Caldwell, Seiler Named Top Teacher Educators

State Superintendent John T. Benson named JoAnne Caldwell, Cardinal Stritch University, and Jan Seiler, UW-Stevens Point, Wisconsin’s 1997 Teacher Educators of the Year.

Caldwell is the director of teacher education and the chair of the Reading/Language Arts Department at Cardinal Stritch University.

Since 1979, Caldwell has taught at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee where she focuses her efforts in literacy acquisition instruction, including assessment, teaching strategies, dyslexia, and the connection between reading and writing. From 1969 until 1976 Caldwell worked as an elementary teacher and reading specialist. She has served as the university’s director of teacher education since 1995. Caldwell received the Outstanding Service Award from the Wisconsin State Reading Association in 1997 and the International Reading Association Celebrate Literacy Awards in 1990 and 1991.

Seiler is a professor of methods of second language teaching / English as a second language (ESL) at UWSP.

Seiler has taught at UWSP since 1969 when she started as a German instructor. She became an assistant professor in 1972 and in 1979 began teaching methods of second language teaching/ESL. She became a full professor in 1991. According to Justus F. Paul, dean of the College of Letters and Science at UWSP, Seiler has “become widely known as one of the outstanding teachers of German teachers in the State of Wisconsin.” He said her work with summer language institutes and her involvement in workshops, inservice presentations, and her numerous invitations to serve as a program evaluator for schools across central Wisconsin show how widely she is respected.

The Teacher Educator of the Year program, sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to recognize excellence among those who train and supervise beginning teachers, is in its 11th year.

Posted March 6, 1998