Janis Carpenter

State:

Indiana

Years with PLS:

Since 2002

Why I love teaching PLS courses:

My being a part of PLS has been a perfect marriage of my philosophy of teaching and learning and my experiences in education.

PLS courses I teach:

• Brain-Based Ways We Think and Learn™
• Designing Motivation for All Learners™
• Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms™
• Purposeful Learning Through Multiple Intelligences®
• Reading to Learn: Comprehension Instruction™
• Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility®
• Classroom Management: Orchestrating a Community of Learners®
• Differentiated Instruction for Today's Classroom™

Education:

• BS and MA from Ball State University
• Counseling certification
• Many further graduate hours from Purdue University and Indiana Wesleyan

Teaching experience:

• Taught grades 3-5 for 33 years,
• Extensive subbing in K-12 grades when developing a sub training workshop.
• Worked with Indiana and Purdue Universities as a college supervisor of student teachers.

Related experience, recognition, awards, etc.:

• Took early retirement to begin teaching teachers.
• Presented inservices in various states through Educational Consulting Services and workshops at the Illinois Conference for the Gifted.
• Also developed and am still doing a Substitute Teacher Training Workshop.
• Presently focusing mainly on instructing PLS classes and working with student teachers.

What I love most about teaching:

Helping kids believe in themselves and be successful.

My favorite moment in teaching:

I felt most rewarded when I could make a difference in the lives of those most challenging students. The student who felt he was "dumb" in math and now tells you that this year he "gets it;" the painfully shy child who feels safe in your class to read her hidden poetry for the first time; the autistic student who you were able to successfully teach, not math skills, but 2 basic life skills; the school "hoodlum" that improves his behavior when he finds you genuinely care about him in spite of his antics.

Personal information:

My husband and I enjoy sailing in our 25-foot sailboat. We've trailed it to Canada, the Chesapeake and down to Florida Keys. We've also enjoyed chartering a sailboat in the British Virgin Isles and Tahiti. Next we want to charter a boat in Europe and travel on the canal systems with son and his family.