I just got another rejection letter for a job I really wanted. I need some help with my cover letter for a more administrative position. I'm felling very wishy washy and can't seen to make it Zing atm. Here are the 3 requirements I am trying to show I have had experience with. Monitor compliance with the County Title I Project, state guidelines, and federal regulations. Make on-site visits bi-weekly to each Title I approved educational agency. Prepare and conduct in-service activities to meet identified needs of Title I staff, regular teachers, and Title I parents. HELP!! I am interested in the Title I Specialist position. I have seven years experience teaching, six years at various Title I schools and have taught several grades (K, 3, 5, 6). I am certified K-6 and have both a BAE and an MEd in Elementary Education as well as an MEd in Educational Leadership. I believe that my years teaching at four different Title I schools will be an asset for this position. I have been able to observe the many different ways Title I schools go about meeting the needs of their students while complying with rules. I understand the frustrations, fears, and hopes of teachers at Title I schools, having been one myself. I am confident that I able to identify the needs of teachers, parents and students at Title I schools. I know that my years of experience as an Education Advisor and Admissions Coordinator at XYZwill also be an asset to this position. While working for XYZ, I gave many presentations to adults. I traveled to different schools and worked in conjunction with their guidance offices to help incoming students. I also worked extensively with cohort groups preparing teachers to get a master's degree. This work allowed me to be very comfortable giving presentations to adults. Additionally, I helped prospective teachers comply with DOE requirements for certification and spent time monitoring admissions, internship and graduation requirements of current students, as well as taking part in preparing for our NCATE accreditation. These experiences help me understand the vital need to monitor and comply with Federal and State regulations.
There doesn't seem to be a lot in your letter that isn't in your resume... no sense of who you are as a person or of the success you've had. Instead, it looks as though you took each of those items on your checklist, and wrote a paragraph on each one. Tell ME why you would be a good person for the whole job. Not just those specific functions, but the job as a whole.
Your right Alice. I'll have to come back to it later when I'm feeling a bit more up to be able to actually DO anything with it. I'll try again tonight.
What specifically is an issue at Title 1 schools? What specifically did you do to help someone with that issue? I can say I have experience as a teacher and so I understand the challenges teachers face...but you have no reason to believe me or think I'm any good just based on that. Tell about something you've done that only someone with that experience would be able to describe. Show a connection you made. (So much easier to see this in other people's letters than my own, lol!)
My question after reading these statements would be if you were such a great teacher, why haven't any of these 4 schools held on to you? I think your resume should show your positions but I wouldn't highlight that in the cover letter unless you visited all of these schools as part of one or two teaching positions where you traveled to multiple schools. If that is the case, I would change the wording.
I can see how that sounds to an outsider I'll have to think about how to fix it. As to that I spent 1 year in one county then we had to move. Spent the next 4 years at 1 TI school. Then had serious problems with my pregnancy that required me to resign. These last 2 years have been bad around here like everywhere else. Teaches are picked up as long term subs the day school starts if there are openings and both the title 1 schools I was picked up at that way lost positions at the end of the year. All 3 principals I have been with here have sworn they would hire me back if they actually had openings which they haven't. So I want to show that I know there is more than one way to get to the results we want. And that seeing all these schools has given me very good ideas of how to help all of the schools.
