• Email: johanna.carter@rrcc.edu
• Phone: 303-914-6321

I was born in San Francisco, California and lived in that area until I graduated from high school. My secondary education undergraduate degree was earned at a Pennsylvania university. I was employed by an international airline for seven years and traveled extensively around the world. In addition to Colorado, I have lived on both coasts of the United States, in Israel, and in Botswana.

My first graduate work was in English, and I completed a Master's of Art in English in northern Virginia. My next graduate work was completing a graduate level certificate in teaching English as a second language. I have continued my professional development through a variety of graduate course work ever since.

In my college teaching career, I have taught at several universities and colleges in Virginia and Colorado. I have taught adult education, English as a second language, developmental reading and writing, composition courses, and many literature courses.

At RRCC, I continue to teach composition, developmental and literature courses. I enjoy teaching the variety of courses our English Department offers.

I also teach some humanities courses for the Social Science Department. My philosophy of teaching is briefly explained below.

Separating my philosophy of instruction from my teaching methodology is very difficult for me. In my graduate courses focused on composition instruction, we studied the beliefs and teaching methods of Ken Macrorie, Donald Murray, and Peter Elbow. Over the years, I have tried several of the various techniques promoted by these three. I often use free writing to encourage brainstorming and focusing attention on a topic.

My personal philosophy involves being a facilitator, attempting to guide students to become more confident and to try different voices and types of academic writing. I would like to instill confidence, provide guidance with individual ability to grow as composition writers, as well as strengthen students' ability to assess and critique their own work.

In literature courses, I try to encourage students to find their own interpretations, realize there might not be one possible interpretation or only one correct viewpoint, explore various genre, literary work, and enjoy the perspectives shared by many writers.