Born and raised in the "wide open spaces" of Minnesota, Education Prof. Jane Hansen said she has known what she has wanted to do since she was in second grade.
"I remember the day when I came home and announced to my mom and dad that I was going to be a teacher," Hansen said.
Now she is the teacher's teacher -- she teaches current and future teachers how to teach.
"I am a professor in the reading program and what I do is teach writing for teachers," Hansen said. "I teach teachers how to teach kids how to write."
Primarily for graduate students, the Curry School course she teaches is titled "The Teaching of Writing."
Graduate student Jill Pentimonti said Hansen makes the learning environment more friendly so that future teachers embrace each other and each others' writing styles.
Hansen "definitely brings life and energy to class," Pentimonti said. "She also makes the classroom environment very comfortable. I think we all feel at ease sharing with each other, which makes writing and sharing our pieces of work even easier -- which is, of course, an important part of writing."
From Hansen, Pentimonti has learned the importance of making her students feel at ease in the classroom so that all students feel comfortable sharing their work with each other.
Hansen herself taught at various elementary levels for 12 years after graduating in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in Education from Drake University. She then earned her doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota.
After earning her doctorate, Hansen taught at the University of New Hampshire and in 2000 she moved to Charlottesville to assume her current position at the University.
She said she decided to teach teachers because she believes she ultimately has a greater impact on the quality of education for more students.
"I'd be affecting more children by helping people become better teachers of writing," Hansen said.
As a professor and a researcher, she has to keep up with students of all ages in kindergarten through high school reading levels.
"I go into classrooms and study the students to study what it is that they do as writers," Hansen said. "I move about, I talk with children about writing and then I share what it is that I see with other teachers in my classes."
Hansen has insight into similarities between teaching elementary school children and college students. With both ages, teaching writing is about encouraging creativity.
"With young children, no one yet has interfered with telling them they can't write," Hansen said. "You just give them paper and you just do it. ... [but] when [college] students get to my class, people have had unfortunate situations with writing, and I have to undo that. I have to inspire confidence."
Similar to the younger children, college students, even doctoral students work better with the positive reinforcement that Hansen finds so important to provide elementary school children.
"Every week she reads one of our writing pieces and responds to each one of us in a letter," Pentimonti said. "She always points out what she finds interesting, specific words she likes and where she sees the piece going. I honestly look forward to these letters. It's so nice to hear her positive take on my writing."
In looking forward to Hansen's feedback, Pentimonti said she has learned how important it will be to give her future students compliments about their writing.
"Gentle encouragement, a comfortable atmosphere and lots of positive reinforcement helped me to try something new, and I ended up loving it," Pentimonti said. "If in a classroom again, I would try to duplicate this type of environment to motivate students to write using various genres."
When she practices what she teaches, Hansen takes up two types of writing -- she writes for both creative and professional purposes.
"I write articles and books," Hansen said. "I do the academic thing."
As for her creative side, Hansen was asked to be a part of a group of women professors writing about growing up in different parts of the world.
Titled "Girlhood of the 1950s," the book features chapters written by different female professors who grew up in various places.
Writing her chapter on growing up on a Minnesota farm, called "Wide Open Spaces," gave her a chance to explore her roots.
"One of the parts I wrote about was, on my 40th birthday, my mother gave me the journal she kept when I was born," Hansen said. "So I wrote how what I read about in that tiny journal in some ways carries through into all my growing up years."
Being able to read her mother's raw words still affects the way Hansen describes, writes and thinks about things today.
"She not only wrote about me in my first hours, but she would write about flowers my dad brought her in the hospital," Hansen said. "She listed every single flower from her garden, and I still do that."
She said her approach to this more creative kind of writing was to "start with people in my life and various moments that impacted me," adding that it was fascinating for her to ponder where she came from and how it has molded her into who she is today.
"As writers, we do this sort of thing more than people who don't," Hansen said. "As writers we want to believe that anyway."
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