A Teacher I Be

I haven't always wanted to be a teacher; it was only in high school that the idea occurred to me. I had a fantastic high school English teacher, Mrs. Pedersen, who inspired me by the way she taught and interacted with her students on a daily basis. No one loved English more than she did, and no one loved her students (except maybe their parents) more than she did. She had a way of teaching that made us not only to want to learn about English, literature, and writing, but it made us want to be better people and more clearly understand the world around us. She encouraged us to apply what we learned on a daily basis; a lot of teachers simply require their students to memorize a bunch of facts for a test, and then they don't care what they do with what they learned. Because of Mrs. Pedersen, I want to be a high school English teacher. I want to inspire my students to go out and change the world, to recognize what is happening all around them and how they can affect it, and to take advantage of all the resources that are available to them. I want my students to be able to think for themselves. I want them to be able to go to college and get degrees, so that they, in turn, can inspire others to be better. I like the "Pay It Forward" mentality; if I help my students learn and grow, they'll help others learn and grow, and so forth. I was inspired by an amazing teacher, and I want to do the same. That's my teaching philosophy.