Kendrick Teacher of Year at Greensboro School

David Kendrick, a 2004 COE graduate, was recently named Teacher of the Year at Anita White Carson Middle School in Greensboro.

“I was really shocked to be that highly thought of this early in my teaching career,” Kendrick said of the vote by his fellow teachers and administrators. “In only my third year of teaching, I have achieved what some teachers go their whole career without achieving.”

In the next several weeks, Kendrick will interview for the honor of being named Greene County Teacher of the Year.

Kendrick, who received his master's in social science education at UGA, teaches gifted social studies classes to students in grades 6-8. He also coaches the girls' softball and boys' baseball programs.

“I am definitely a better teacher because of my entire course of study at UGA,” Kendrick said. “A lot of credit for this award has to go to the people who trained me: Dr. John Napier, Dr. Diane Napier, Dr. John Hoge, and my student teacher mentor Scott Wilkins at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens.”

Before becoming a teacher, Kendrick served as manager of Sears Auto Center at Gwinnett Place Mall. “I always knew I wanted to teach and coach,” he explains. “It just never seemed to work out when I was earning my undergraduate degree.”

Kendrick received his bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice from Valdosta State University in 1999. After college he spent three years as a private investigator. “I was hired to investigate worker's compensation fraud, internal fraud at companies, people's location and many other wild assignments,” he said.

From store manager to private eye and now a teacher, Kendrick says he has no plans to leave the classroom or Carson Middle School anytime soon. “I have really fallen in love with the middle school curriculum and the students here,” he says. “I am also building successful softball and baseball programs, which I would like to continue.”

Thursday, September 23, 2004

WRITER: Nicole Richardson, 706/583-0811, nrichard@uga.edu
CONTACT: John Hoge, 706/542-4416, jhoge@coe.uga.edu