Training officer skills for your resume and career

a. Students in general need more support in a virtual classroom. Those students who have exceptionalities or other needs, such as English Language Learners, need even more scaffolding and assistance. Differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs or ELL learners is one of the most important and also most difficult skills to learn to implement with real students in a real classroom. Differentiating instruction for all learners in a virtual environment is probably the most challenging task that the majority of teachers have not been prepared for intentionally.
b. Teachers must use assessment data to inform their instruction. Today, we have access to more and more data, so the new skill that teachers have to learn is working with, managing, and analyzing big data in order to understand trends in their students' learning.
c. As I mentioned before, becoming a proficient end user of technology platforms is now a basic skill, the foundation upon which differentiation and all other aspects of teaching rest. Thus, learning more technology including apps, programs, and platforms has become an essential skill that teachers can learn about in their formal and informal professional development. For example, it's not enough to be able to use Zoom and allow all parties to be able to share their screens, the teacher will have to be very good at using the Zoom breakout room feature without a glitch. It's also important to learn to troubleshoot technical glitches.
d. In our ever-evolving, exponentially growing technological society, new technology appears daily. It's important to explore, identify, evaluate, and adopt new digital resources and tools for learning and instruction. I recommend reading useful sources of educational technology and its use in the classroom. It's not enough though to learn about learning apps. Teachers must also learn how to use these learning apps (e.g., Duolingo), programs (e.g., Literably for reading levels), and platforms (e.g. Kahn Academy) to their advantage in the classroom; for instance, for flipping the classroom to create more time for meaningful learning in person and on the screen.
e. Ethical and legal questions have always abound in the field of education, but recently more and more topics require ethical decision making and legal knowledge. Teachers and educator preparation candidates should make sure that they familiarize themselves with topics, such as privacy in online instruction; safe, ethical and legal practice of digital media and tools; protection of intellectual rights and property; management of personal data and digital identity; and protection of student data privacy.
f. Teachers and educator preparation candidates looking for employment will also have to learn how to present themselves virtually to employers, so I recommend practicing interviewing skills by themselves on HandShake, an interviewing platform offered by universities or practice with a career expert at their University Career Center.
g. Good teachers are life-long learners. They continue upskilling and learning more about their content by reading textbooks, primary sources, and literature - but it's not sufficient to read only research literature, it's essential to read high-quality literature! Teachers should also stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes, including findings from the learning sciences. In order to keep up with the latest research findings, I recommend that teachers read research articles of effective teaching strategies in their content area.
h. How and where can future teachers practice if they are not in the classroom? They can always find students who need help. Students can be family members, friends' children, neighbors, or school children whose parents look for paid or unpaid additional support. Thus I recommend tutoring students in the age group educator preparation candidates are learning to teach. Even after multiple field experiences in practica and student teaching, more practice is always useful, especially in a virtual environment. Practice teaching online (especially alternative ways of delivering hands-on activities for students of all ages) and implementing behavior management techniques for young online learners.

With increased frequency, employers with whom we work emphasize the importance of new hires being able to demonstrate adaptability, effective communication, and efficiency. As the demands of not only consumers but regulatory bodies evolve, it is essential for those entering the workforce-and those who are already in the force-to acknowledge that just because we successfully employed one strategy years ago (or even last week) does not mean that we can use the same strategy with the same success in the future. Adaptability. Likewise, it is essential to communicate complex ideas and concepts in ways that simplify and add clarity to a discussion. Both of these skills contribute to workers being efficient in deed and word.

Technical skills that stand out to employers in the education sector during and after the time of COVID include interpersonal skills, ability to navigate change and challenges, and commitment to educational equity. Interacting with colleagues, students, and families online is challenging. This requires a set of interpersonal skills that involve a tolerance for uncertainty, risk-taking, creativity, and innovation. The ability to navigate change and challenges is essential during uncertain times. In schools, the landscape is alway changing, and more so in a global pandemic.

It is important to foster a growth-mindset in oneself, and also in one's school community. Employers are also looking for a commitment to educational equity. With emerging consciousness of racial inequality and the need for systems that promote racial justice, employers want to hire people who are culturally competent and can move beyond statements of the value of diversity, to the enactment of educational environments that promote equity for those who are marginalized. This skill set includes: cross-cultural communication, culturally responsive teaching, and strength-based practices.

Useful soft skills are definitely those that Classical languages produce: ability to look closely at a body of work and pay attention to cultural context, ability to articulate complex ideas through speech and writing, deep focus to understand the fiddly bits of syntax.