I'm an English Education student at Stony Brook University, a Chicago Cubs fan and a brand-new father. It's hard to say at this point which of those endeavors has proven the most challenging, but I have a good idea which has been the most rewarding. (Hint: it's not being a Cubs fan; 99 years and counting without a World Series title.) My favorite actor is James Dean, though my wife and I named our son after this guy. My favorite writers include: Ring Lardner, W.P. Kinsella and Robert Frost.

My Teaching Philosophy

A great teacher recognizes that he is not just a purveyor of facts and formulae, but someone who demonstrates to his students that true knowledge is achieved by maintaining a sense of wonder - by constantly asking questions and not by memorizing answers. A great teacher inspires his students to discover a deeper understanding of the world around them and, as a result, of themselves. A great teacher explores the ideas in his material instead of affixing to its minutiae; after he has taught Catcher in the Rye, for example, his students know not only that Holden Caulfield attends Pencey School and has a sister named Phoebe, but also that they can relate to their own lives the wisdom Mr. Antolini shares with Holden when he says, "Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their struggles. You'll learn from them - if you want to." A great teacher can help his students find something of themselves in both classic literature and the daily newspaper. A great teacher knows the best way to keep students engaged in learning is by being enthusiastic about teaching. Taking all of this into account, my philosophy on teaching is to be a great teacher - or at least strive for nothing less. This philosophy does not necessarily occur to me intuitively. Fortunately I have had great teachers.

I had a literature teacher in high school who supplemented Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant with episodes of The Cosby Show, asked lone questions like "Is Holden crazy?" on exams, staged productions of Our Town in the classroom and occasionally brought a guitar to school so that he could lead the class in made-up songs about the absurdities depicted in Catch-22. The same teacher, when asked what he would do if it were his last day on Earth, answered that he would teach literature. It was in his classroom that I heard a character in W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe make the plea, "Ray, teach me to see" and Robert Kennedy offer, "There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why; I dream of things that never were and ask why not." As if to prove the point that men do learn from the records kept of others' struggles, Kennedy was paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw, whose play Pygmalion not only derived from Greek Mythology but also later served as the basis for the film My Fair Lady. My high-school literature teacher is the best I ever had because he taught me that attaining knowledge is an ongoing process by which asking questions is equally valuable to knowing answers. He was a great teacher because he dedicated himself to the vocation, and my philosophy is to be great too.

In pursuit of my ambition to become a great teacher, I chose to attend Stony Brook because of its reputation for academic excellence, particularly in regard to its Professional Education Program. The three major themes in which the program's vision is founded - professional excellence and growth, community and diversity, and leadership and service - are all essential attributes of a good teacher. The best teachers I have had, like my high-school literature teacher, have not only inspired me in the classroom, but have also influenced my life outside the classroom. In short, my favorite teachers have also served as mentors and role models, so the theme I'm most interested in is that of leadership and service. Furthermore, the program's conceptual framework lists three integral pathways to developing and refining one's teaching skills: research, reflection and partnership. Again, all three aspects are imperative, but the one most meaningful to me is reflection, because it goes hand-in-hand with leadership and service.