Teacher resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 15 skills, tools and credentials that come up in teacher job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 11
- Lesson planning (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- Curriculum development
- Differentiated instruction (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- Classroom management (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- Formative assessment (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- Data-driven instruction (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- Standards-aligned instruction
- IEP (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- 504 plans
- English language learners (ELL)
- PLC
Tools & software · 2
- Google Classroom (used in Hannah's sample resume)
- Canvas (used in Hannah's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 1
- Teaching license (used in Hannah's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Parent communication (used in Hannah's sample resume)
10 of 15 appear in Hannah's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
IEP
Weak: Skills: IEP
Strong: Co-taught inclusion classes with special education staff, implementing IEP accommodations for 20+ students
Student growth
Weak: Helped students improve their scores
Strong: Raised the share of students meeting grade-level benchmarks from 58% to 71% in two years
Differentiation
Weak: Differentiated instruction
Strong: Ran weekly small-group reteaching from exit-ticket data, cutting unit test failures by a third
Inclusion
Weak: Worked with special education students
Strong: Co-taught inclusion classes and implemented IEP accommodations for 20+ students
Strong bullets come from Hannah's sample resume and our teacher bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a teacher post asks for Lesson planning and you've used it, say Lesson planning, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a teacher post says "Curriculum development", write "Curriculum development", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Lesson planning — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know IEP. A bullet like the one under 6th Grade Math and Science Teacher in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
Which of these does your resume say?
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/ Questions
Teacher keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a teacher resume have?
There's no magic number. Hannah's sample resume uses 10 of the 15 terms on this page — the ones that fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a teacher post says "Lesson planning", write "Lesson planning" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Hannah's sample, IEP shows up in a bullet under 6th Grade Math and Science Teacher. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a teacher resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in teacher posts include Google Classroom and Canvas. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list Teaching license on my resume?
Spell it the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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