---
description: Fictional teacher-to-instructional-designer career-change resume
template: resume
theme: classroom-clear
paper: us-letter
margins: compact
fontSize: 10
lineSpacing: 0.66
titlePage: false
toc: false
headingNumbers: false
equationNumbers: false
columns: 1
header: ""
footer: ""
language: en-US
---

# Portia Cato

Capitol Vale, Virginia | 202-555-0118 | portia.cato@example.com | portfolio.example.com/portia-cato

## Instructional Designer | Curriculum Developer

Classroom educator transitioning into instructional design with nine years of experience analyzing learner needs, writing measurable objectives, developing accessible materials, facilitating adult learning, and revising instruction from performance evidence. Portfolio includes self-paced learning, instructor-led training, job aids, assessment plans, and implementation guides.

## Selected Instructional Design Projects

### New-Teacher Feedback Conversations | Blended Learning Prototype

- Interviewed eight teachers and two instructional coaches to identify recurring practice gaps, constraints, and moments of need for a fictional district onboarding scenario.
- Mapped three observable performance objectives to a 25-minute self-paced module, branching practice, facilitator guide, and post-session job aid.
- Piloted the prototype with 14 educators; scenario accuracy increased from 61% on the pre-check to 86% on the post-check, and feedback led to shorter instructions and a second practice branch.

### Accessible Source Evaluation | Microlearning Series

- Converted a 55-slide lecture into four focused lessons with worked examples, retrieval checks, alt text, keyboard-readable interactions, and a final transfer task.
- Built a storyboard, narration script, visual specification, assessment blueprint, and revision log so a subject-matter expert could review content before development.

## Transferable Experience

### English and Humanities Teacher | Forum Heights Public Schools | Capitol Vale, VA

*August 2017-Present*

- Design standards-aligned units for five sections and approximately 125 learners each year, using backward planning, model work, guided practice, and performance rubrics.
- Analyze common-assessment and learner-feedback evidence with a six-teacher team, then revise instruction, exemplars, and supports for the next delivery cycle.
- Created a new-teacher workshop on discussion protocols and feedback routines; facilitated six sessions and supplied reusable planning tools for 38 participants.
- Partner with special educators and multilingual-learning specialists to reduce unnecessary language barriers while preserving the intended performance goal.
- Manage concurrent curriculum, assessment, family-communication, and reporting deadlines in a regulated environment with multiple stakeholders.

### Curriculum Team Lead | Forum Heights Public Schools | Capitol Vale, VA

*June 2021-June 2025, additional assignment*

- Coordinated scope, sequence, shared assessments, and resource review across grades 9-10; documented decisions and version changes for 11 teachers.
- Facilitated needs-analysis sessions, synthesized conflicting feedback, and presented recommendations to school leaders with implementation risks and support requirements.

## Design Process and Tools

**Process:** needs analysis, task analysis, measurable objectives, storyboarding, assessment design, prototyping, facilitation, usability feedback, iterative revision

**Tools:** Articulate Storyline and Rise, Camtasia, Figma, Canvas LMS, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, basic HTML and CSS

**Accessibility:** plain language, heading structure, alt text, captions and transcripts, keyboard review, color-contrast checks

## Education and Professional Learning

**M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction** | Potomac Commonwealth University | 2021

**B.A., English** | Cicero State College | 2017

ATD Instructional Design Certificate | 2025 | Articulate Storyline Essential Training | 2024