Andrea Maimone                                                                                                                   Teaching Philosophy

            When I think about the skills that I value the most, I immediately think of my critical thinking capabilities, my writing style and skill, and my enjoyment of literature that constantly changes to include new perspectives and ideas. These are all the skills that I have learned from my English teachers and professors past and present and these are the same skills that I now hope to contribute to in my students. There are many ways of approaching this daunting task and several more specific goals that I hope to encompass in some of these larger goals. Standards, such as those put forth by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the New York State Learning Standards for English Language Arts, give voice to these varied and expansive goals and will be of paramount importance in future lesson planning. The standards created by the NCTE are of special importance to me because they serve as the voice of many English teachers across the nation and represent to me, in written form, the importance of building a teaching community with teachers, administrators, and parents all working together to provide the best education possible for our students.

            Primarily, my reason for specifically wanting to teach English is that the study is so open-ended with many different possibilities for interpretation of texts, both print and non-print, unlike many of the other disciplines. It is my firm belief that the kind of thought English classes engender is the fundamental basis for critical thinking that is required for higher education and many future career options. Furthermore, through literature, both contemporary and classic, a number of universal truths can be discovered and interpreted through reading, writing, speaking, and listening that will greatly contribute to students’ greater understanding of the context of the world in which they live. In addition to these benefits, students will also be exposed to protagonists with experiences different from themselves as well as those with similar experiences which will theoretically expand students’ world views and put their own lives into a more global perspective. With today’s growing global economy and increasingly multicultural schools, this notion that students must learn to take multiple perspectives and learn about cultures both similar to and different from their own takes on added significance.

            This point brings me to the context of my future teaching. I recognize that many public schools, particularly those on the West and East coasts, are changing demographically at a rapid rate and minority ethnic populations are becoming much more prevalent in many school districts. I feel that as teachers it is our duty to recognize the multicultural nature of our schools and mirror that variety in population in our choices of texts. That is to say, it seems impossible to simply continue to teach solely the traditional canonic literature which, by and large, overlooks most minority groups, without giving voice to the many contemporary authors who are writing the story of “the other” to great effect. Exposing students to a variety of narratives describing a variety of cultures serves not only to give voice to some students in the class who may not otherwise connect as easily to the more traditional material but also to expose those students who are white and middle class to a different culture from their own to promote tolerance, understanding, and respect.

            Another growing issue in schools today is the increasing incidence of violence among students contributed to by the research proving students today are experiencing more stress than ever before. I do not profess to say that it is my job as an English teacher to directly deal with individual issues that students may be facing (though it is certainly my job not to ignore it if a student confides in me) but rather to incorporate texts that reflect these modern issues to offer models to students that may open up possibilities of coping mechanisms. Adolescence is a time of many changes and stresses; feelings of awkwardness abound. Sometimes, literature has a way of offering solace for people until they are ready to deal with issues directly which is certainly something that I can offer as an English teacher.

            One of the other changes that continue to become more prominent is the vast technological change we as a society are undergoing, and will continue to do so as time goes on. The advent of the Internet caused an explosion in the world of academics leading to new opportunities for exchange of information and research tools with near-instantaneous speed. I’m almost positive that by the time I am an in-service teacher, the Internet and access to it will be an option for all students, whether in their local library, at school, or at home. Therefore, the Internet can and should be used as a research tool and students should be taught how to use it effectively in their classes. In addition to the Internet, the use of other multimedia materials, such as PowerPoint presentations, use of film, and other mediums should be incorporated at least somewhat into the curriculum as these are all useful and necessary skills in our increasingly digitized society. It is important that students at least have a fundamental understanding of this technology and how to use it to their benefit. The use of technology also provides some element of increased responsibility as well. We constantly marvel at how each successive generation seems to be more skilled than the last at using technology efficiently. The use of technology in the classroom may offer certain students who are highly skilled in these areas the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise to both the teacher and the classroom. Giving students a certain amount of responsibility builds pride in their abilities and helps those students who may be skilled in other areas to learn more about something they might not yet be good at.

            Lastly, I think it is extremely important to do our best as teachers to create lifelong readers in our students. By this, I don’t simply mean lifelong reading in the context of necessity but more as in gaining an increased appreciation for the pleasure of reading whatever genre the student most enjoys. This seems like a fairly simplistic goal, but it is actually probably the hardest obstacle teachers of English will face. Many students, particularly later in high school, develop a strong aversion to reading. I think by constantly introducing new books, having a reasonably extensive class library where students can check out self-selected books at their leisure, and setting up goals with students such as reading 4 self-selected books by the end of the school year will help to alleviate this problem. It is certainly my hope that most of my students will leave my class as people who are able to think critically, write with greater ease and skill, and wanting to continue their learning as adults: many of the skills that I have to come to value myself.