March 1, 2018

 

Rachel Waller at the White House

 

MSU Billings professor serves as National Board President

Two-year term commences this summer

 

Contacts:

University Communications and Marketing, 657-2266

 

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — Montana State University Billings Associate Professor of Literacy Education, Dr. Rachael Waller, is currently serving as president of The Organization of Teacher Educators in Literacy board. She has held this position for almost two years and will finish her term this summer.

 

The Organization of Teacher Educators in Literacy is a Special Interest Group of the International Literacy Association. The purpose is to “facilitate communication among its membership; provide a forum for debate and discussion of current issues regarding improvement of reading instruction; assist in the development of quality teacher education through recommendations for pre-service and in-service program; stimulate research in reading, and disseminate information regarding significant investigations; seek improved competence at all levels of reading instruction; and arrange conferences which will further the objectives of the organization”.

 

As Dr. Waller serves as the president of this organization, she is involved in many activities as a part of her work. Some of her recent projects include:

  • Delivering the Keynote address for the 2017 conference along with Denise Crawford from Iowa State University. The topic of the presentation was integrating technology and literacy.
  • As the President of OTEL, she has been active in a conference called the National Technology Leadership Summit (NTLS). This Summit takes place in Washington, D.C. and is a yearly event. The invited guests are presidents of various teacher education associations from around the nation. They work on problem solving activities that involve technology. For example, in 2015, they tested out a virtual reality app for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Another project has been examining integration of technology and literacy, specifically in the area of engineering software.
  • In December 2016, as part of her work with NTLS, she was invited to attend a White House Summit called Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Education. She was one of about 50 teacher education leaders invited to attend this summit. The focus of the summit was to share ideas about how teacher education programs can prepare in-service and pre-service teachers for the active use of technology in today’s classrooms. “This once-in-a-lifetime experience gave me the opportunity to work directly with the Department of Education and be on the cutting edge of a new policy briefing about best practices in technology education.”
  • She will also be attending the World Literacy Summit in Oxford, England in March, an invitation-only summit where she will meet with international leaders in the field of literacy education to address literacy issues.
Visit http://oter.coedu.usf.edu/ to learn more about the Organization of Teacher Educators in Literacy or contact Dr. Rachael Waller rachael.waller@msubillings.edu or 657-2235.