Broward County Teacher of the Year 2005 Mr. Frederick Williams

Watch the Video Large - 11 mb Small - 6 mb

Ask Frederick Williams what he thinks being a teacher is all about and he’ll tell you in no uncertain terms.

“Being a teacher is one of the most important jobs in our country,” he said. “It is a noble profession and educating our children is one of the greatest and most important investments of time and money for creating a brighter future.”

It is this outlook on the profession and the many years of hard work and dedication that have earned Frederick Williams the honor of being named Broward County Public Schools Teacher of the Year 2005.

Mr. Williams has been an educator for 22 years, the last 17 here in Broward County. Since 2001, he has been teaching 11th and 12th-grade students at McFatter Technical High School in Davie. Mr. Williams earned his Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees from Florida State University. In his more than two decades as an educator, he has developed a teaching philosophy that is based on: learning to use one’s mind; student as worker and teacher as coach; tone of decency and trust; and demonstration of mastery.

Broward County Teacher of the Year 2005 Mr. Frederick Williams with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Till

“My course is very reading-intensive and requires many hours of preparation before a class lecture or skill demonstration,” Mr. Williams said. “My students are aware of my expectations and I am committed to providing the resources necessary for them to be successful.”

Mr. Williams is a teacher of technology at McFatter Technical High. Working with the latest technology and preparing his students to work in that field, Mr. Williams knows a level of trust must be built between his students and himself that is different than a “regular” class. His students, as part of their coursework, are given computer passwords and granted computer network access that in other circumstances might allow a student to “crash” the computer system.

But that isn’t an option in his class. His students are fully aware of the trust Mr. Williams is placing in them and they make sure they don’t violate that trust. In fact, his students have been entrusted to be “computer technicians” at nearby schools, helping them with any computer problems they may be experiencing. And that program has proven so successful that it is being expanded to help even more schools this year as well as provide additional leadership roles and experiences for his students.

Along with his students, Mr. Williams works with his fellow teachers, helping new educators as well as “revitalizing” experienced teachers. He’s been a Peer Teacher/New Educator Support System Coach for teachers at Plantation High and is the NESS Coach for the Computer Programming Instructor at his school.

Broward County Teacher of the Year 2005 Mr. Frederick Williams with Jane Koszoru, Broward County Teacher of the Year 2004.

“These opportunities allow me to share my experiences and provide a demonstrative outline of teaching that has proven successful,” Mr. Williams said. “My knowledge of the subject matter has helped me develop and share effective classroom techniques and teaching strategies that can be used by beginning teachers who can later refine them as they grow with experience.”

He also believes that a quality education, while thought of by some as attending an “A” school or having smaller class size, is best defined by the joy of a kindergarten student when it’s time to go to school or the look on the faces of graduating seniors as they walk across the stage knowing they have accomplished something significant in their life.

Anyone visiting his classroom will quickly see that Mr. Williams truly loves being a teacher. And for him, the true rewards of being a teacher aren’t found in a paycheck.

“The intrinsic rewards of touching the lives of our students has been, and continually should be, the major motivations that keeps us in the classroom,” he said. “There are thousands of hard-working teachers working with our children – each day they leave their homes with the goal of making a difference in the lives of their students.”

And that is exactly what Frederick Williams has been doing for the past 22 years.


The finalists for Teacher of the Year 2005