Dragons In My Classroom: A Teacher’s Memoir by Barbara Kennard

Publisher:  She Writes Press, (June 14, 2022)
Category: Memoir, Educator Biographies, Mid-Life Management, Inspirational
Tour dates: June 15, 2022-July 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1647423650
Available in Print and ebook, 224 pages

Description Dragons In My Classroom by Barbara Kennard

As a young book lover with dyslexia, Barbara found the solution to her reading struggles in Miss Gluding, her first-grade teacher, who showed compassion for her student’s plight—and knew how to help her. From that time on, Barbara knew what she wanted to be: a teacher, just like Miss Gluding.

Unfortunately, Barbara also had some bad teachers in the years that ensued—including her sixth-grade teacher, an exacting woman who called attention to Barbara’s learning disabilities in front of classmates. Still wanting to follow in Miss Gluding’s footsteps in 1964, Barbara vowed she would be a better one than her sixth-grade teacher; instead, however, she became very much like her, with unattainable expectations for her students and herself. After seventeen years in the teaching profession, she realized she had to either change her teaching style or change careers. By providence, right as she stood at this crossroads, she was offered the opportunity to teach overseas at The Dragon School in Oxford, England, for a year—an opportunity she jumped at.

In the year that followed, Barbara would rely on her faith in God to give up a lot of what she knew about teaching and learn to do it differently—ways that wouldn’t have room for her perfectionism. In short, she would have to begin again.

Advance Praise Dragons In My Classroom by Barbara Kennard

“In this memoir, an English/dramatic arts teacher recounts a pivotal year at the Dragon School in Britain as part of an exchange program. . . . engaging and thought-provoking. . . . will be of special interest to aspiring as well as seasoned teachers. A well-crafted account about the search for greater flexibility when confronting life’s inevitable challenges.”—Kirkus Reviews

“ . . . engaging . . . This book is an endearing testament to the power of personal growth and reflection in one teacher’s incredibly rich professional life.”—StoryCircle Book Reviews

“In this memoir, Barbara Kennard so expertly captures the array of experiences that teachers encounter—the high and the low, the heartwarming and the hilarious. During her year teaching in Oxford, she comes to learn a new way of approaching both her classroom and her life that makes for an incredibly engaging read. Teachers everywhere will love this book.”—Nadine Kenney Johnstone, writing coach and award-winning author of Of This Much I’m Sure: A Memoir

“For any who struggle to distinguish between perfectionism and a yearning to grow into the fullest version of who God has created us to be, this book is a balm. Barbara Kennard writes candidly and compassionately about the people and places that taught her about self-acceptance and mercy. Her love of great writers and her appreciation for those she teaches and those who teach her shine through in vivid prose and engaging stories. Kennard is a lifelong educator. With humor, honesty, and self-awareness, this book invites readers to learn lessons alongside her about forgiveness, surrender, grace, and love.”—Dr. Jennifer Howe Peace, coeditor of My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation and Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field

“The story of Barbara Kennard’s quest should inspire anyone who feels a calling to seek patiently for the best way to answer it and put it into play. This wise memoir should also remind us that although perfection can never be attained, we stand to have a lot of fun in the pursuit.”—David Smith, author of Be a Teacher: A Memoir in Ten Ideas

Interview Barbara Kennard

TR: Please tell us something about ‘Dragons In My Classroom’ that is not in the summary.  (About the book, character you particularly enjoyed writing etc.)

BK: I loved writing about my husband, Brady Millican.. I enjoyed recreating conversations we had, things we did together and places we traveled to during our year in Oxford. One of the hardest parts about the teaching exchange was being without him the first four months of it. He couldn’t get a full year sabbatical from his college in Boston, so we had to be apart until December of 1998. The scene where he finally arrives at the Oxford train stations is one of my favorites in the book; it was both fun and challenging to write.

TR: How much time and effort went into your research for the book?

BK: I spent about 7 years working on it, but that includes taking some classes on the art of memoir. I was also still doing some part time teaching after I’d retired in 2015. My writing was interrupt by travel and family needs. I really hunkered down in the fall of 2016 and got a first draft by the summer of 2017.

TR: Where did you get the inspiration for your cover?

BK: I wanted the cover to be a replica of Oxford’s iconic skyline with its ‘dreaming spires.’ not just because it’s famous, but because I love the city. It is still, 23 years after my exchange, my spiritual home. My time there was life changing and I wanted a dramatic cover people would recognize immediately.

TR: Which actor/actress would you like to see playing yourself from ‘Dragons In My Classroom’? How about your first and sixth grade teachers.  My kindergarten teacher was the worst. Whenever I think of her, I think of the wicked witch in ‘The Wonderful World of Oz’, played by Margaret Hamilton. LOL!

BK: I would love to see Emma Watson play me. She’s English, but she can do an American accent really well. I’d love for Emma to play me because she was a student at The Dragon when I was teaching there. She wasn’t a student of mine, but we knew each other and I helped her and some of her classmates with costumes and make-up for a school play. It would be very cool to have her play me! For my first-grade teacher, I’d suggest Sigourney Weaver and for my sixth-grade teacher, Meryl Streep.

TR: How did having dyslexia influence you in becoming the kind of teacher you are?

BK: I wanted to help kids with this and other learning disabilities. I knew how hard they would need to work and not just for the time they are in school. but really for their whole lives. Dyslexia doesn’t go away; one has to always deal with it and that can be exhausting and discouraging, but there are strategies that help. And, when you know your disability well, you tend to come up with your own strategies. I’d had some wonderful teachers who understood me and helped me and I wanted to be that teacher for my students.

TR: I also have dyslexia and went through first grade twice to learn how to read.  You grew up to be a perfectionist, like myself and others with dyslexia that I know.  Do you think that it is because we had to work so much harder than other students that we tend to be perfectionists as adults?

BK: Yes, I do. I still have to stop myself from trying to be perfect. Making oneself better and better can be a noble thing, but it can also be exhausting and a bit self-centered because it puts the focus on you. My book is about how I learned to be satisfied with my best effort even if it is flawed and let it go at that. None of us is perfect; nor are we meant to be.

TR: It has been a lot of work for me to transform myself from perfectionist to being more relaxed.  I am still working on it. Can you tell us more about your transformation?

BK: When I returned to the US from my exchange year in 1999, I struggled for a few years with what I call my closet perfectionism. In 2001 I met a priest at my church in Boston who knew about my struggles with perfection and gave me some guidance as she too is a perfectionist- there are a lot of us! She introduced me to the practice of silent prayer, a practice of spending time in silence for 20 minutes at least once a day. Not so much to talk to God, but to simply be silent and to contemplate that silence. I’ve been practicing this now for 20 years and its helped me tremendously to slow down, to be able to recognize when I am aiming for perfection and stop. I am better now at knowing when I have done my best and to be able to say it is good enough. This is lifelong work. It’s not an addiction, but it is a spiritual struggle.

TR: What books are you currently reading?

BK: I just finished reading The Magician, by Colm Toibin. It’s a novel about the Nobel Prize winner author, Thomas Mann. Right now, I am reading Silence and Beauty by Machete Fujimura, a novel about the nature of art and that of the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo.

TR: Is there another book to write in your future?

BK: Yes, 2 in fact! I am finishing a book on Shakespeare. I’m also working on a memoir about growing up with my Uncle Ted, who was born severely brain damaged.

TR: Are there any questions that you would have liked me or another blogger to ask but didn’t? Please ask and answer.

BK: No. I really appreciated the opportunity to be interviewed! Thank-you.

TR: You are very welcome!  Thanks again for taking the time for this interview.

About Barbara Kennard

(c) Cedric Buard

Barbara Kennard taught English and performing arts to elementary, middle, and high school students from 1980 to 2015 and has received two teaching awards: The Christa McAuliffe Award for Teaching Excellence and The Barbara Kennard Sixth Grade English Prize, established in her name at The Fessenden School by a Fessenden family.

Barbara lives in Texas with her husband, pianist Brady Millican, and their cat, Piper.

Website: barbarakennardauthor.com
Facebook: facebook.com/barbara.kennard.167
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarbaraKennard7

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