Janie Haugen-McLane

by Janie Haugen-McLane, Co-Founder PCI Education

Many years ago while working with adult students with intellectual disabilities, I decided to make a game board, just for fun. The idea: to get everyone engaged in a fun, social-group activity that would foster age-appropriate on-topic conversation.

The students knew how to talk but often wanted to go over the same information, repeatedly. It was time for a creative solution.

My husband, Jeff and I went to local-area flea markets in search of old game boards. After covering the first of the boards in white contact paper, I drew squares, each with a different question. The first game was titled: “Just for Fun.”

In each of the squares I wrote questions for the students to answer, hoping I might learn more about the students as they learned about each other. The questions concerned fun sports to play, funny stories that make people laugh, a favorite hobby, fun board games that students play and various other recreational topics.

One question: “If you could be any movie star, who would you choose to be?” The first student, who just happened to be red-headed and loved to watch classic “I Love Lucy” reruns, landed on that square and answered, “I would be Lucille Ball; she is so funny.”

The group was having a ball! Well, everyone but Herman. An older, gruff-talking man with seldom a kind word for anyone, Herman later landed on the movie star square. After listening to the question, he looked directly at me, squinted his eyes and growled out in his sandpaper voice, “I would be The Duke; do you know who that is?” I smiled and said, “Do you mean John Wayne?” He leaned back in his wheelchair, smiled and broke the silence with loud laughter. The whole group sat there stunned in silence. You see, none of us had ever seen him smile or heard him laugh. I believe Herman had even surprised himself.

Herman had helped me discover that some people do have smiles inside… the smiles and laughter just need an escape route. That day a spark was ignited, a spark that led to the writing of PCI’s Life Skills Series of games about living in the real world.

Question of the Week: Tell PCI about a fun, innovative teaching solution you have used to encourage a student to participate in class. Please use the first name “only” of the student, for privacy reasons. We look forward to hearing about your experience!

by Janie Haugen-McLane, Co-Founder PCI Education
(Second in a Series: 20+ Years Building PCI Education)

There will always be certain students whom you remember fondly. For me, the first was Russell M. in my classroom in Houston, Texas, 1987. In order to save money (in a tough economy), a teacher who resigned from the campus… “adults with special needs,” was not replaced.

All the teachers had to draw names from a hat to get four new students. I had only been there a few weeks and didn’t know any students other than the ones in my classroom. I drew the name, Russell M. and was quite surprised when a long-term teacher looked at me and with wide-eyes exclaimed, “Whew, I’m glad I didn’t get him.” That was a little scary to say the least.

I was nervous the next morning anxious to see my students when the door opened wide and they blew in. One student stopped dead still, looked over at me, and said, “A princess!” Here was this tall, early 30ish handsome man with an impish grin from ear to ear. He held out a hand to shake and said with the slightest lisp, “I’m Russell. You are pretty.”

We were crazy about each other right from the start. In fact, he became a little too infatuated with me so I had my big, burly husband, Jeff, come visit the classroom and Russell “fell” for him too! While on business trips, Jeff began sending Russell postcards from all over the country—it was the perfect win-win solution. After each trip, Russell would ask my husband if he saw any “grrrrs,” their secret word for pretty girls and when not out of town Jeff would often take off work early to come visit with Russell – some time for man talk.

In March of that year, Jeff sent a bunch of daffodils, King Alfreds, for my birthday. I told Russell that since I was a little girl, I had called them Buttercups because yellow was my favorite color… he never forgot that conversation. Even years later, Russell would talk to me or write me and mention my favorite flowers. Of course, he always called them Buttercups. How I loved him, his mischievous almost shy smile, and his entertaining stories.

I met Russell’s parents and we all became friends. When my husband decided to start a bio-tech company in San Antonio in 1988, the hardest part was leaving Russell and the other students in my class. We all cried and Russell said, “I’ll be over to see you, don’t you worry.”

And you know what? His family did come to San Antonio in their motor-home and we had a wonderful time. Russell is one of the bright lights in my life.

I thank God everyday for allowing me the honor of drawing Russell’s name from that hat. It turned out to be my lucky hat. Sometimes things just fall into place, and Russell fell into the center of my heart. I miss him greatly!

Question of the Week: Who was that first student who stole your heart and made you love teaching? Please use the first name and last initial for privacy reasons. PCI and I would love to hear your experience.

Come on board with PCI and blog your story to the world.

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Janie McLane Co-Founder PCI Education

Janie McLane Co-Founder PCI Education

Janie Haugen-McLane, creator of PCI’s flagship product, the best-selling Life Skills Programs, Series I and II, draws on her years of teaching to develop real-world, innovative educational products. She has conceived of and developed more than 95% of PCI’s proprietary products and has attracted a number of nationally recognized authors to PCI.

by Janie Haugen-McLane, Co-Founder PCI Education

I arrived in Special Education through a side door. When my accounting job in Houston, Texas ended in 1987, (because the company closed unexpectedly) the want-ads became my new friend. A small ad caught my eye: Need teacher with degree to work with adults with special needs in classroom setting.

Janie Haugen-McLane (Back in The Day)

Having volunteered at Special Olympics before and loving it, I hurried over to a large residential campus in the River Oaks section of Houston. The administrator took me on a tour to visit the classroom where 30 adult students (ranging in ages from 18 to 70) and two teachers occupied an extremely large room. After introducing me to the students, these dedicated educators explained why they loved working there. Within minutes the students were gathered around me, all talking at the same time and begging me to be their new teacher. I was the one excited; no one had ever pleaded for me to work for them anywhere before. I was hooked and started my journey into Special Education.

There were ten students in the morning class and ten different students in the afternoon. My new job was to teach life skills… how to survive in the real world. I wanted to give to these students an exciting, fun and creative environment; I wanted them to have the best that life has to offer.

Wanting to beat the sludge of early-morning Houston traffic, I would arrive at the school more than an hour before the 8 a.m. class time. Since it was a residential facility, little by little, my students began knocking on the locked classroom door, pleading to come to class early. Together, we would work on getting the classroom ready for the day. We talked, we laughed, they learned, I learned… and as the days unfolded we learned about each other, about who and what we were.

In the first few days of teaching, one student was making the two “e’s” in his name backwards. Sitting down at the table by him, I showed him an easier way to make an “e.” Then he proceeded to write his name again with the backwards letters. Just as I began to say something else, he tugged on my sleeve, “Miss Janie, did they not tell you that there is something wrong with my brain?”

Stopping in my tracks, I excused myself to the other teacher and stepped outside the classroom. Tears welled up in my eyes. What had I been thinking? This was an adult man who had been trying to write his name correctly for over thirty years. In the whole, big scheme of things, what did it really matter? Upon returning to the classroom, I made a check-mark by his name signaling a job well done and assigned him another task. That day was the turning point in my life; I became the student… the student became my teacher.

Quietly and with little warning these students captured my imagination and heart. Special Education was the place where I belonged. Finally, I had discovered my life’s purpose. Life would never be the same.

Question of the Day: What drew you to a career in Education? PCI wants to hear and learn about your experience. Come on board with PCI and blog your story to the world.

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Janie McLane Co-Founder PCI Education

By Janie Haugen-McLane, Co-founder PCI Education

Exposing students with significant intellectual disabilities to the literacy process is a challenge for teachers in this standards-based climate. I learned this lesson in a profound way at a special education conference in Louisiana.

A classroom teacher stopped by our booth to visit about the PCI Reading Program and the student population with whom she was using the program. I was surprised to learn she had included students with significant intellectual disabilities in the group. We wrote the program for students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. When I expressed surprise that those students could learn to read one word at a time, she replied, “Oh, they can’t even learn the first word, but they are participating in the literacy process. We don’t have a program for them.” And then she kept talking.

This caring teacher was telling me that because there wasn’t a reading program for this level student, the

Response Mat from Environmental Print Series Level 1

teachers were including them in a reading program that did not match their abilities. I began wondering, “What kind of literacy program do students with significant intellectual disabilities need?”

A light went off in my brain. These students need a new program of their own. A reading program that assumes the students are true nonreaders, but offers symbol-supported reading opportunities and standards-based elements infused with real-world applications. And they need a program that allows students who are verbal and nonverbal to participate equally well.

The basis for Environment Print Series was born. This collaboration between our customers and PCI author/educators is what makes PCI tick.

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Janie McLane Co-Founder PCI Education

Special Education and Learning Differences

Janie Haugen-McLane

The Duke

The Lucky Hat – Students with special needs keep our hearts

How I Came to Work in the Field of Special Education

Reading for All – The Environmental Print Story