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While there are many people who have a strong passion for teaching, not everyone has the same confidence level. To raise your profile as a teacher and achieve the best position, tackling any self-doubt you may be experiencing is just as important as improving your professional image.
In this article, we will consider how to improve your confidence and profile as a teacher.
Self-worth 101
Improving your self-worth and confidence is important as a teacher. Students can see right through a teacher who is hesitant or not sure of their own abilities. If you suffer from these types of feelings, it might not have anything to do with your actual teaching abilities.
Work on yourself. Read some books to boost your confidence or take a refresher course on the latest teaching techniques. It also helps to remind yourself that you’re qualified. To do that, frame your certificate and degrees and put them up in your office at work or in your home office. Putting your qualifications on display acts as a daily reminder of your value.
If you want to become a better teacher, then get this step-by-step "How To Be a Great Teacher" guide.
Find a Mentor to Get to the Next Level
Finding a mentor is useful to gain insight into those areas in your teaching career where you may be coming up short. Someone with more years in the teaching profession or who is teaching the same subject matter can offer a fresh perspective on your working situation and show you how to take it to the next level. They may also have some good advice for making your teaching profile stand out or suggestions for putting yourself in a better position to ask for a pay raise in your current role.
Google Yourself & Go into Clean-up Mode
As a teacher, you need to be mindful of your social media presence. When Googling your name, add the word “teacher” to see what comes up. Google has a knack for finding many previous comments and past sins. Only some of these can be expunged or requested to be removed. If you find something really undesirable, you may have success contacting the administrator or webmaster of a website and asking them to take down a forum post.
Once you search for yourself online, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what schools and colleges with
“Whether you are teaching for the very first time or are a seasoned veteran, prepare carefully for the initial class. Your preparation and attitude is contagious: students will pick up on your excitement” – Stanford University
Promote Yourself on the Best Platforms
The right platform depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Most educators have an active Facebook account at a minimum. Promote content that is useful to other teachers and important news about the teaching profession. Show that you care about the industry and keep current with the latest issues affecting it.
Twitter is certainly popular, but it’s important to be extremely careful about posting personal opinions that others might find offensive either now or in the future. This makes it difficult to know how to use the platform and to avoid problems. Some teachers have lost their jobs over unwise tweets, even after deleting them. Keep in mind that anyone can take screenshots of your tweets when they’re live and continue to post about them longer after they’ve been deleted.
Seek out the platforms that attract other educators and make yourself known. networking like this often leads to
Improving your self-worth and confidence is important as a teacher. Students can see right through a teacher who is hesitant or not sure of their own abilities.
Tweet ThisUsing LinkedIn as a teacher
Potential employers are looking for teachers on LinkedIn, so make sure you’re dressed professionally in your profile headshot. Sporting a t-shirt demonstrating your love for rock bands won’t cut it. Add content that demonstrates your enjoyment of teaching and articles about helping students acquire the knowledge they can apply in their future lives.
When listing your work history, include tidbits about the high points in your career so far. If your students have done well overall in their final grades, be sure to include this fact.
In terms of networking, when you add someone to your LinkedIn account, this reflects on you. Other people in your network can see your friend’s list, too. Consider this before adding people or groups that might be unpopular within the teaching profession. The people you choose to associate with online can have an impact on your career.
Wherever possible, publish content on LinkedIn, Facebook, or on a professional website that demonstrates a deep interest in the education field. When you show concern about your profession, educational institutions may show interest in you. Where there’s a professional qualification that will advance your knowledge in the subject matter(s) you teach, take the opportunity to complete it and add it to
If you're serious about taking your career to the next level, you need to be on LinkedIn. Author Angela Rose will show you how to make a rock-solid LinkedIn profile and expand your network. Whether you want to find a new job on LinkedIn or advance your career, this guide can be the blueprint for a supercharged LinkedIn strategy.