Teacher Feature: Mark Williams, Jr.
Sonia Chajet-Wides, ‘21
March 2020
Mark Williams, Jr. is a purely unignorable presence at BHSEC--- it’s practically impossible to not know him. That’s why it surprised me to learn that the Bardvark had never done a teacher feature on him since he arrived at BHSEC last year. I jumped at the chance to write one and then… plot twist, the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly and school was no longer in session. So I figured, since we all know Mark now, this would be a good opportunity to see how he’s dealing with quarantine, what he’s been doing with and for BHSEC students at a distance, and what might be different for him about this as the youngest faculty member.
Usually, at BHSEC, Mark wears a lot of hats: “I have a role as an educator, I have a role as a student support person, I have a role as with admissions outreach… basically in every facet of our school’s functioning,” he told me “from the comfort of” his bed over Zoom last week. On paper, he is the director of diversity and inclusion at BHSEC, he teaches a class with Dr. Collins, and he runs the Smart Scholars program. And for a lot of BHSEC students, Mark is an incredibly important part of their school experience. “He’s a backbone, he’s just always there and I know if I really need to talk he’s always open… Because he’s so young, he’s so open and he doesn’t treat our experiences like they’re so removed from his,” Y1 Thalia Chang says of her relationship to him. “He’s always been a mentor to me because there’s always something to learn from him… I don’t see Mark as just a teacher, and he’s friends with a lot of people.” The students in his classes tend to feel the same way: “He’s great. He knows that,” says Y2 Lena Kassin, a student in Mark and Dr. Collins’ Biology and Human Society class, “I come in and he’s ready to go, he has energy, he’s always so excited to be there and he’s ready to blow our minds… He cares a lot about his students… it’s just enjoyable because of the way they [Mark and Dr. Collins] foster community with their students.”
Credit: Mark Williams
Mark’s office in particular is a haven, particularly for students of color and became a hotspot topic during the recent drama surrounding the locked classroom policy when it temporarily closed to students. “When I think of him, I think of his office,” Thalia says, “and the role of the office is a safe space for people of color… it’s always been a place to go when you need pick-me-ups. And I think his role is connected to his office so much because he is so present in his office. He is engaged and keyed into our lives at school. Him and his space go hand in hand.”
Given his multifaceted role, I was curious as to how he’s continuing to fulfill it from his home. “Teaching my class has been really easy,” Mark said, “this week I’m not doing so much with student outreach and support, I’m saving that for next week…. I’m gonna be hosting somewhat of a game show series.” But Mark has still kept up his role as someone who’s open for students to talk to, even without the physical space of his office: “I’ve actually heard back from a lot of students who are now actually getting a chance to meet with me in a more one-on-one centered way… Now it feels like a really intimate counseling session in a way that lots more students are taking advantage of,” he said.
Mark’s young age has made things a little different for him. For one thing, he’d used Zoom a lot as a grad school student, which gives him a more well-rounded perspective of the platform and he was familiar “right off the bat.” In our conversation, Mark seemed to be taking things in stride very well. His class was one of the first to start Zoom, having their first meeting on March 17th, the first day after schools closed (excluding the “snow day”). “He definitely has more experience with using online platforms… The transition to online learning was maybe not as difficult for him,” Lena said. “This has actually pushed us even further in terms of pedagogy to think about what is considered useful information,” Mark said of himself and Dr. Collins in their transition to online classes. His situation is also a little less complicated than other teachers, especially ones who have children of their own-- although he does have to deal with his parents. “I don’t have kids; I do, however, have nosy parents. My dad, for like five minutes, my students couldn’t see him, but my dad was looking over,” he said, laughing.
Beyond work, we’ve all had to find fun things to do during quarantine to keep busy. Mark told me that he’s been spending a lot of time watching TV: The Magician, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grown-sih, the last of which we ended up discussing our trials and tribulations with for about ten minutes. He’s been reading, ordering new books even though he “has no space” for them. He also paused our conversation to ask his UberEats deliverer to leave an order on the doorstep and then went collect it. While we Zoomed, he started to eat his feast of loaded seafood fries, macaroni and cheese, blueberry raspberry lemonade, and two blueberry-cheddar cornbreads. He hadn’t eaten breakfast and didn’t “expect to eat dinner until 10.”
Mark was as energetic as ever even on a Zoom call at 4pm on a Tuesday. Our conversation flowed easily, this quality that Thalia had described that magically translated into the often-awkward world of Zoom. Mark has proven to be a vital part of the BHSEC community in the past two years and it’s good to know that no matter what’s changed since we’ve moved to Zoomiversity, that will remain the same, physical office or not.