Top 12 Secondary Teacher Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a compelling resume as a secondary teacher means surfacing the skills that prove you can teach, adapt, and keep a room humming. Show range. Show judgment. Show that you build a climate where teens learn, feel seen, and push themselves.
Secondary Teacher Skills
- Classroom Management
- Curriculum Development
- Student Engagement
- Differentiated Instruction
- Assessment Design
- Google Classroom
- Zoom Proficiency
- Microsoft Teams
- Special Education
- Parent Communication
- Educational Technology
- Canvas LMS
1. Classroom Management
Classroom management for secondary teachers blends structure with humanity. You orchestrate the physical space, routines, and expectations so adolescents can focus, collaborate, and take ownership—academically and socially.
Why It's Important
Without a dependable system, learning leaks. Strong management curbs disruption, lifts engagement, protects instructional minutes, and lays groundwork for respectful, productive culture.
How to Improve Classroom Management Skills
Sharpening classroom management isn’t magic; it’s crisp habits and consistent follow-through.
Set clear expectations: Teach, post, and revisit behavior and academic norms from day one. Keep them brief and observable.
Engage on purpose: Use routines that get students thinking and talking—quick writes, turn-and-talks, roles in group tasks, authentic problem-solving.
Lock in routines: Openers, material flow, transitions, device use, exit tickets. Predictability lowers friction.
Know your students: Learn names fast. Learn interests faster. Relationships defuse a lot.
Lead with positives: Catch what you want repeated. Praise specifically. Use logical, calm consequences when needed.
Be ready: Tight lesson plans, materials prepped, timers handy. Downtime invites mischief.
Reflect and adjust: Scan what’s working, tweak what isn’t, and solicit quick student feedback.
How to Display Classroom Management Skills on Your Resume
2. Curriculum Development
Curriculum development means planning units and lessons that hit standards, spark curiosity, and build skills in sequence. Objectives, content, learning experiences, checks for understanding—the whole arc tuned for your students.
Why It's Important
Coherent curriculum clarifies purpose, ensures equity, and keeps instruction aligned to outcomes. Students progress because the path makes sense.
How to Improve Curriculum Development Skills
Design forward, teach backward, iterate often.
Align to standards: Map goals first. Trim the extra. Teach the essentials deeply.
Blend in technology: Use digital tools to extend practice, visualize concepts, and foster collaboration—only where it genuinely adds value.
Differentiate by design: Offer varied entry points, scaffolds, and choice. Plan for the range you actually have.
Build feedback loops: Use student work, formative data, and colleague input to refine pacing and tasks.
Keep learning: Ongoing professional development and peer observation sharpen the toolkit.
Co-create with colleagues: Share unit maps, common rubrics, and assessments. Consistency helps everyone.
Make it real: Connect content to current issues, careers, and community. Relevance hooks attention.
How to Display Curriculum Development Skills on Your Resume
3. Student Engagement
Engagement is attention with intention—students invested, asking questions, producing work that shows thinking, not just compliance.
Why It's Important
When students lean in, learning sticks. Motivation climbs, memory improves, and critical thinking turns on. Outcomes follow.
How to Improve Student Engagement Skills
Make learning irresistible—or at least hard to ignore.
Use active learning: Projects, debates, inquiry, labs. Less talk at; more do with.
Leverage tech wisely: Collaboration docs, interactive polls, simulations, quick-response platforms—short bursts, tight purpose.
Differentiate tasks: Choice boards, tiered assignments, alternative products to match readiness and interest.
Cultivate climate: Psychological safety matters. Norms for discussion, risk-taking, and revision.
Connect to life: Local issues, student passions, real audiences. Authenticity beats busywork.
Offer autonomy: Let students pick topics, tools, or formats. Ownership fuels effort.
How to Display Student Engagement Skills on Your Resume
4. Differentiated Instruction
Differentiation means tailoring content, process, products, and environment so every student finds an access point and a stretch goal.
Why It's Important
Classes are mixed by default. Differentiation ensures fairness—students get what they need to grow, not a one-size-fits-none plan.
How to Improve Differentiated Instruction Skills
Start where students are, not where the pacing guide says they should be.
Know your learners: Use diagnostics, interest surveys, and quick checks to group flexibly.
Vary methods: Mini-lessons, stations, models, discussions, hands-on tasks, and multimedia.
Flex the space: Seating, grouping, and noise levels adapted to task demands.
Differentiate assessment: Multiple ways to show mastery—essays, podcasts, presentations, prototypes—with clear rubrics.
Lean on technology: Adaptive practice, translation tools, read-alouds, and organizers to scaffold access.
Keep your craft fresh: Learn from PD, coaching cycles, and peer planning.
Collaborate: Co-teach or co-plan to widen strategies and support.
How to Display Differentiated Instruction Skills on Your Resume
5. Assessment Design
Assessment design is the craft of building tools that truly capture learning—knowledge, skills, and transfer—not just recall on a good day.
Why It's Important
Good assessments steer instruction. They spotlight misunderstandings early, celebrate growth, and keep the whole course aligned to outcomes.
How to Improve Assessment Design Skills
Design with the end in mind, then build the road to it.
Align to objectives: Every question or task should map to a target. Trim anything that doesn’t.
Mix formats: Performance tasks, short responses, projects, MC items, labs—variety reveals understanding from different angles.
Use formative checks often: Exit slips, quick polls, error analysis, drafts. Course-correct in real time.
Be transparent: Clear criteria and rubrics. Students should know what quality looks like.
Push higher-order thinking: Analysis, evaluation, creation—go beyond recall. Bloom’s and Webb’s DOK are helpful guides.
Include self and peer review: Metacognition improves work quality and independence.
Iterate: Examine results, revise prompts, and recalibrate rubrics to improve reliability.
How to Display Assessment Design Skills on Your Resume
6. Google Classroom
Google Classroom streamlines assigning, collecting, and giving feedback. Classes, topics, rubrics, comments, rubrics again—organized and trackable.
Why It's Important
It centralizes work, speeds feedback, and keeps communication tidy across classes and devices. Less paper, more clarity.
How to Improve Google Classroom Skills
Small tweaks, big payoff.
Organize by topics: Units, weeks, or skills—consistent structure reduces confusion.
Enrich with multimedia: Short videos, visuals, and interactive items to diversify access.
Drive collaboration: Shared Docs, Sheets, and Slides with roles and checkpoints.
Give timely feedback: Private comments, comment banks, and rubrics to speed up actionable notes.
Extend with add-ons: Tools like Pear Deck or Kami can increase interactivity when it serves the goal.
How to Display Google Classroom Skills on Your Resume
7. Zoom Proficiency
Zoom proficiency means running smooth, interactive virtual or hybrid classes—breakout rooms, whiteboards, screen share, captions, recordings, the works.
Why It's Important
Online days still happen. Parent meetings too. Strong Zoom skills keep instruction coherent and communication easy, wherever students are.
How to Improve Zoom Proficiency Skills
Get comfortable, then get intentional.
Master core features: Screen share, annotate, breakout rooms, polls, and chat moderation.
Boost engagement: Use quick polls, reactions, and structured breakout tasks with roles and timers.
Prioritize safety: Waiting rooms, passcodes, host-only share, and participant permissions to prevent disruptions.
Use education tools: Whiteboards, shared notes, and captions/transcripts support accessibility and review.
Stay current: New features roll out often—avatars, improved noise suppression, Q&A. Explore and adopt what helps.
Practice workflows: Rehearse before live sessions; build templates for recurring meetings.
Invest in PD: Short trainings or peer-led sessions can rapidly level up technique.
Join communities: Swap tips with colleagues; steal what works.
How to Display Zoom Proficiency Skills on Your Resume
8. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams brings classes, assignments, feedback, and discussion threads into one hub, with OneNote Class Notebook riding shotgun.
Why It's Important
It simplifies workflows—post, collect, grade, return—while keeping communication threaded and searchable.
How to Improve Microsoft Teams Skills
Structure first, then enrich.
Organize smartly: One team per class, channels for units or projects. Pin key resources.
Use Assignments and Grades: Rubrics, due dates, and feedback loops centralized for students and families.
Activate Class Notebook: Content Library for handouts, Collaboration Space for group work, private sections for student notes.
Layer interactivity: Quizzes with Forms, quick video prompts, or discussion boards to widen participation.
Schedule and record: Live lessons with captions and recordings for students who need to revisit or catch up.
Keep the conversation flowing: Posts and announcements for reminders, celebrations, and clarifications.
Add helpful apps: Pull in education apps from the Teams store where they meaningfully extend learning.
Give clear feedback: Rubrics and inline comments that point to next steps.
How to Display Microsoft Teams Skills on Your Resume
9. Special Education
Special Education delivers individualized supports and instruction so students with disabilities access grade-level content, make progress, and belong.
Why It's Important
Equity demands access. Inclusive practices and targeted services help every learner move forward with dignity and real growth.
How to Improve Special Education Skills
Precision and collaboration drive success.
Write and use strong IEPs: Measurable goals, appropriate accommodations, and regular progress monitoring.
Keep learning: Training on disability-specific strategies, behavior supports, and literacy/math interventions.
Leverage assistive technology: Text-to-speech, speech-to-text, graphic organizers, alternative access tools.
Collaborate widely: Partner with families, related service providers, case managers, and general educators.
Differentiation and UDL: Plan multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression from the start.
Inclusive mindsets: Co-teach, schedule purposeful push-in support, and reduce pullouts when appropriate.
Support SEL: Explicitly teach self-advocacy, executive function, and social skills.
How to Display Special Education Skills on Your Resume
10. Parent Communication
Parent communication is the steady, two-way flow of information that keeps families informed, heard, and aligned with classroom goals.
Why It's Important
Families amplify learning. Clear updates and open channels surface issues early, boost accountability, and build trust.
How to Improve Parent Communication Skills
Make it easy, predictable, and human.
Use simple tech: Classroom apps, email lists, or SMS tools—pick one system and stick with it.
Send regular snapshots: Brief weekly notes with wins, upcoming dates, and how to help at home.
Schedule conferences: In-person or virtual, with an agenda and sample work.
Set office hours: Clear windows for calls or video chats to respect everyone’s time.
Invite feedback: Quick surveys or check-ins to learn what families need.
Offer workshops: Study skills, digital safety, college and career planning—high-value topics.
Clarify expectations early: Homework policies, grading, communication norms. Consider a simple, visually clean newsletter tool.
How to Display Parent Communication Skills on Your Resume
11. Educational Technology
Edtech is the purposeful use of digital tools to teach, assess, and personalize learning. When used thoughtfully, it expands what’s possible.
Why It's Important
Technology can differentiate, visualize, and extend practice. It also offers data for smarter decisions and more targeted support.
How to Improve Educational Technology Skills
Lead with pedagogy, let tools follow.
Adopt interactive platforms: Game-based reviews, polls, and simulations that check understanding in the moment.
Curate multimedia: Short, high-quality videos and animations to clarify tough concepts.
Lean on your LMS: Streamlined assignment flow, feedback, and transparency reduce friction.
Teach digital literacy: Evaluation of sources, responsible use, and creation norms.
Use subject-specific apps: Math graphing tools, virtual labs, language platforms—fit to purpose.
Try flipped or blended models: Content at home, application in class, with targeted support.
Go on virtual field trips: Museums, archives, and cultural sites to widen horizons without a bus.
How to Display Educational Technology Skills on Your Resume
12. Canvas LMS
Canvas is a robust learning management system—modules, assignments, discussions, and SpeedGrader all under one roof.
Why It's Important
It organizes courses cleanly, speeds feedback, and tracks progress transparently. Students know where to find everything.
How to Improve Canvas LMS Skills
Build a navigable course and keep communication crisp.
Drive engagement: Embed interactive tools and low-stakes checks within pages and modules.
Communicate consistently: Announcements for reminders, changes, and celebrations—predictable cadence.
Give efficient feedback: Use SpeedGrader, rubrics, and comment libraries to respond quickly and clearly.
Organize with modules: Sequence by week or unit with requirements and prerequisites to guide pacing.
Integrate external tools wisely: Cloud docs, video, and approved LTI apps can enrich learning without clutter.
How to Display Canvas LMS Skills on Your Resume
