Elementary Teacher
Cover Letter Example

Schools need passionate educators who are committed to helping their students achieve academic excellence.

Show principals you’re the teacher they’re looking for by emphasizing your teaching abilities in a well-written cover letter.

To give you some ideas on what employers look for in their ideal applicants, here’s a video walk-through on how to make a professional cover letter for a teaching role:

And to ensure your cover letter reflects your best qualities as an educator, read our following tips on how to write an elementary school teacher cover letter:

1. Highlight elementary school teacher skills

In addition to creating lesson plans, elementary school teachers foster warm and welcoming classroom environments for their students to thrive in.

Demonstrating the right mix of soft skills, passion, and knowledge of the curriculum in your cover letter is the best way to show you’re a great fit.

Here are some skills to include on your cover letter:

• Adaptability
• Attention to detail
• Problem-solving and critical thinking
• Instructing
• Interpersonal skills
• Active listening
• Communication skills
• Time management skills
• Organizational skills
• Planning and prioritizing work
• Mathematics: arithmetic and geometry
• Knowledge of curriculum and learning strategies for instructing groups and individuals
• Familiarity with children’s educational software
• Google Drive and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)
• Query software and database user interface (Blackboard)
• Presentation software (Microsoft PowerPoint)

Give principals a sense of what you can contribute to their school by providing real-life examples of when you applied your skills in the workplace in the past. For instance, talk about how you planned a weekly after-school activity for students like this candidate does:

• Planning and executing a weekly after-school art class open to all grade 1–3 students

Providing detailed examples of your accomplishments makes your cover letter more convincing than if you just list your job duties.

With the proliferation of digital classrooms, any teacher cover letter should specifically account for proficiency in learning and presentation software. Be sure to mention specific software or websites by name.

2. Open with a strong introduction

The key to writing a strong cover letter introduction is to summarize your skills in a succinct but compelling manner.

Knowing how to capture an employer’s attention right from the get-go is something you’ll see in all the best cover letters.

Here are some tips for writing a stronger introduction to your elementary school teacher cover letter:

• Lead with an impressive achievement from a previous teaching role
• Convey enthusiasm for the job (perhaps you can talk about how you began tutoring when you were in high school)
• Research the school so you can bring up something that shows you’re familiar with it

Knowing how to write a good cover letter introduction showcases your written communication skills, which are important skills since you’ll be teaching your students how to write effectively.

3. Show your passion for teaching elementary school

Schools love working with teachers who strive to provide students with an enriching learning experience.

Conveying enthusiasm in your cover letter illustrates to employers that you’re someone who’s dedicated to supporting your students’ growth and development.

Here are a few ways to show passion in your cover letter:

• Connect a personal passion to the job. For example, you worked as a tutor as a teenager and helping your students succeed was a rewarding experience.
• Provide examples of your accomplishments with numbers. For instance, you can talk about how many students you had per class.
• Be specific in how you implemented new systems to enhance the learning experience in your classroom. For example, “Establishing an open-door policy for 6:30–8:00 a.m. parent/teacher conferences.”

Here’s how one elementary teacher showcased their enthusiasm for the role in their cover letter:

This candidate demonstrates their passion for education by explaining what motivates them as a teacher.