Jobs in Private Schools

This section focuses on tools, tips and articles related to working in a private school. We’ll cover marketing yourself, resume tips and contract negotiations. Learn more about the availability of private school jobs, the difference between a cover letter and letter of interest, and what impact you can have as a teacher.

View the most popular articles in Jobs in Private Schools:

Is Your Skill-set Still on Release 1.0?

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Is Your Skill-set Still on Release 1.0?
It is easy to fall into the trap of not keeping your skill-set current. There's no time and no need anyway. We look at why you need to keep things current and offer some suggestions as to how to proceed.

Is your skill-set still on Release 1.0? This is a tough question for many of us teachers to deal with. Why? Because many of us are convinced that we don't need to update our skill-set now that we have found our dream teaching position in a wonderful school. We are set, right? Not exactly. As we all know things can change in a flash. Against this backdrop, you and I will explore your skill-set and offer some suggestions as to how to do some necessary upgrades.

Why do you need to upgrade your skill-set?

As I pointed out in the opening paragraph, your circumstances can change in a flash. The most common reason for suddenly needing a new teaching position is a major change in your family circumstances. A member of your family who lives in another state has an accident or becomes seriously ill requiring your presence in the area. While you could take Family Medical Leave, it has become obvious to you that the best solution is for you to move closer to your family member so that you can supervise his care and generally be there for him. That means you will need to look for a new teaching job.

In the following TEDx Talk, Jean-Michel Gauthier explains why your job applications are getting ignored.

The important thing to understand is that life can deal some unexpected cards. You

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3 Tips for an Effective Private School Job Search

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3 Tips for an Effective Private School Job Search
Use these tips to tweak your job search strategies as you seek employment in a private school.

If you have not looked for a teaching job in a couple of years or perhaps are just beginning to think about future career moves, then these three job search tips are worth thinking about.

1. Have a Strong Marketability Quotient.

It is a very competitive job market generally. Employers want the best possible candidate for the job. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of candidates apply for available positions. Private schools are no different. So, how do you stand out from the crowd? By offering 3 or more of the following skills or credentials, you will position yourself for greater success in the private school employment market.

In this video, Don Straits shows you how to think outside the box.

Speak and teach a second language. Teachers who speak French, Spanish, and Mandarin are much in demand in any school. Add a degree and certifications in those subjects to your credentials and you will be a 'hot' property!

Hold specialist certifications. An ESL certificate or a reading specialist certificate will virtually guarantee you employment for life at many schools. An ESL certified teacher is an integral part of the teaching strategy and an important element in a diverse community. A reading specialist can effectively remediate reading and comprehension skills allowing the language arts teachers to focus on coursework.

Be an AP exam reader. A little prestige never hurts. If you are or have been an AP

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Are You Liable?

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Are You Liable?
Is your DEL key about to get gaveled? It doesn't matter whether you teach in a public or private school setting. You expose yourself to legal risks every single day on the job.

These are tough times for teachers. It doesn't matter whether you teach in a public or private school setting. You expose yourself to legal risks every single day on the job. Some people think that teachers have a soft job. Public school teachers only have to work ten months of the year. Most private school teachers have it even better as they usually work a nine-month year. Of course, that's a distorted view of the profession. Many teachers teach summer sessions or run summer camps. They might have a month of vacation if they are lucky. Lurking on the sidelines is the question of liability. Yes, teachers can be held liable for all sorts of things which make no sense. The problem is that American society is very litigious. Folks will sue in a nanosecond. Lawsuits, as you well know, are time-consuming, expensive, and, in the worst cases can be career-limiting events.

So, let's look at liability from our point of view as teachers. Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, so read my layperson's comments and observations, then run questions by and seek advice from your attorney. The mnemonic DIRE lays out some of the issues we need to watch for. Protecting yourself is very important. Nobody else will look out for your interests as well as you will.

Everyday risks

Your chances of getting sued are probably on a par with having an accident while driving. When you drive carefully, observe the rules of the road,

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Is Your Job Search So 2008?

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Is Your Job Search So 2008?
If you have not looked for a job in the past several years, your job search probably needs a refresh. Here's how to do it.

It's late fall/early winter. Suddenly you begin to put all the hints and signals together. That promotion which you were counting on is most likely going to one of your colleagues, not you. After you rehash what is probably going to happen and why then you decide that it's time to move on. A change of scenery and new challenges will do you a world of good, right? Absolutely. Now how to make it happen?

First of all, it dawns on you that your curriculum vitae is out of date. You haven't revised your resume in years. Sadly you realize that your resume and all your other job-searching skills are so, well, 2010. What are you going to do? Not to worry. Here are some strategies for the very competitive job market of today.

Get involved. Stay involved.

Hopefully, when you arrived at St. Swithin's five years ago, you decided to get involved. I'm not talking about involvement at school. That's expected. Indeed it is probably a contractual obligation. What I have in mind is your involvement in local community activities. Belonging to a service club or singing in the local choral society, for example, gets you out meeting people. Did you attend any workshops offered by your state independent school association? Better yet, did you help organize a workshop? What about those regional, state or national conferences in your subject area? Yes, it requires time and effort and no small expense to attend these kinds

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5 Things Never to Put in Your Job Application

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5 Things Never to Put in Your Job Application
Make sure that your job application and resume present you in the best possible light.

At some point in your job search process, you created a résumé. Your résumé is a critical part of the documentation which you furnish an employer when you apply for a job. Any job. Your future employer wants to know that you possess the qualifications necessary to be able to do the job for which they are hiring you. Your future employer also needs to verify your qualifications and credentials. What we are going to do in this article is to examine your résumé with an objective, clinical eye in order to present you and your qualifications in the best possible light. Many job applications are done online. That means that you will have to be very careful as you copy and paste information from your résumé to the online job application fields. More about that later.

This short video offers some helpful advice on how to fill out a job application.

In the meantime here are some items which have no place in your job résumé. You either need to omit them entirely or include them in your curriculum vitae.

Meaningless awards and affiliations

Some awards, medals, and affiliations might be relevant when you apply for certain positions. For example, if you are applying for a job with the Boy Scouts of America, your Eagle Scout status is relevant. On other job applications, the badges you earned while you were a Boy Scout which

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