Reflecting back upon my first encounters with Literature, a specific moment comes to mind. I was about three years old, and I loved books. I loved to carry them, have them, the stories they contained, and most of all I loved to read them. The only problem was I couldn't quite read yet without my mother's help. Every evening before bedtime, I would drag her into my bedroom and beg her to read to me book after book. One day I was fed up and began tossing my books across the room. My mother asked me what was wrong and I said that I wanted to read on my own. She assured me that I was probably already able to without even realizing it and handed me a new book. After calming down, I opened the pages, listening to the familiar sound of the crisp pages gliding from one side to the next and I read. I'll never forget that moment in my life.
Literature has offered me many more such moments, for example, when I first read The Great Gatsby, or Wuthering Heights, or when I learned from a professor about post-colonial Literature by reading Midnight's Children in Salmon Rushdie's words. It didn't dawn on me that I should become an English teacher until after I had completed my four year degree in English Literature at Penn State that maybe, just maybe I should make myself happy by teaching what I love.
I think my teaching philosophy is quite simple when it comes down to it. I want to share my passion and knowledge of Literature with adolescents. I expect myself to be understanding, respectful, creative, fun, serious, well-informed, enthusiastic, caring, and prepared. I expect the same of my students in return. I want the opportunity to show them the world through different perspectives, cultures, styles, time periods, and ideologies. These teachings will all come to them in the form of words. I'd like my students to understand what is possible through Literature and how to make it one's own. I would like to turn brighter the light of Literature in each student. I look forward to sharing my knowledge with every pupil and listening to their ideas and thoughts as they grow academically each day. I hope to reach my goals through students who come to me with positive outlooks on reading and writing and those who would rather be sitting somewhere else for forty minutes. Most of all I hope to impart what is possible through reading and writing in hopes that students will leave my classroom wanting more. More books, more thoughts, more discussion, more debate, more perspecitves, and maybe even choose to pick up a pen to tell the paper what they think, how they feel, and why.
