Eighth grade social studies teacher David Kendrick knows what it’s like to have a hard time in school; he knows what it’s like to be labeled with words like “slow” and “lazy” — terms that once preceded him into a classroom.
And these are things he wants to make sure no student of his experiences, at least not while they are in his classroom.
This dedication to his students is one of the reasons that his peers selected him as this year’s system-wide teacher of the year for Madison County.
“I had a lot of folks that counted me out when I was in school,” Kendrick said, adding that he even had a high school counselor tell him he “shouldn’t worry” about going to college.
“I later faxed her a copy of each one of my degrees,” Kendrick said, with satisfaction.
Kendrick received a bachelor of arts in criminal justice from Valdosta State in 1999 and then a masters of education in social science from the University of Georgia in 2004. He followed this up with an education specialist degree in reading education from UGA in 2009.
And while it was teachers and administrators who discouraged him, in the end it was one particular teacher who inspired him to succeed.
“In school, social studies was always my favorite subject, but never so much as when I entered the classroom of Dr. Beverly Roberts during my junior year of high school,” Kendrick said, adding that he wishes he could have had a teacher like her earlier, particularly in middle school where he had a particularly tough time.
“Dr. Roberts cared about all of her students and made a point of letting them know they were all equally important to her,” he said. “Dr. Roberts showed us a different side of teaching, meaning she was interested in who we were as people. She refused to listen to former teachers who thought it was a good idea to warn her about students like me.”
Sparked by her encouragement and interest, that year U.S. history became an interesting story “weaved by a master storyteller.”
“I turned myself around and tried harder to excel in school, instead of trying to be the class clown,” he said.
Kendrick knows now that he was dealing with major learning disabilities in math and science. “When I was coming through school, there were no special education co-teachers who could help with learning disabilities – it was always easier to label me as ‘dumb’ and a troublemaker.’”
After Dr. Roberts’ class, Kendrick blossomed and he credits her for giving him the insight to reach out to other students who may be struggling.
“I believe that every student deserves a chance to succeed,” he said. “Everyone entering my classroom at the beginning of the school year has a clean slate, regardless of the reputation they may have developed in the earlier grades.”
Along with caring for his students (“I tell them that for 110 minutes every day, I’m their ‘dad.’”), he continually reads more about the material he teaches so he can add “backstories” that he hopes will connect with his students in some way.
“Every day I get to have an impact on a child’s life is a great accomplishment,” he said. “Another accomplishment is seeing a child succeed with me when everyone else had written them off as damaged goods…When students tell me that social studies is their favorite class or when they tell me I am their favorite teacher, I view that as one of my greatest accomplishments.”
Kendrick and his wife, Molly, who teaches sixth grade language arts and social studies at the middle school, live in Clarke County with their three dogs.
“They’re our kids,” Kendrick said smiling.
Kendrick says he and his wife enjoy the fact that the same students she has in sixth grade are taught by him in the eighth grade. “It makes it feel like a family,” he said.
In addition to teaching, Kendrick also serves as the girls’ basketball coach and as the eight grade social studies department head.
In the spring of 2009, he and others applied to be part of a three-year Teaching American History Grant for history teachers and covered the Revolutionary War, the Gilded age, and the modern Civil Rights movement. He and other teachers have taken their students to historical sites in Philadelphia, New York, Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham and Memphis.
In addition, Kendrick was just named to a three-year term on the National Council for Social Studies.
Kendrick says he hopes all these experiences will be memorable ones for his students and that they have learned not just something about social studies, but something about life, while they were in his class.
“When children walk out of my room each day, I want them to leave knowing there is someone who does care about them,” he said. “While good test scores look good on paper, I want my students to take more from me about how to be young adults, to learn about contending with difficult skills and to develop a love for history the way Dr. Roberts did for me back when I was in school.”
Congratulations Coach Kendrick !!!!