Finding a Teaching Job

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Maybe the school year is just winding down, and you're thinking about teaching elsewhere in the fall. Or perhaps you've just graduated from college, and you're thinking about finding a teaching job in September. It's never too early to start your search, and we have some great tips, as well as resources, to help you find the right teaching job.

Ideal Teaching Jobs

Our first tip has to do with finding the ideal job. After you've been a teacher for a year or two, you probably have a good idea of the "ideal" job. If this is your first teaching job, then you might want to take the time to figure out what an ideal teaching job might look like.

Additional Resources

Remember that you're going to have to balance classroom time with classroom lesson preparation. You'll need to attend parent conferences, and still have time for other administrative duties. You need to have realistic expectations in mind when you are looking for a job.

You should also include a mix of lifestyle and career attributes. Then rank the importance of each attribute from 1 to 10. If you go through this process, and try to be objective about your answers, then you should come up with a more objective guide to the ideal teaching job. To save you some time, we've already put together a Job Evaluation Matrix you can use for this process.

Applying for a Teaching Job

Our second tip has to do with adherence to deadlines. It's never too early to start looking for a job. Make sure that you have all the information together that you'll need when applying. Most school districts will prescribe the exact requirements for existing teachers and job candidates; those documents typically include:

Cover Letter - the typical resume cover letter that job applicants would include with their resume.
Resume - many school districts will want to see a copy of your most recent resume. Make sure it's up-to-date. A Curriculum Vitae or CV is usually not necessary for most teaching jobs.
Transcripts - some school districts will want to see a copy of your educational transcripts. Sometimes official copies are needed, while some districts may accept photocopies.
District Application - school districts will often require that you fill out a job application for employment.
Teaching Certificate - be prepared to demonstrate you've earned your teaching certificate as required.

The typical job search for a teaching assignment could start as early as November of the previous year. Schools can't afford to wait until the last minute to fill their teaching positions - or else they'd wind up with students sitting in a classroom without an instructor.

Job Resources for Teachers

For some reason, job resources for teachers looking for employment outside of the United States are much easier to find, and organized more efficiently. After an exhaustive search, we've managed to come up with what we think is a pretty good pool of job resources just for teachers. We've organized them below by region.

Teaching Jobs in the United States

The best resource we were able to find for teaching jobs in the US had to do with jobs at Community Colleges. The American Association of Community Colleges represents over 1,100 associate degree granting colleges serving over 10 million students in communities throughout the US. Member community colleges can post openings at the AACC job bank - found in the Career Center portion of their website.

The second resource we'd recommend for teaching jobs in the US is the Department of Education's website; specifically, their Education Resource Organizations Directory. There you can find a web directory of school boards organized by state.

Teaching Jobs in Canada

ApplytoEducation was originally built by Industry Canada and CET back in 1998 to help Canada school boards centralize their system of applications for teaching positions. ApplytoEducation streamlines the recruiting and hiring process by creating one application, and one job database, which is used for teaching jobs throughout Canada. Job seekers have the ability to look for jobs geographically by drilling down starting at the province level.

Teaching Jobs in South America

If you're looking for a teaching job in South America, then be sure to take a look at the Association of American Schools in South America. Established in the early 1960's, AASSA is a not-for-profit organization that serves over forty American / International schools located in South America. Here you will find resources that include participating schools, conferences, and teacher recruiting.

Teaching Jobs in Europe

Our final job-finding resource for teachers is for those of you looking to teach in Europe. The European Council of International Schools not only provides information on teaching jobs in Europe, but jobs around the world. Operating for over 40 years, ECIS offers teachers a large array of job search services including publications, statistics, directories of international schools, as well as directories of institutions of higher education such as colleges and universities.

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