Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in TN
I just graduated Saturday
I thought about saying something like "I know there might not be a correlation between having a 4.0 GPA and being an effective teacher ...
|
Hi Mike and
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You've made a wonderful achievement!
First rule of selling anything to anyone anywhere (which is what a resume and an interview are):
don't speak in negatives. EVER. Always support, enhance and expand your listener's or reader's POSITIVE impression of you. Take absolutely every idea you can think of, and
state it as a positive. This is also a wonderful way to be a teacher: guiding kids in what to do, not what not to do, as the doing is something they can do, but the not-doing ... See the difference?
So the idea you stated (bolded above) becomes, for example:
My completion of military service and achievement of a 4.0 GPA clearly show I achieve goals.
See the difference? The negative way instills doubt; the positive way instills confidence.
The previous posters both have superb suggestions, and you'll want to incorporate their words and ideas:
"maturity" or "mature judgment" ( employers love those ideas and words)
real-world experience
stability
focus
achieve goals ("achieve" is a strong, positive action word; "attain" is less strong, more effete, not quite as effective at instilling confidence).
Measure every word you use; do it with a Thesaurus which is spectacularly helpful.
"Driven", to many people, can mean obsessive, insane, narrow-minded, inflexible. "Enthusiastic" is an entirely positive word; so is "motivated".
"Can" as in "shows that I ... can attain goals" might suggest "maybe" -- I can, but do I?? is a
possible connotation. Do you? -- then just state the confident, accomplished positive. See the difference?
When communicating in any way to the school, don't use "lame" and "stuff" and words like that. It's fine and appropriate to use them with the kids, but not with the adults... until you become friends with them. Not friendly, friends. There's a feeling of a bit of intellectual elitism about teachers and school officials; try to meet them on terms they feel comfortable with, such as not using casual language.
You should create two documents: the resume, and the letter introducing yourself.
The resume should be truthful, not wordy (not even complete sentences) but packed with positive information that instills confidence and liking in the reader, such as summarizing very briefly your military history including rank, type of discharge, team leadership experience; after all, a class is a team, right?
The letter should be BRIEF, no more than two very short paragraphs.
You can Google for samples of both of these; use a style that looks
cleanest, least cluttered on the page.
Your sentence about 4.0, military history, stability, mature judgment and achieving goals belongs in the letter.
STAPLE the letter on top of the resume so that neither of them strays from the other (be certain to put your name and address on both papers).
RUN EVERYTHING YOU DO THROUGH SPELLCHECK BEFORE YOU PRINT ANYTHING. College graduates and teachers are supposed to be educated, so they're supposed to spell correctly -- which you did in your entire post.
Mike in TN, you've got everything going for you! Know that Life will show you the best your path has to offer you. Go forth in joy!!