Mr. Williamson
Mr. Duane Williamson
Name: Duane Williamson
Role: ELA Teacher & Scholar Sounding Board / Teacher Leader
Hometown: New York
Duane Williamson is a native New Yorker and a proud product of the New York City public school system. He became a public school teacher via the New York City Teaching Fellows initiative and has no regrets. Prior to teaching, he worked as an attorney for sixteen years. He is a fourth year New York City Department of Education teacher who believes that educators must be innovative, tireless and unflappable. His first teaching job was with the Frederick Douglass Academy IV – Secondary School in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. P-TECH is his second school home. The driving force behind his continued pursuit of a teaching career is a genuine belief that the achievement gap between the high-achievers and the strugglers in this country can be obliterated, and that today’s teachers, administrators, students and parents are poised to do so. He wants to teach at P-TECH because he believes that the vision of P-TECH is ambitious and just the shot in the arm that is needed in the Department of Education and that the administration and fellow staffers share this sentiment. He is the recipient of a dual BA in Literature & Creative Writing and Political Science from the State University of New York – Center at Binghamton and a JD from Syracuse University – College of Law. He is currently completing his Master of Education at Saint John’s University. He is a husband, father and a self-proclaimed “great dancer.”
Favorite Quote:
If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. --Benjamin Franklin
Favorite Tech Device or App:
My favorite technological device is the computer and anything else that accesses the internet, because of the internet’s almost limitless ability to put the world literally at one’s fingertips, and when it is used earnestly, despite its ability to foster laziness, plagiarism and reliance on cliché sentiment, it can be a gateway to higher-ordered thinking and profound discovery.
Favorite Technological Advancement:
My favorite technological advancement is Wi-Fi and its equivalent counterparts because it plugs the world into itself with unmatched convenience and access.
What does Technology mean to you?
Technology means that mankind must be more centered, fair-minded, and altruistic than ever, because technology affords us the opportunity to teach, heal, inspire, repair, communicate, and share, and every part of the globe can richly benefit from such powerful possibilities.