It makes you list how many years of experience you have. Last year, I taught from August to May so I put a year. This year I taught from August to February. Do I put 2 years or is that not correct? Do I really have to start all the way over with one year?
You can put 2 years, but if you get an interview with a district, they will have a policy about how long you have to have worked to count it as a year. For example, one district I worked at, if you worked 5 months or more in a single school year, you could count that as one year of teaching experience. However, in another district, even if your contract started 1 day after the beginning of the year, you couldn't count it at all (which truly surprised me.) When you do your employment list, it will specifically ask for your start and end date. Leaving in May will be a red flag unless you have an acceptable reason, such as moving outside the area. For the second year, you are saying August to February. Do you mean you stopped working in February, or that you are using that because it is now only February? If you have left another teaching job midyear, that would be another red flag that will need a solid explanation. If that is the case, then you haven't finished a single school year of teaching, which is going to make a future employer wonder why.
Rainstorm always has great answers, but in my area most school districts finish the year in May, so leaving in May could logically mean you completed the entire school year.
When you say August to May, were you not under contract for June and July too even if you weren’t working? Our contracts go through July 31 even though the school year is done in May, so I’d put July as my end date. I still get paid throughout the summer.