Substitute Teacher
Cover Letter

Schools are always in search of great substitute teachers they can rely on to supervise their classrooms.

But before stepping foot in a classroom, you need to prove you have the right skills for the job.

That’s why knowing how to write a great cover letter for a substitute teaching job is essential if you want to show principals and hiring committees you’re the perfect person for the role.

Interested in a visual guide? Check out our video for writing a cover letter as a teacher, which outlines clear steps you can follow as you make your own:

To build on the advice from our video, here are some tips for crafting a substitute teacher cover letter that will help you get a call back:

Open with a strong introduction

Anyone who’s worked in a public school knows that teachers and administrators don’t have much free time. Between prep work, curriculum writing, and teaching, most hiring committees are too busy to read through a stack of lengthy cover letters.

That’s why you need to open with a strong cover letter introduction that grabs attention and sets yourself apart from other candidates who have similar qualifications.

If you don’t have a lot of experience working as a substitute teacher yet and are writing an entry-level cover letter, a good introduction is especially important to demonstrate your qualifications.

Here are a couple ways you can make your introduction stronger:

• Express enthusiasm for the company or role
• Use a creative storytelling approach to connect a personal passion to your target substitute teaching job
• Include an accomplishment that highlights your skill as a teacher

Here’s an example of a cover letter introduction for a substitute teacher position that follows these tips:

“I was excited to learn about your opening for a substitute teacher through my former colleague, Rob Maxwell. As a student teacher and substitute at Peninsula School, I’ve got more than two years of education and classroom management experience that I’m confident would be helpful for the position at Westwood High School. Additionally, my background in progressive education aligns closely with the teaching philosophy used at Westwood.”

Show your passion for education

Schools are always looking for educators who are passionate about what they do, even if you’re not a full-time teacher. Expressing enthusiasm in your cover letter shows employers that you’re someone who genuinely cares about making an impact on students.

Here are a few ways that you can show your passion for substitute teaching in your cover letter:

1. Explain why you’re interested in the job and connect it to a personal passion. For example, you can talk about how you had a substitute teacher in high school who was very involved and how it positively impacted your entire experience.
2. Emphasize any past accomplishments that show employers you’re committed to the growth of your students. For example, “I helped underperforming students improve literacy rates by 20% by introducing new teaching methods.”

Highlight these substitute teacher skills

The main responsibilities for any substitute teacher includes following lesson plans, managing a classroom, instructing students, and supervising students from different age groups. These are skills that should be mentioned in any teacher cover letter.

But aside from obtaining the right credentials and certifications to teach, a number of hard and soft skills are also required to excel as a substitute teacher.

Here are some skills you should highlight on your substitute teacher cover letter:

• Interpersonal skills 
• Adaptability
• Accountability
• Active listening
• Patience
• Flexibility
• Communication skills 
• Instructing
• Critical thinking
• Time management skills
• Social perceptiveness
• Organization and prioritization
• Learning strategies for instructing students of all ages
• Familiarity with the curriculum
• Certification from relevant teaching programs
• Technical skills (knowledge of training and educational software)

The best way to demonstrate these skills is by providing real-life examples of how you used these skills to accomplish something in the body paragraphs of your cover letter.

For instance, a good way to emphasize your adaptability is by highlighting a time when you had to improvise during a class because students weren’t responding well to the planned lesson.

Additionally, you could showcase how your teaching methods change from one age group to the next to demonstrate to schools that you’re capable of teaching a wider age-range.