name whatever it is just put them in there what have you taken and what have you passed and then have here and planned to be professionally certified by february so if you are somebody who is on temporary certificate or letter of eligibility you want to make sure that you kind of tell your principal am anticipating being completely certified professionally certified by this date that gives the principal another reassurance of that you are working towards it you're close and that he or she is not going to have to worry about you know terminating you because you haven't finished in the amount of time allotted for that so again go over that in how to become teacher talk little bit about that but remember you can teach on on temporary certificate or letter of eligibility however you only have certain amount of years and letting the principal know that you plan on being certified in this particular time frame is very helpful in your cover letter and then go in and say have completed my alternative certification coursework so that's another piece of the puzzle when it comes to becoming professionally certified you have to do alternative coursework now maybe you haven't finished maybe you say have finished 12 out of the 15 hours need or finish four out of the six courses need whatever it is for your state just put in there what you have done maybe you've just started maybe you are in the first year of your letter of eligibility then you would put that here i've already gotten my letter of eligibility and i've already started my coursework so maybe you put in there your letter of eligibility started in january 2021 or maybe it started august 2021 and you've already started your coursework all right just giving the principal the idea that you're on it you're getting certified you are working towards it now this is great segue into because your certification course work you can say okay i'm working in classroom management reading in the content area and standard based instruction now every state is different but for the most part these are the types of courses you're going to take and you could say that these are the actual course names or you could say something like have completed my alternative certification or am in the process of completing my alternative certification coursework and i'm learning lot about classroom management you know whatever reading in the content area blah blah and then this is important these courses have prepared me for the classroom and am confident can and here comes let me just zoom out little bit here comes the bulleted points that we have in our job description here pulled out few things here and say am confident good word can develop and deliver district approved curriculum design effective lessons and activities coordinate with other professionals engage with parents and community members and promote safe and organized learning environment now what love about that last sentence is it is specific it's also entry level you didn't like start talking about like action research and all of this other stuff now if you're going for leadership position you may want to hype it up little bit more but your entry level here you're just starting in the profession and you want to use some of that stuff that you've learned from my youtube videos or from your coursework or whatever and put them in here and all of these you know little areas here that talk about they are in here so we have school district goals and objectives you always want to be working through that administering curriculum it says here coordinates with professionals so notice that just pulled out some of the that information and just put it in the last sentence there don't need to write dissertation i'm just saying know can do this because i'm learning that in my coursework now haven't taught yet but can apply what i've done in my coursework to the classroom and then it says here's the last part and this is where you want to talk about being of service to the school so say here am certain that can be an asset to your school and am committed to learning and growing as an educator okay this tells the principal don't know everything okay but want to learn and want to grow and want to become an awesome educator and so put that in the last sentence want to be confident in myself because want the principal to be confident so want to say i'm certain can be an asset to you and your school and am committed to learning and growing which means you're teachable which means you're coachable which means you're not just someone who know everything already don't need to be you know taught anything it says i'm an asset and i'm willing to learn and grow and that's good thing to put in your cover letter and then just say thank you for your consideration and then my name here that's really important now be careful of titles and letters and things like that after your name now if you have phd you can put the phd after your name if you have master's degree you could put the med at the end of your name but that can be in your resume where you have your education listed there sometimes when someone puts like bunch of letters next to their name it kind of comes off as it's little off-putting in the cover letter look if you're used to putting letters next to your name you've earned them do it if it's important to you do it but what it shows to me is when someone just signs their name kathleen jasper and then in the resume see that they have master's degree it's much better than me doing you know this you know what i'm saying this kind of comes off as little bit don't know it's just something would would consider just taking that off do have an edd yes do sign it every time not all the time sometimes do it just depends but in this situation you could just sign your name and let your resume do the talking when it comes to your education all right and then of course up here have little bit of heading with my name and all of that so this cover letter right here would be you know effective way to show the principal or assistant principle that you're ready to enter the classroom and based on my experience screening teachers would put this one at the top of the heap for four reasons number one it is specific to the job description that we have put out for the teachers the second is that it is direct know exactly what this teacher is trying to do and know exactly what position this teacher is applying for the third thing is that it's short sweet and succinct very effective talks about you know what what the person wants to do in shortened manner and then finally it uses specifics from the job description uses the good words we're looking for as school and you know it talks about the teacher is confident but also willing to learn and grow as an educator so it checks all of the boxes all right hope you enjoyed that video today and that it helps you will link up this cover letter in the description below so you can use it as template please consider giving this video thumbs up letting your colleagues know we are here and subscribing to this youtube channel if you have any more questions go ahead and throw them in the comments below i'm really appreciative that you are here watching my channel have great day thank you so much for watching we have ton of videos on my youtube channel please consider subscribing and following me on my social media networks at kathleen jasper have great day you