ABOUT ME
My name is Frank Williams. I live my life with passion. I love my family, my friends, movies, music, and traveling. I am from Collingswood, NJ.
Collingswood is my home.
FAMILY
I have 2 people to thank for my existence. My parents, Frank & Patricia, are still happily married and still very much in love after 30 plus years of marriage. I have a younger brother (Matt) and a younger sister (Kate), and I consider myself to be a good big brother and I look out for them even now, despite the fact that they are adults and all grown up. I love my family very much. They are my understanding of what is right and good in this world and I live to make them happy. I am who I am because of them.
That's me in the middle.
FRIENDS
I love my friends too. They get me. No matter what happens, I know they'll be there to back me with unconditional support. Some of my friends have moved away, to other towns, other states, and even other countries, but they remain close at heart and we maintain constant communication.
I'm the one jumping.
FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE
I think my biggest fear is getting older. I suppose it's because I long to be young and free like I was when I was a kid and life was simple. The older you get, the more life gets complicated and less seems possible. Hopes and dreams are compromised by responsibilities and expectations. People fade in and fade out of your life. Babies are born and loved ones die. God adds and subtracts from the world as seen fit. Sometimes things just don't make sense and there are more questions than answers. Yet, it matters not, because there is no stopping the clock once it has started ticking. From the cradle to the grave, the only thing that truly matters is happiness; finding people, places, and things that complete your puzzle and make life worth living. I have learned to stop worrying about things that I can't control and to just have fun with the time that I still have. Yesterday is a memory, today is a gift, and tomorrow is not promised. "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today."-James Dean
MY EDUCATION
As a student of the Collingswood School District, I believe that I enjoyed a first class education. I attended Zane-North Elementary School as a child. During this time, it became apparent that I had difficulty reading. With the right tutoring and motivation to become the best me that I could be, I became a proficient reader. From Zane-North, I went to Collingswood High School, and I still embody school spirit and "panther pride" for my alma mater. I did especially well in English/LAL and history classes. My interest in the arts and humanities is what made the difference.
I graduated from Collingswood High School and was accepted to Rowan University. Due to my mediocre grades in high school, I had to attend the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) Summer Program, also known as the Pre-College Institute (PCI). It was a 6-week academic boot camp that prepared me and about 130 other incoming freshmen for the rigors of college life. It proved to be one of the greatest experiences of my life and I attribute much of my success in college to PCI. My PCI classmates were my brothers and sisters and we operated like a family, supporting each other every step of the way. I was so enthralled by my experience in PCI that I decided to work the summer program not once, not twice, but three years. As a result of my high GPA following freshman year, I was made a teaching assistant for incoming freshmen students in PCI. It's a great feeling to impact the lives of students. It was during PCI that I realized I wanted to become a teacher.
I am so very grateful for my experience in PCI and forever in debt to Rowan University for the opportunities that they afforded me. I found my calling and had the time of my life while I was in college. I am thankful for the fun and memorable experiences that I enjoyed with my fraternity brothers at Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE); the responsibility and leadership that I developed as a member of the Peer Referral & Orientation Staff (PROS); the guidance and influence that I was able to instill as a resident assistant (RA); the knowledge and skills that I acquired as a member of the Student Government Association (SGA). All of these extra-curricular opportunities, and the friends that were born through them, are responsible for giving me the best years of my life and shaping me into the professional that I am today. I graduated from Rowan University with 2 bachelor degrees, a BA in Communication and a BA in English, as well as a Certification in Secondary Education.
CAREER
I am a teacher of English/LAL in the Camden County Technical School District, where I serve as my content area representative in the Integrated Studies Program (ISP) at the Gloucester Township Campus, located in Sicklerville, NJ. It is a program that is rooted in constructivism and focuses on project-based learning through the use of educational technology, including new and innovative web tools, such as Moodle and Project Foundry. The ISP is the future of education... and it's now.
True education does not have any walls.
EDUTOPIA
My ideal classroom is not a dream, it is a reality. I am proud to say that the Integrated Studies Program (ISP) reflects my vision of the ideal classroom and it echoes my philosophy of education. Our constructivist design enables students to learn with a great deal of freedom and independence. They work on projects that are relative to their interests and abilities while also addressing New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in the process. Teachers are facilitators and students are the ones making the decisions as to what is important to learn and how they are going to learn it. Students devise their own rubrics and dictate their own levels of achievement. There are no deadlines, but instead time lines that are established for the completion of work. It's a cross-content model that allows for students to mix and mingle with students in other classes and other grade levels, allowing for collaborative efforts that would not be possible in the traditional model. Technology is a huge component of the ISP, and thus it is essential that there be many computers available to the students; each with internet access to utilize web gems such as Moodle and Project Foundry. To most educators, this may seem like a fantasy. For me, it's just another day in the ISP.
