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Don’t minimize or devalue time spent with your family or fulfilling other obligations. This shows maturity and can be extremely helpful in the workplace. These five tips are essential to presenting yourself as a qualified educator ready to return to the classroom:
- Keep your license active: Completing 100 hours within a five-year period keeps you connected to the profession’s current methods and curriculum. If your license has expired, reactivate it through the state and do things such as help in a school or online training.
- Get involved: Serve on school committees, volunteer in the classroom, do substitute teaching, or work part-time.
- Seek professional development: Reading professional literature and education blogs indicates that you have been involved in current educational practices.
- Notify your network: When you are ready to return to teaching, reach out to local principals and teachers to let them know you are seeking reemployment.
- Prepare your application materials:
- a current letter of recommendation
- a résumé reflecting your most related work/volunteer experiences
- a cover letter explaining your work history/gap in employment and helping the employer understand your life experiences and the value you bring to the position
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Remember, you have an education degree and are still very marketable. Life experience can be as valuable as teaching experience—you may have just what a team needs.
For more help on getting back into the classroom and preparing your application materials, contact Derek Jack at 801-422-3000 or careers.byu.edu.
Written by Derek Jack