Top 12 Teaching Artist Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's job market, teaching artists have to show a rare mix: creative muscle plus real pedagogy. Hiring teams scan fast. Clear skills jump off the page. Below, a tight set of 12 capabilities worth spotlighting—skills that signal you can spark imagination, build skills, and guide learners through the messy, brilliant work of making art.

Teaching Artist Skills

1. Curriculum Development
2. Classroom Management
3. Adobe Creative Cloud
4. Digital Storytelling
5. Procreate
6. Zoom Facilitation
7. Google Classroom
8. Assessment Strategies
9. Inclusive Practices
10. STEAM Integration
11. Microsoft 365 (Office)
12. Conflict Resolution

1. Curriculum Development

Curriculum development for a Teaching Artist means shaping learning journeys—sequencing concepts, crafting activities, and aligning assessments—so artistic processes and academic goals weave together into something purposeful and alive.

Why It's Important

It anchors creativity to clear outcomes. Structure meets imagination. Students get coherence, challenge, and room to grow, while you get a roadmap that adapts to real humans in the room.

How to Improve Curriculum Development Skills

Blend method with spark, and keep iterating.

1. Integrate the arts across subjects: Pair visual arts with history, music with math, theater with language. Cross-pollination boosts meaning and memory.

2. Center the learner: Start with interests, strengths, and access needs. Offer choices. Build in entry points for all readiness levels.

3. Use technology intentionally: Digital tools for collaboration, critique, and showcasing work—only where they truly add value.

4. Keep learning: Follow current practices in arts education and pedagogy. Short courses, peer learning, and communities of practice pay off.

5. Seek feedback and reflect: Quick exit tickets, peer observations, student voice. Adjust fast, then document what worked.

6. Co-create with colleagues: Swap units, co-plan residencies, share rubrics. Collaboration multiplies ideas.

Do this consistently and your curriculum becomes a living, evolving studio—structured, flexible, and magnetic.

How to Display Curriculum Development Skills on Your Resume

2. Classroom Management

For a Teaching Artist, classroom management is the art of shaping a creative lab—clear routines, respectful norms, and momentum—where students feel safe to take risks and stay engaged.

Why It's Important

Chaos crushes creativity. Good management protects time, attention, and community, so the real work—making, reflecting, revising—can breathe.

How to Improve Classroom Management Skills

Practical, humane, and steady wins.

1. State expectations plainly: Co-create norms. Revisit them. Catch students doing it right and name it.

2. Build relationships: Learn names, notice effort, greet at the door. Relationship first, redirection second.

3. Plan for engagement: Hands-on work, clear roles, time-boxed tasks. Idle time invites drift.

4. Use restorative, positive discipline: Address impact, repair harm, and reset. Dignity for everyone.

5. Reflect often: After each session, note friction points and tiny wins. Tweak space, timing, or grouping swiftly.

How to Display Classroom Management Skills on Your Resume

3. Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and more) powers digital art, design, video, and motion graphics—tools many teaching artists use to plan, demo, and create with learners.

Why It's Important

It mirrors industry practice, supports cross-media projects, and lets you model professional workflows—from storyboard to final export.

How to Improve Adobe Creative Suite Skills

1. Master core features, then layer complexity: Short, focused practice builds fluency faster than marathon sessions.

2. Teach through projects: Design real briefs—posters, reels, zines—so students learn tools in service of ideas.

3. Track updates: New features can simplify steps or unlock new techniques. Fold them in as you go.

4. Join educator communities: Share lesson flows, critiques, and student showcases. Borrow generously and credit well.

5. Invite feedback: Ask students what helped and what confused. Adjust lesson pacing and demos accordingly.

6. Experiment wildly: Push edges—blend modes, masks, keyframes. Curiosity is contagious.

How to Display Adobe Creative Suite Skills on Your Resume

4. Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling blends images, audio, video, and text to craft narrative. As a Teaching Artist, you guide students to shape voice, structure, and visuals so stories land with heart and clarity.

Why It's Important

It builds communication, digital literacy, and identity expression. Students learn to sequence, edit, and empathize—skills that travel far beyond the arts.

How to Improve Digital Storytelling Skills

1. Use multimedia intentionally: Tools like Adobe Express or Canva keep visuals crisp and cohesive.

2. Teach structure: Beginning–middle–end, with stakes and change. Storyboards help thinking go visual.

3. Add interactivity: Layer clickable hotspots or simple branching for exploration when appropriate.

4. Design the sound: Music, ambience, and VO pacing matter. Trim the noise; let the message breathe.

5. Encourage collaboration: Writers, editors, voice actors, designers—students try roles, swap hats, and learn the pipeline.

6. Teach digital citizenship: Attribution, consent, privacy, fair use. Non-negotiables.

7. Collect feedback rapidly: Quick surveys or hallway tests surface what lands and what drags.

How to Display Digital Storytelling Skills on Your Resume

5. Procreate

Procreate is a powerhouse iPad app for drawing, painting, and illustration—nimble, tactile, and fast, perfect for demos and student practice.

Why It's Important

It’s a portable studio. You can show technique live, share process videos instantly, and scaffold experimentation with layers and brushes.

How to Improve Procreate Skills

1. Build custom kits: Create brushes, palettes, and canvas templates aligned to lessons so everyone starts strong.

2. Record process: Use time-lapse and short screen captures for micro-tutorials students can replay.

3. Collaborate in the cloud: Share files via iCloud or similar so critique and iteration stay fluid.

4. Layer feedback: Drop instructor notes on separate layers—toggle on/off to clarify revisions without marking up originals.

5. Demo live: Screen share in virtual or hybrid sessions; annotate as you go and pause for questions.

6. Create a resource hub: One folder with brushes, references, and short guides reduces friction.

7. Mind accessibility: Adjust interface contrast, gesture settings, and assignment formats to meet diverse needs.

How to Display Procreate Skills on Your Resume

6. Zoom Facilitation

Zoom facilitation is the craft of running lively, inclusive online sessions—clear flow, interactive beats, and tech that stays out of the way.

Why It's Important

Virtual spaces can sing or sink. Strong facilitation keeps attention high, builds community, and makes remote art-making feel human.

How to Improve Zoom Facilitation Skills

1. Prep deeply: Agenda, timing, roles, backup plans. Polls or quick quizzes keep a pulse on the room.

2. Mix media: Slides, short clips, music stingers. Rhythm matters.

3. Use interaction tools: Breakout rooms, chat prompts, reactions, shared whiteboards—variety fights fatigue.

4. Close feedback loops: One-minute checks or short forms reveal pacing gaps and tech hiccups fast.

5. Be personal: Stories, studio anecdotes, and warm tone shrink the screen-to-human gap.

6. Know your tools: Screen share, annotations, audio routing, captions—practice before showtime.

7. Design for access: High-contrast slides, captions, readable fonts, and posted materials help everyone keep up.

How to Display Zoom Facilitation Skills on Your Resume

7. Google Classroom

Google Classroom streamlines assignments, feedback, and communication. For teaching artists, it’s a tidy hub for resources, critiques, and showcasing progress.

Why It's Important

It reduces friction: clear instructions, organized submissions, faster feedback loops, and easy collaboration.

How to Improve Google Classroom Skills

1. Layer multimedia: Drop in short videos, audio notes, and interactive slides to prime understanding.

2. Co-create in real time: Use Docs, Slides, and Sheets for group work, gallery walks, and peer review.

3. Make feedback interactive: Quick forms, comment banks, and rubrics save time and sharpen guidance.

4. Host virtual exhibitions: Build class sites or slideshows for portfolios and artist statements—invite families and partners to view.

5. Curate extensions: Link to credible tutorials and mini-lessons in technique, history, or critique to deepen learning.

How to Display Google Classroom Skills on Your Resume

8. Assessment Strategies

Assessment for a Teaching Artist blends observation, performance checks, portfolios, self/peer review, and clear criteria to map growth over time.

Why It's Important

Without it, you’re guessing. With it, you target instruction, celebrate progress, and help students understand their own artistic moves.

How to Improve Assessment Strategies Skills

1. Mix methods: Formative checks during work time plus summative showcases. Portfolios as the spine.

2. Set sharp objectives: Specific and measurable, shared up front. Students learn the “why,” not just the “what.”

3. Use rubrics that teach: Criteria that name process and product. Keep language student-friendly.

4. Build reflection in: Journals, artist statements, and critique protocols deepen metacognition.

5. Leverage digital portfolios: Simple blogs or portfolio apps make progress visible and feedback timely.

6. Give feedback that moves work: Timely, specific, actionable. Praise effort, name next steps.

7. Invite student voice: Goal-setting and self-assessment build ownership and self-regulation.

8. Iterate: Review data, listen to students, revise tools. Assessment evolves with your learners.

How to Display Assessment Strategies Skills on Your Resume

9. Inclusive Practices

Inclusive practice means designing learning where every student—across abilities, languages, identities, and backgrounds—can participate fully and be seen.

Why It's Important

Belonging unlocks risk-taking. When students feel safe and represented, they create more boldly and learn more deeply.

How to Improve Inclusive Practices Skills

1. Study differences, honor strengths: Keep learning about cultures, neurodiversity, and universal design for learning.

2. Examine bias: Reflect on assumptions. Adjust materials, examples, and language accordingly.

3. Design inclusive curricula: Artists, movements, and stories from many perspectives—across time and place.

4. Differentiate: Multiple entry points, scaffolded steps, alternate formats, flexible timing.

5. Set the tone: Co-created norms, explicit respect, structured discussion. Repair harm when it happens.

6. Ask and listen: Anonymous check-ins or quick conferences surface needs you can meet.

7. Collaborate: Partner with colleagues, families, and community groups. Learning for Justice and similar communities offer useful frameworks.

How to Display Inclusive Practices Skills on Your Resume

10. STEAM Integration

STEAM links Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics. Teaching artists thread creative process through STEM concepts—prototyping, modeling, storytelling, data visualization.

Why It's Important

It mirrors how the world works: interdisciplinary, iterative, and inventive. Students learn to test, revise, and communicate ideas across modes.

How to Improve STEAM Integration Skills

1. Lead with inquiry: Pose real problems and let students investigate. Art as a method of sense-making.

2. Design collaborative builds: Teams that combine roles—designer, coder, documentarian—produce richer outcomes.

3. Blend tech thoughtfully: Microcontrollers, modeling software, or animation when they clarify or extend learning.

4. Tie to real contexts: Local data sets, community stories, authentic audiences. Meaning matters.

5. Keep upskilling: Short workshops and peer shares across arts and STEM keep your toolkit current.

How to Display STEAM Integration Skills on Your Resume

11. Microsoft 365 (Office)

Microsoft 365 tools—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Forms, Teams, Outlook—support planning, tracking, presenting, and collaborating across classes and partners.

Why It's Important

It’s the everyday backbone: lesson plans, rosters, rubrics, slide decks, sign-ups, feedback forms—all in one ecosystem.

How to Improve Microsoft Office Skills

1. Start with templates: Build reusable lesson, critique, and unit-planning templates to save prep time.

2. Make media-rich slides: Short videos, clean typography, and purposeful animations—not bells for their own sake.

3. Collaborate live: Share via OneDrive; co-edit documents and track versions without drama.

4. Add the right add-ins: Quizzes, timers, citation tools—only what truly improves flow.

5. Use Forms for quick checks: Exit tickets, workshop sign-ups, peer feedback—fast data, faster pivots.

6. Explore Microsoft Learn: Bite-size trainings keep you sharp and classroom-ready.

How to Display Microsoft Office Skills on Your Resume

12. Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is the skill of navigating disagreements toward fair, workable outcomes. In arts spaces, it’s about hearing each voice, naming impact, and rebuilding trust so the work can continue.

Why It's Important

Studios thrive on collaboration. When students feel respected and safe, they take creative risks and stick with tough problems.

How to Improve Conflict Resolution Skills

1. Listen first: Reflect back what you heard. Slow the heat down before solutions appear.

2. Lead with empathy: Validate feelings without taking sides. Understanding de-escalates quickly.

3. Speak clearly: Use “I” statements. Address behavior and impact, not character.

4. Co-solve: Ask for options from all parties. Aim for win-win and specific next steps.

5. Stay flexible: Multiple paths can work. Creativity belongs here, too.

6. Set norms early: Clear guidelines for discussion, critique, and shared spaces prevent many flare-ups.

How to Display Conflict Resolution Skills on Your Resume