Jennifer Casandra Williams, PhD

Welcome!

I am a teacher-scholar with interdisciplinary research interests for academic learning and educational technology equity, health equity, and socio-culturally responsive teaching. ************* Teaching experiences include 14 years in K-12 middle and high school computer literacy, computer science courses in both public and private schools; 6 years as a Diversity Coordinator. **************** Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas; part time Professor/Director of e-Learning and Technology at Duplichain University ; Assistant Professor/Field Experience Director in Teacher Education at the University of Illinois at Springfield for 7 years; adjunct teaching in Teacher Education and Administration at the University of North Texas; courses taught include Contemporary Technological Impact on Education; History and Philosophy of Education, History and Philosophy of Curriculum Theory, Curriculum Development for Diverse Secondary School Teachers, Exceptional Child for Teachers, Seminar on Strategies for Teaching Special Populations, Teaching Diverse Populations, and Elementary Social Studies Methods. *************** Current Projects include: establishing an online university in Illinois - Duplichain University North Online; Co-Directing The J-M Institute Home High School for dropouts/stop-outs unable to move forward due to the lack of a high school diploma; co-investigative research on Childhood Obesity Interventions and Academic Learning; Case Studies on Technology Equity in the classroom ; Socio-Culturally Responsive Education resource blog ; National Association for Multicultural Education ************** Scholarly Presentations include: Childhood obesity and its impact on learning in marginalized communities (Illinois-NAME, Springfield, Illinois, 2010); Using the learning dialogue to discuss ' how do we get beyond sundown towns and Brown v. Board of Education (1954)? (AGLS conference, St. Louis, Missouri, 2009); Parental school choice for poor students in grades K-12 (, NAME conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2008); The power of economics and parental school choice for poor students in grades K-12 (16th Oxford Roundtable, Oxford, England, 2007); Ten teacher technologists stories (China Faculty Exchange lecture at Heilongjiange University, Harbin, PRC, China, 2006). ************** Scholarly Publications include: Strategies to enhance the curriculum in charter schools. Charter Schools: Answering the Call, Saving our Children (Book chapter, University Press of America, 2010); Using technology to teach about African American women teachers and other roles they held during the Civil War (Black History Bulletin, Fall 2010, Vol. 73, Nol 2); Equal education opportunities and the school choice disparity for poor students in grades K-12 (Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education Journal, 2009, Vol. 25, No. 1); Seven best practices of ten effective teacher technologists (Conference Proceedings Texas Computer Association Research Symposium, 2007, Vol. 1); A black professor's narrative: the good, bad and ugly of higher education (Thresholds of Education, Winter 2007, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4). ***************** Teaching Stories: Member of the Womens Writers Association of Springfield --- promote the use of one's own voice to tell stories, write prose and poetry -- Book: Preacher's Daughter Anthology: Poetry Prayers, Joys and Lamentations.

Hello!

As an update to what I am currently doing as of October, 2022. I now continue to teach. I love doing it. Everything I've always loved about 'school' still intrigues me. Being able to pour into so many persons lives, in a positive way is paramount (did I spell that right?). I have come to know a great lot of people in various throes of their lives, always searching for the better way, the know how.

My teaching experience now is benefited as a service in the Springfield, Illinois community, known as The J-M Institute, a private education service. I teach high school stop-outs on Saturday afternoons there, online and face-to face. I am also teaching at North Mac High School in Virden, Illinois, as a Business Teacher.

Most courses I teach at North Mac are computer courses: Intro to Computer Science, Web Design, Computer Science, where students are introduced to a variety of computer languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript for the web; Java and Python for computer science. Other courses I teach are Keyboarding and Formatting; Basic Business and Law/Marketing. I am never bored. Never, I said.