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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 664
Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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 Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:32 am Post subject: CV Review |
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Okay all, I've been trying to rework my CV. Since I, unfortunately, have so much time on my hands, especially since I can't go back to the center for my CELTA, I've been trying to improve it. I've come across a lot of different styles and formats of CVs. I hope this one will work okay, but I'm sure there's always room for improvement.
Of course I'm not posting my personal info here, but here's what I have included...
For the top part, it includes my photo, and underneath it, my full name (as it is shown on my passport), my address, my e-mail address, my phone number (which includes the int'l calling code), my gender, my date of birth, and my nationality.
EDUCATION Ashford University Clinton, Iowa, USA
Social Science w/Education concentration October 2007 to June 2009
Bachelors of Arts, BA
J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College Richmond, Virginia, USA
Liberal Arts Major May 2003 to January 2005
� Member of the SVEA (Student Virginia Education Association)
� Secretary of the Future Teachers Club
EXPERIENCE Sacred Heart Community Center School Richmond, Virginia, USA
Volunteer ESL Instructor July 2009 to Present
� Curriculum Planning
� Working with adults and children learning English Language
� Organizing games for students
� Writing up Lesson Plans
WyzAnt Inhome Tutoring Richmond, Virginia, USA
Private Independent Tutor January 2009 to Present
� Tutoring Elementary students in English Grammar
� Tutoring English Language
� Assisting Elementary students to improve their reading abilities
Moody Middle School Richmond, Virginia, USA
Temporary Instructional Assistant April 2008 to June 2008
� Helped with the instruction of students
� Guided an autistic child
� Helped to resolve student conflicts
� Was recognized for Teacher Appreciation Week
LANGUAGE English (Native)
Japanese (Basic beginner)
Spanish (Basic beginner)
SPECIALTIES Tutoring children as young as three years of age as well as Elementary School aged children (1996 � Present) in reading and English |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 664
Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, all these views, and not one single criticism? I must be good.  lol
Kidding, though, but could someone please give me some pointers based on what I have above? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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People are on break. Give them one.
I have read your other thread, too, just so you know.
Add marital status to your profile at the top of the page. And, add a passport expiration date or visa type if you have one.
Do not abbreviate "with" as w/. Spell things out except for USA and CELTA.
Don't list a range of dates for your degree. Just write the date you graduated.
Change "EXPERIENCE" to read as "Teaching Experience" or something like that to make it stand out.
Sacred Heart job:
What are "games"?
Don't capitalize "lesson plans".
What is "working with adults and children"? Be specific about the type of English, too (oral, conversation, listening, writing, etc.).
WyzAnt job:
Don't capitalize Elementary or grammar or language.
Do you mean elementary school students or basic beginners (elementary students)?
Might help to know how you assisted kids in improving reading abilities.
Moody job:
Again, what does "help with the instruction" mean? Too vague.
Delete the part about resolving conflicts and guiding an autistic child.
Be specific about what you did to be "recognized" for TAW.
Rewrite "LANGUAGE" to "Languages".
Under SPECIALTIES, do not capitalize elementary school. Seems a bit redundant to state the whole section anyway. Recommend deleting it. |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 664
Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:32 am Post subject: |
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Isn't that a bit contradictory though? Before, I had too much information, and now it seems I'm not including enough. Wouldn't some of these things you'd explain during an interview, or if you were writing a cover letter?
"Helping with instruction" for example = whatever the head teacher wanted me to do, as I was just the assistant.
As for the guiding the autistic child and resolving student conflict thing, isn't that a good indicator of classroom management?
Hm, as for "languages", it is written that way on the resume. Guess I mistyped it here.
The games...grammar and verb games for review.
Good idea about my passport info. I'll add that. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:49 am Post subject: |
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| ssjup81 wrote: |
| Isn't that a bit contradictory though? Before, I had too much information, and now it seems I'm not including enough. Wouldn't some of these things you'd explain during an interview, or if you were writing a cover letter? |
With more and more people applying to positions, companies/schools likely don't have the time or man power to interview everyone. That means more people are going to be declined without ever having had a chance to talk about aspects of their resume that weren't so clearly explained on paper. If you don't want to end with a resume that is too long, perhaps you should consider rewording parts of it so that it is clear and easy to understand.
| Quote: |
| ...resolving student conflict thing, isn't that a good indicator of classroom management? |
I think you should remember that at entry level jobs especially, ALTs are not supposed to be getting involved with student conflicts or applying discipline; that's the HRT or JTEs job. And in eikawa, they are not going to want you to do anything that might risk upsetting the paying customers. Having you write that in your resume might set of alarm bells and make them believe you are going to take the law into your own hands in the classroom... not a good thing here.
Besides, the culture here is perhaps very different to what you are used to back home. You might consider certain types of behaviour to be unacceptable, but here it might just be brushed off as kids being kids (and vice versa). In schools especially, they have their own ways of dealing with students. You might agree with some, disagree with others, or may not see too much since it could be taking place behind closed doors. You stepping in with your western methods for resolving student disputes will likely not be much appreciated and could even be considered as disrespectful/offensive. |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 664
Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
| ssjup81 wrote: |
| Isn't that a bit contradictory though? Before, I had too much information, and now it seems I'm not including enough. Wouldn't some of these things you'd explain during an interview, or if you were writing a cover letter? |
With more and more people applying to positions, companies/schools likely don't have the time or man power to interview everyone. That means more people are going to be declined without ever having had a chance to talk about aspects of their resume that weren't so clearly explained on paper. If you don't want to end with a resume that is too long, perhaps you should consider rewording parts of it so that it is clear and easy to understand. |
Gotcha. That explanation makes sense.
| Quote: |
I think you should remember that at entry level jobs especially, ALTs are not supposed to be getting involved with student conflicts or applying discipline; that's the HRT or JTEs job. And in eikawa, they are not going to want you to do anything that might risk upsetting the paying customers. Having you write that in your resume might set of alarm bells and make them believe you are going to take the law into your own hands in the classroom... not a good thing here.
Besides, the culture here is perhaps very different to what you are used to back home. You might consider certain types of behaviour to be unacceptable, but here it might just be brushed off as kids being kids (and vice versa). In schools especially, they have their own ways of dealing with students. You might agree with some, disagree with others, or may not see too much since it could be taking place behind closed doors. You stepping in with your western methods for resolving student disputes will likely not be much appreciated and could even be considered as disrespectful/offensive. |
To be honest, I only "resolved student conflict" when I was instructed to since all teachers and schools are different in their disciplining methods. As an assistant teacher, I didn't have the authority to discipline on my own. I had to have the "okay" to do so from whichever teacher I was assisting. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:42 am Post subject: |
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| ssjup81 wrote: |
| To be honest, I only "resolved student conflict" when I was instructed to since all teachers and schools are different in their disciplining methods. As an assistant teacher, I didn't have the authority to discipline on my own. I had to have the "okay" to do so from whichever teacher I was assisting. |
"Being prepared to assist JTE with classroom management" is not quite what your resume statement is going to say to many readers... best to leave it out for ALT applications and shouldn't even be breathed when applying for eikawa positions.
And as for the autistic student... special needs and disabilities is a bit of a delicate subject to bring up here. Whilst in decent schools, special kids won't be automatically outcasted by their peers, parents often try to ignore the fact that their kids need special care. And if the parents don't want to acknowledge it, the school is forced to leave them in normal classes and treat them like normal students, even when this is clearly having a negative impact on the student. (I have one student who is on a downward spiral because her mother is being unreasonable stubborn! - she actually has another child with special needs who is thriving because he has been allowed to enter the special classes but for some reason, she is refusing to allow the daughter to be put in too and actually had the HRT in tears after the parents day a couple of weeks ago.)
Whilst some schools are now trying to raise awareness about special needs children and might appreciate employing ALTs who have some knowledge in this area, I'd imagine most would not appreciate some know-it-all newbie coming in and rocking the boat especially when they know full well what is required but are actually powerless to do anything about it. Since you don't what kind of school you'll be applying to, best to leave it out.
I don't know how eikawa will react to the bit about autisism... Unless you are applying for a position that actually states you will be working with or prefers experience with special needs students, best to leave off anything that might put off potential employers. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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| ssjup81 wrote: |
| Isn't that a bit contradictory though? Before, I had too much information, and now it seems I'm not including enough. Wouldn't some of these things you'd explain during an interview, or if you were writing a cover letter? |
I believe the stuff you were told was extraneous can be considered extra and unnecessary.
Now, what you have is vague points here and there, which I suppose you could say are things that need to be added. Please understand that HR people go through resumes very fast, and their first impression counts as much as a face to face meeting. If you can't state clearly and precisely what you did on a resume, then it will not go into Pile A. You used weak words. Beef them up or put more detail in.
| Quote: |
| "Helping with instruction" for example = whatever the head teacher wanted me to do, as I was just the assistant. |
Whatever = what, exactly? Making lesson plans? Delivering oral repetition? Checking homework? Be specific.
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| As for the guiding the autistic child and resolving student conflict thing, isn't that a good indicator of classroom management? |
You are probably not going to have autistic children in your EFL/ESL class, so mentioning them is irrelevant, no matter how you perceive the work as classroom management. Besides, "guiding" is a vague word. What exactly did you do?
Resolving student conflict is another thing you will probably not be expected to do in a foreign class, especially if you are an ALT. Besides, what (I hate to use this word) exactly did you do to "resolve" things? Hold him down? Lecture to him? In what language?
Classroom management that EFL/ESL employers are usually looking for is more like how you prepare students to learn and how you conduct a class. If you don't have that experience, don't write irrelevant stuff. You may actually have a fellow native English speaker reviewing your resume, and they may say, "WTF does this have to do with teaching EFL?"
| Quote: |
| The games...grammar and verb games for review. |
Still a might hard to fully grasp, but better than just "games". Info gap? Cloze? Surveys? Pictionary? Charades? BINGO? Those are specifics. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| You are probably not going to have autistic children in your EFL/ESL class, so mentioning them is irrelevant... |
Whilst he (?) probably shouldn't mention it on his resume, it's a bit presumptious to say he isn't likely to encounter them, especially if he works as an ALT.
I have two kids confirmed to be on the autistic spectrum and we are quite certain that another 2nd year is as well (but the parents refuses to allow them to see a specialist to find out) and quite possibly the girl I mentioned earlier.
One of our JETs actually visits a special school where they too encounter autistic children a couple of times per month. I've never asked other ALTs, but I'd be suprised if none of them have encountered any especially in the larger schools, those with special classes or in the other special schools.
Based only on the stats of diagnosed cases from the UK and California, just under 1% of under 18s are somewhere on the spectrum - the real figures are probably higher. And even though autisism is 4 times more likely to be diagnosed in boys than girls, race/ethnicity is not a deciding factor. So it's safe to assume that Japanese figures are not going to vary much from elsewhere in the world.
Many teachers (not the ALTs) in our BOE and parents attended a lecture on autisism (with the main focus on Asperger's) in the Autumn of last year, so it's obviously common enough in schools that our BOE felt that more attention should be paid to it. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
| Glenski wrote: |
| You are probably not going to have autistic children in your EFL/ESL class, so mentioning them is irrelevant... |
Whilst he (?) probably shouldn't mention it on his resume, it's a bit presumptious to say he isn't likely to encounter them, especially if he works as an ALT. |
Perhaps I should have worded it differently. I can't imagine (despite your examples) that a foreign teacher or ALT would actually have a lot to do with autistic kids, especially with the language barrier and the seeming lack of knowledge or acknowledgement about autism by Japanese authorities. How closely have people you know worked with them?
I ask this only for information, not to be confrontational. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:07 am Post subject: |
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You need to remember that autism is not black and white, but covers a whole spectrum. Some autistic kids with severe Kanner's are going to have little or no verbal language ability. Kids with Asperger's often have a regular IQ but a very narrowed view of the world, so their language ability might not necessarily be lower but they can't or don't want to talk about anything that doesn't fall within their few interests. The majority of autistic children will fall somewhere in the middle, meaning yes, learning their own language (yet alone a foreign one) is difficult for them, but with lots of time, patience and repetition very rarely impossible. I don't think any of us have encountered kids from the really severe end of the spectrum.
How often you visit the schools with these kids in will affect how often you teach these kids. The ALT that visits the special school will work with them on every visit since there is only one class there.
I have lessons with my diagnosed kids at least once a week, but speak to them everyday since I am at my school full time. The other two probables, I teach once per fortnight but the girl (who never speaks English nor Japanese) comes to watch me perform boring tasks daily and I spend a lot of time pulling her out of freezing coridoors and into heated offices if she doesn't want to go to whatever lesson she has at that time.
How much contact you have with these kids will often depend on the ALT's schedule and interest. If you are visiting many schools, you'll only be with these when you are scheduled to be with them. But under our BOE, we get scheduled to see special classes (if we have them) at least as often as we see a regular class.
But even if you are in one school, the teachers are not going to force you to spend time with them out of lesson time. I have a lot of contact with mine, because I expressed interest in them. My mother specialises in special needs teaching, so I know that many kids with severe learning disabilities take time to warm to any new presence in their environment and only once they are used to you do you stand a chance of teaching them anything.
I enjoy my special classes, but I know a couple of ALTs who cringe at the mention of having class with certain special students. They don't know what's wrong with them, they have no experience working with special needs kids and from what I understand (after filtering out frustrated venting and bitching), it seems that the JTEs they work with in these classes don't really understand what they're doing either and often (and very wrongly so) turns the classes over to the ALT.
Interac was actually forced to step in when the teachers at a special school in one of our neighbouring towns actually admitted that the main teacher sometimes "stepped out" of the classroom when the ALT was there.
Often the fact that autisism (as well as other special needs conditions) isn't commonly acknowledged means that ALTs end up encountering them more. The fact that the parents often refuse to admit that their kids need special care means that there are many kids with severe learning/mental disabilities in regular classes. We've all encountered mute kids, kids who can't even read or write in Japanese, unusually disruptive kids or those who are emotionally unstable. But without permission from the parents to have the kids see a specialists for diagnosis, the school will never know for certain what kind of special need kids they are and they normally just get chalked up as naughty or stupid.
Ahh... all that rambling and I'm not even sure if I have answered what should have been a simple question.
How closely are we expected to work with severely special needs kids (since many are not diagnosed, it would be wrong to assume they are all autistic)? Often, no more closely than we are expected to work with the the regular students, but no less closely either. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:23 am Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
| Ahh... all that rambling and I'm not even sure if I have answered what should have been a simple question. |
Yes, you did, and it was not that simple. Thank you. |
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natsume
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Chongqing, China
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:01 am Post subject: |
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I am another ALT who has special needs kids in my regular high school classes. I am only at one school, although I do spend 15 full days a year at a school for the visually impaired, and I visit at least one special needs class (meaning cognitively or developmenatally challenged kids above and beyond visual impairment) each time I go. At my regular school, I have two third year girls with Asberger's that I see once a week during the regular term, and I have had them both for almost two years. One is pretty closed off from her fellow classmates and the other teachers, and one I have managed to develop a bit of a relationship with, simply by taking my time with her inside, and talking to her outside of class, which seems to be appreciated. Also, I am certain there are many other special needs kids at this school that are undiagnosed.
So yes, some of us do indeed have these kids somewhat regularly. |
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