My decision to become a teacher began with a basic craving for knowledge, which then fueled my interests in writing and teaching.  Being a good writer and teacher involves intense study of literature and education, because in order to be good at something you have to know what you’re doing.  Accordingly, my academic background has been a significant source of the knowledge base to teach English Language Arts.
           
English became my favorite subject in first grade, before I could even read, because it allowed for discussion on the widest range of topics.  Consequently, English teachers became those I wanted to impress the most, and I especially enjoyed the positive feedback I received on writing assignments.  It wasn’t until high school that I knew I wanted to be an English teacher; while I always took Journalism and Creative writing courses as electives, I didn’t enjoy reading until my Junior year when we read Anthem, The Stranger, and Catcher in the Rye.  These books absolutely changed my life, because I finally knew how good books could be.  By college, I was obsessed with literature, and I knew from Day 1 my major would be English.  I took classes on Latin, Old English, Shakespeare, Milton, Romanticism, Virginia Woolf, Modern Feminist Poetry, Toni Morrison, and Southern Literature.  Anything that had to do with reading and writing—including Anthropology, Sociology, Linguistics, and Education—and I wanted to study it.  I can remember spending hours and hours studying a single poem, perfecting a story for creative writing class,  or practicing for debate on a controversial issue in contemporary education. 
           
I believe that the content of my education, both formal and informal, has shaped who I am as a person; more specifically, the things I was able to learn just by reading books is that basis of my character.  My love of literature, and my belief that an infinite amount of things can be taught through it, has led me to place exceptionally high value on content-area knowledge.  As a teacher, of course I also appreciate the value of pedagogical knowledge, but at the heart of teaching is getting the students to learn as much as they possibly can from English and Language Arts.