In today's uncertain economy and competitive job market, you have to stand out from the other teachers applying for the position you want. Even though you know you are the best person for the job, you still have to convince the person with the power to hire you. The best place to start is to have an impressive resume that emphasizes all your strengths and outstanding teaching abilities. Besides giving an overview of your educational background and work history, your resume needs to show why you are passionate about helping students get the best education possible.

Content
The most important part of your resume is its content. If at all possible, you need to use concrete numbers to describe your previous jobs. Don't just say you taught English. Be more specific. Say that you taught five sections of 10th grade English: one remedial class with 24 students, three regular classes with between 28 and 32 students in each class, and one honors class with 26 students. Make sure you list your most impressive accomplishments--like that you had a 98 percent rate of students who passed the state's assessment test. Also, make sure you use the most powerful action verbs you can think of to describe your duties and try not to repeat the same verbs. If you have trouble thinking of verbs, use a thesaurus to help you. It's also important to make sure that your resume is free of errors. Besides proofreading it yourself, have other people read over it to make sure there are no mistakes in it.

Layout
No matter how good your content is, if it is difficult to read or understand because of the layout, then your resume puts you at a distinct disadvantage from the other teachers applying for the job you want. So you need to make sure that your resume is visually appealing. One thing you want to make sure you have is plenty of white space so that your resume doesn't look crowded. Also use a font like Palatino or Georgia, something a little different from Times New Roman, so that your resume still looks professional but stands out from the others. Using tabs rather than spaces to line up the various elements of your resume will ensure that it prints the way you want it to. Also judicious use of bold, italics, underlines, small caps and all caps formatting can add interest to your resume. Be careful not to overuse bullets, and also be cautious in using clip art, logos or other designs that might distract the decision maker from the content of the resume.

Print and Paper
While you might be tempted to use navy, gray or some font color other than black to make your resume unique, don't do it. Black ink shows up best on the neutral colored paper you'll want to use for your resume. Use a high-quality white or off-white paper for your resume. If you want, you might even consider an ivory or a gray colored paper. Some textures to consider are cotton, linen or laid papers because each of these is very professional. Stay away from parchment, though. It's just a little too antique-looking for resumes. Also remember to print your cover letters on the same type paper your resume is printed on. And if at all possible, try to get the same texture and color for your envelopes, so that your entire mailer has a consistent look.