Early Childhood Teacher Examples & Templates
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Early childhood teachers play a pivotal role in supporting children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development through age-appropriate learning activities.
Using our expertly crafted early childhood teacher resume samples and pro tips, we can help you write a resume highlighting your expert planning, problem-solving and organizational skills.
Start by editing this resume for an early childhood teacher, or explore our library of customizable resume templates to find one that matches your preferred style.
Early childhood teacher resume sample (text version)
Janet Downs
Philadelphia, PA 19111
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com
Skills
- Lesson plan development
- Safe learning environment
- Classroom and discipline management
- Early childhood curriculum development
- First Aid certificate
- Computer literacy
- Communication
- Organization
Education
June 2019
Temple University Philadelphia, PA
Bachelor of Science Early Childhood Education
Certifications
- National Board Certification (Early Childhood Generalist Category)
- Early Childhood Education Certification
- Child Development Associate (CDA) credential
Professional Summary
Dedicated early childhood teacher passionate about encouraging children to develop socially, emotionally and intellectually. Bilingual, educated and experienced with groups of up to 22 children. Specializes in developing fun and educational programs based on student interests.
Work History
January 2021 – Current
Bright Star Learning Academy – Philadelphia, PA
Early Childhood Teacher
- Develop math and literature lessons based on a curriculum for children between the ages of two and six.
- Supervise play and education for up to 22 students at once.
- Develop a new program based on musical education, improving students’ behavior by 20%.
- Train five new teachers successfully to teach lesson plans.
- Maintained well-controlled classrooms by clearly outlining standards and reinforcing positive behaviors.
- Track student progress through regular assessments.
September 2016 – December 2020
Chesterbrook Academy – Philadelphia, PA
Preschool Assistant Teacher
- Supervised 20 children during in-classroom activities and on the playground.
- Assisted teacher by developing lesson plans to meet educational goals for each child.
- Delivered clear, concise instructions to children to aid in each student’s decision-making.
- Followed school policies and regulations regarding instruction and safety at all times, decreasing accidents by 99%.
- Educated students in foundational concepts such as shapes, numbers and letters under the supervision of a licensed teacher.
June 2014 – August 2016
Childspace Center – Philadelphia, PA
Teacher’s Aide
- Set up visual aids, equipment and classroom displays to support teacher’s lesson delivery.
- Monitored 18 students on field trips, handling roll calls and group movements to keep youths safe in public settings.
- Took daily attendance, notifying classroom teacher immediately of student absences.
- Kept classrooms clean, neat and properly sanitized for student health and classroom efficiency.
- Maintained well-controlled classrooms by clearly outlining standards and reinforcing positive behaviors.
Important resume sections
Contact details
Begin your early childhood teacher resume with a header with your name and contact information. As our early childhood teacher sample resume shows, you should include your full name, city, state, ZIP code, phone number and professional email address. If you have a professional website or portfolio, LinkedIn profile or other professional networking profile, you can add them to this section.
Personal statement
A personal statement, or professional summary, for an early childhood teacher resume, is typically a three-to-five-sentence statement that clearly and concisely tells the hiring manager the value you can bring to the role and how it aligns with their needs.
You should aim to include some of your strongest job-relevant skills in your summary and one or two quantifiable accomplishments that demonstrate the results you’ve achieved in previous jobs. For example:
Dedicated and student-centered Early Childhood Teacher with over seven years of experience fostering engaging, inclusive and nurturing learning environments for students. Proven track record of enhancing early childhood education programs, resulting in a 20% increase in kindergarten readiness scores. Adept at employing innovative teaching strategies, individualized lesson planning and effective classroom management techniques to support diverse learning needs and promote social-emotional development. Strong collaborator with a history of building productive relationships with parents and colleagues to drive student success.
If you are applying for your first job or changing careers, consider using an early childhood teacher resume objective instead.
Skills
Creating a compelling skills section for your early childhood teacher resume can help hiring managers quickly identify your strongest job-relevant skills. Using bullet points for this section can make it balanced and easy to scan. Some examples of crucial skills for early childhood teachers include:
- Communication: Essential for effectively conveying instructions, providing feedback and building relationships with students, parents, and colleagues.
- Adaptability: Early childhood teachers need to be able to adjust their teaching methods and strategies to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of young children.
- Organization: Planning lessons, maintaining detailed student records and managing classroom resources require keen organizational skills.
Consider the job description as you decide what skills to include in this section. As our sample early childhood teacher resume demonstrates, it can be helpful to include hard skills, like learning management systems or lesson planning software, as well as soft skills, like creativity, patience and empathy.
Work history
Including a work history or professional experience section is a must on a resume for an early childhood teacher. Make sure to start with your most recent position, first, moving in reverse chronological order, and provide job titles, company names, locations and dates of employment for all positions that you list.
You should also include three to five bullet points per job, effectively describing your responsibilities and highlighting your most relevant skills and accomplishments for each role. Here are some examples of early childhood teacher bullet points:
- Created and implemented age-appropriate curricula, annually enhancing early literacy and numeracy skills for over 25 students.
- Fostered a positive classroom environment through effective behavior management strategies, reducing disruptive incidents by 30%.
- Maintained detailed records of student progress, attendance and behavior.
- Ensured strict compliance with all applicable state regulations and school policies.
Suppose you are writing a resume for an early childhood teacher who has yet to gain experience. In that case, you can also highlight volunteer work, student teaching experience, internships or extracurricular activities that helped you learn and apply relevant skills. Explore our resume examples for early childhood teachers to see samples of the additional work history section.
Education
As you can see in our sample resume for an early childhood education teacher, it’s also important to include an education section. In this section, start with your highest degree and work backward, showing the degree title, school name and graduation year.
Educational requirements for early childhood teachers can vary widely from state to state, so it’s important to research your individual state’s requirements.
Most states, though, require early childhood teachers to have some type of post-secondary degree and other professional certifications or licenses. You can see how to list education on a resume for additional tips and examples.
See why MyPerfectResume is a 5-star resume builder
Action words for your resume
Using action words in your resume can make the descriptions of your experience more compelling and engaging for the reader. Here is a short list of action words for an early childhood teacher resume:
- Facilitate
- Present
- Encourage
- Develop
- Motivate
- Demonstrate
- Prepare
- Enable
- Outline
- Create
- Assess
- Communicate
- Implement
- Instruct
- Clarify
- Track
- Supervise
Want more inspiration? We have 800+ resume examples to help you write an early childhood teacher resume.
Best skills for your resume
Make sure that you are reviewing job descriptions closely to match the required skills for your target roles to the ones that align with your experience. Here are some key skills that you may want to include in your early childhood teacher resume skills section:
- Child development knowledge
- Curriculum design and implementation
- Lesson planning
- Classroom management
- Assessment and evaluation
- Differentiated instruction
- Social-emotional learning (SEL)
- Early literacy and numeracy
- Individualized education plans (IEPs)
- Technology integration
- Behavioral intervention
- Family engagement
- Language development
- Cultural competence
- Learning management systems (LMS)
- Assessment tools
- Lesson planning software
- Educational technology
- Organization
- Communication
- Problem-solving
- Collaboration
- Relationship building
Our Resume Builder has all the tools you need to create a professional resume in minutes! We’ll help you fill in your template, make edits on the fly and download and save your finished resume in multiple file formats. It’s that easy!
Certifications for your resume
There are several different certifications that an early childhood teacher could add to their resume to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise. Some certifications may even be required, depending on the state you live in.
Just like with educational requirements, it’s important to research any certification or licensing requirements in your state. Some relevant certifications to consider obtaining include:
- Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential
- State Teacher Certification
- Early Childhood Education (ECE) Certification
- National Board Certification
- CPR and First Aid Certification
Adding relevant certifications to a resume can demonstrate your commitment to the profession and highlight your expertise in specific areas important for early childhood teachers.
Pair your resume with a matching cover letter
FAQ
What should be included in a resume for an early childhood teacher?
When applying for an early childhood teacher position, your resume should include a professional summary, a list of your work experience, education and training, certifications and a job-relevant skills section.
As you write your summary and develop bullet points to describe your previous positions, be sure that you are emphasizing the skills, abilities and accomplishments that will resonate most with hiring managers in your field. Including quantifiable metrics to highlight your successes and demonstrate the magnitude of your work is a good idea.
It is helpful to read job descriptions carefully to know what information will be most important and impactful for employers. See what to put on a resume for additional tips and ideas on what to include (and not include) on your early childhood teacher resume.
What should be the main focus of a professional summary on an early childhood teacher resume?
You want to use your personal statement or professional resume summary to catch the reader’s attention and interest them in you as a candidate.
To do this, it’s important to closely examine job descriptions so you understand their priorities and can showcase how you are a good fit for the role they want to fill.
It can also be a good idea to highlight role-specific attributes like your teaching philosophy, key skills essential for the role, and notable achievements demonstrating your effectiveness in fostering child learning and development.
The aim is to keep things concise, relevant and impactful to make a strong impression on the hiring manager.
What format should you use for an early childhood teacher resume?
There are a few different options that you can choose from when it comes to resume format, and it often depends on your experience and career goals. If you already have some experience, a chronological resume format that focuses on your work history and accomplishments might be best for you.
Suppose you have a few years of experience but are more interested in emphasizing your work experience and key skills. In that case, a combination resume format might be a better option.
A functional resume format could be a good idea if you are a new early childhood teacher. This format helps you focus on your relevant skills instead of emphasizing your experience.
What should I include on a resume for an early childhood teacher with no experience?
Suppose you don’t have any direct experience as an early childhood teacher. In that case, you can still create a strong resume by focusing on education and training, relevant skills, volunteer experience, internship or practicum experiences, extracurricular activities or other work experience.
Mentioning some of these other experiences, competencies and skill sets can help you explain the relevant (and valuable) transferable skills you possess that would translate well into an early childhood teacher role.
Additionally, highlighting relevant coursework, projects or training can allow you to showcase your solid foundation of knowledge in the field.
Best practices
- Use measurable achievements to describe your abilities and experience as an early childhood teacher. For example: “Designed and implemented a literacy program that increased preschoolers’ reading readiness by 20% over six months, as measured by standardized early literacy assessments.”
- Use action words to make an impact on your early childhood teacher resume.
- Tailor your resume to your target teaching job.
- Use keywords from the job description throughout your early childhood teacher resume.
- Format your early childhood teacher resume so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
- Lie about your teaching experience and skills.
- Boast that you are the “most effective early childhood teacher in the country.” Instead, focus on concrete examples of your ability to plan effective lessons, differentiate instruction, manage classroom behaviors and work collaboratively with parents and colleagues.
- Include irrelevant personal information, like your ethnicity and age.
- Add skills and experience that don’t align with a teaching role.
- Forget to proofread. An early childhood teacher resume with errors is unprofessional. Use our ATS Resume Checker to scan for 30+ common mistakes and improve your resume score.
Interview tips
Research the school.
Before your job interview, learn about the school’s history, goals, values, and community. Here are a few areas you might consider researching, specifically:
- School mission and values: Make sure you understand the school’s mission statement, educational philosophy, values, culture and community involvement.
- District information: Examine the broader district’s goals, strategic plans, funding and policies to understand the larger educational environment and how the school fits within it.
- Achievements and challenges: Learn about the school’s accomplishments, like awards or recognitions, and be aware of any challenges they face, like declining enrollment, low state test scores or recent administration changes.
Researching these areas will help you convey your interest, passion and commitment — all traits that will help set you apart from the competition.
Practice your answers.
Practicing is an important part of your interview preparation, as it will help you be more confident during the interview. Consider reviewing common interview questions, like:
- Why did you choose this career?
- What areas do you feel the need to improve?
- How have you motivated others?
It can also be a good idea to prepare for common behavioral interview questions, like:
- Describe a time when you had to face a stressful scenario.
- Discuss creating an innovative solution to a problem.
- Tell me about a time you had to adapt to different people and environments.
Also, prepare for job-specific questions, like:
- Can you describe your teaching philosophy and how it influences your instructional strategies?
- How do you create and maintain a positive and inclusive classroom environment?
- Can you provide an example of how you have differentiated your instruction to meet the diverse needs of students?
- How do you assess and track your students’ progress?
- What strategies do you use to support your students’ social and emotional development?
- How do you involve and communicate with parents and caregivers regarding their child’s progress and development?
Write down two or three possible answers or talking points to questions like these, then practice them with a friend.
Prepare questions to ask during the interview.
Toward the end of your interview, you typically are offered the chance to ask the hiring manager some questions.
Always have at least three questions for each person you speak with; this way, you can show that you’re interested and have been paying close attention.
Some questions that you might want to ask for an early childhood teacher role are:
- What resources are available in the early childhood classrooms to support hands-on learning?
- In what ways does this school aim to support the social-emotional development of young children?
- What policies does the school have in place to address behavioral challenges?
- What professional development opportunities are available for teachers at this school?
- Can you tell me about parental involvement in the school community and how teachers collaborate with parents and caregivers?
Prepare references.
Have your professional references ready before your interview. You never know when the hiring manager might request them, so being prepared is important. Make a list of two former colleagues and a former manager who can speak highly about your performance as an early childhood teacher or your experience working with children.
Cover letter examples for the next step in your teaching career
- Adjunct Professor Cover Letter
- Assistant Teacher Cover Letter
- Elementary Teacher
- Graduate Assistant Cover Letter
- Instructor Cover Letter
- Kindergarten Teacher
- Master Teacher Cover Letter
- Preschool Teacher Cover Letter
- Student Assistant
- Student Teacher Cover Letter
- Summer Teacher Cover Letter
- Teacher
- Teaching Assistant Cover Letter
- Tutor Cover Letter
- Teacher’s Aide Cover Letter
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Early Childhood Teacher
Toni is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and experienced career expert. She holds a master’s degree in family studies and has spent the past seven years helping job seekers navigate resumes, interviews, and career transitions.
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