Your Book Your Story with Dr Barker
Your Book Your Story with Dr Barker
S1 E4: Breaking Free - Dr Shannon Bruce Ramaka
Shannon is a personal narrative writer who uses the writing process to digest, discover, and uncover the world around her. She is an American born in the state of Indiana, who grew up mostly in North Carolina, moved to California for college, and raised her family in Oregon. She has worked as an elementary teacher, middle school art teacher, high school drama teacher, principal, or school director in Oregon, Zambia, Hungary, Morocco, Turkey, Kosovo, and The Netherlands. Her first book is titled, “Breaking Free in Zambia—Tales of a Western Woman” is self-published on kindle with Amazon.com. After 30 years in education, she has taken her first sabbatical and is living and writing from the Azores, Portugal. In the last year she has published two professional writings for educational leadership and two opinion articles for the local newspaper in Angra do Heroismo. She is working on her first professional book titled: “ Opening Doors to Professional Collaboration” and is looking for an interested publisher. She is currently working part time as an online writing coach for elementary students and publishes a monthly blog called, “Shannon’sGlobalTales”. She is the founder and CEO of the synchronized global education team, VisionaryEd, LLC.
Breaking Free is a personal memoir that was written during my first teaching position abroad in Zambia. I found the experience so profound that I needed to write; firstly for myself, and then for the loved ones who were curious about my adventure.
Follow me on Twitter @mathter.
Megel R Barker 00:31
All right, good day to our listeners who are joining us online. We're delighted to have with us a very good friend of mine, a very dear friend of mine, Dr. Shannon, Bruce Ramaka. Dr. Shannon. Welcome to Your book, Your story.
Dr Shannon 00:51
I love this podcast. Thank you so much, Megel, this is a genius creation. I feel so honored to be with you today. Thank you for having me.
Megel R Barker 01:01
We're really honored to have you on our program as well. Dr. Shannon is veteran educator who has every achievement that is that any educator would have in a track record, she started schools, she has raised a profile of schools, she has led school through many accreditations and is now at a point in her life where she's, you know, looking and reflecting on her journey as an educator. Now, we when we talk about joining us on talking about your book, your story, there are two parts to the person. But sometimes the two parts are one. And so we're really excited to have Dr. Shannon here to talk to us about her book, and her story. But before we get into the book, let's talk about her story. So Dr. Shanon and tell us a little bit about you. Your origins a little bit about how you became who you are a little bit. You're an American, we know what what else can we know.
Dr Shannon 02:07
Thank you, Megel. Thank you. You know, I've been on an identity quest. I think since I was a little girl, I went to four different first grades in the United States. As my family moved around, my dad had his Doctorate degree in chemistry. And then we settled finally in North Carolina. And later on when I went to college, I went to California, and then later to Oregon to raise a family. And so I think those early years, a lot of moving around in the United States created a curiosity for learning. And I think I'm a deeply reflective learner. And I'm also really curious about cultures. So you know, we we met through our doctoral programs. But in the 17 years that I've been abroad, I've been I started in Zambia and moved to Hungary, then Morocco, and Turkey and Kosovo, and the Netherlands. And now I'm talking to you from the beautiful Azores.
Megel R Barker 03:10
So you've travelled a lot, and education has been maybe the compass that's pointing you in those direction. Tell us a little bit about how you got into education.
Dr Shannon 03:24
Oh, Miguel, that's a talk in itself. So okay, I have to tell you, it was I was five years old. And I was attending the Mount Holyoke lab kindergarten. And the baby chicks were being born and cracking from the eggs. I went to this laboratory kindergarten, that explored using the arts and project based learning. And so everything was multi Central. I was a very shy child, I had a speech problem. Even when I was little, they thought maybe I had cerebral palsy. So I had a lot of learning challenges when I was little, and coming into an environment that was so accepting, and loving and creative was just like the stimulus for, for everything for me. And so I became a passionate curious learner then. And then later in life, getting having a young child. I wanted to, I looked at actually, I looked at my life, and I said, if I'm going to spend any time away from this beautiful child, what am I going to be doing? And I want it and I thought about the people I cared for the most respected for the most, and those were educators. So I tied all that together and decided I wanted to be a teacher.
Megel R Barker 04:48
And how did you go about that? Did you like go to a specific university? What was your What was your job there?
Dr Shannon 04:56
I had a Bachelor's degree in business and then I went back to school I got my master's in education. And later on, I started to charter school. And then after that, I decided I needed to study educational leadership. And then I got a master's in that. And then, you know, when I was abroad, then I worked on my Doctorate in education. Yeah, so
Megel R Barker 05:19
your charter school? I know that you are with a soft spot for that. So what was the vision of that school? And what was that what was tell us a little bit about that chapter.
Dr Shannon 05:32
So in 1998, Oregon was deciding whether they would pass a charter school law. And I was working with a really creative superintendent at the time. His name was Bill Adams, and he believed that there could be diversity in education without there being an actual law. So we've created a one page document that was an agreement between myself and my colleague, Catherine Lepik. Or actually, I'm sorry, his name was Ted Adams. And we created a document to essentially offer an alternative school. And we started from scratch, like, if you were thinking the ideal school, how, what would it be, but we started from there and built a curriculum that was built around integrated arts, a small multi Age community grades 5678 combined. And it was incredible. In one year, we took 50 students who had either gifted and talented or learning difficulties, and they exceeded the scores at the local, the local school district. But then the whole thing caved in. Superintendent moved politics were tough, and, and we lost that. So that was the first really big challenge for me to get through.
Megel R Barker 06:57
And was that that kind of a bit of disillusionment for you?
Dr Shannon 07:02
With crashing, it was crashing? Yeah, it was crushing. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, we teach and we think, and we study about resilience. Yeah. You know, but I really thought at the time, that was a legacy. And it wasn't even just my own it. It was a creative project with human beings. Designing a school. So you know, the next chance I had something like that was in Kosovo. Yeah. And I was the head of school there. And we built a $3 million state of the art, new school building. And I found that I poured my whole heart and soul into that project. And it was a little bit cathartic for me in the way that it was like, rebuilding a school that I had lost.
Megel R Barker 07:56
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you. So you had a second opportunity to continue that that journey that you felt that was just sever that plan that you had just stopped suddenly. And so while you were in the US working, and this was in state education, right. Yeah. So you're working in state education, and you had this opportunity to set up this charter school? And it got it going raise the standards, kids are doing well, and then it stops suddenly. So did was that the point when you decide enough in the US or something? Or did you?
Dr Shannon 08:38
I have to tell you something. So by the time that school fell, there were no positions left in the school district left. Okay. So it was August school was starting. And I was brought back into the school desk district. And I had a job of teaching PE. Yeah. And I taught elementary PE, and I had two hours of cat of cafeteria duty
Megel R Barker 09:05
to make it work.
Dr Shannon 09:09
So talk about a humbling experience. And, you know, it took years to understand that this was not personal, and to take and to be grateful, you know, for that time to still have a paycheck to be to come back into a school district. But as far as taking that leap of faith, doing the research, following a dream, losing it, and then coming back to something like that you do feel a bit disheartened.
Megel R Barker 09:34
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But have you ever looked back on that experience of teaching those kindergarten p as a kind of a reflection, an inflection point for you? In another moment where you kind of just like, I feel like you said, I'm glad I had that experience because helps me. Is that something that has come up?
Dr Shannon 09:54
Absolutely. You know, actually every job I've ever had, has had an impact and a reason. Especially when you're head of school, and you understand the positions of the teachers, you're fostering, you understand the different curriculum. Now I feel it's amazing. I've had an incredible career.
Megel R Barker 10:20
Career. So you got into that. And then I know you mentioned Kosovo. And that's when actually when I met you, when you were working as a head of school and building that school, I suppose, when I met you, were you still getting that school ready? Or was it a case where it was done? And you were knowing the new building?
Dr Shannon 10:38
Oh, no. So when I met you, we were in the old building. Okay. And then when I graduated from Wilson are in five years, I we had finished the school. So while I was working on my doctorate, we were building a brand new school. Wow, wow. And I tell I tell some people in interviews that I helped design, everything from the elevator buttons, wow, to the organization of where all the departments would go, I worked with the founder to pick out purpose built furniture that he shipped in a boat from China, that we assembled some parts of it, it was such a physical labor of love. And it took everything to go,
Megel R Barker 11:23
yeah. It did it. And that's the key to it. We got it done. And I'm sure people are looking at that and thinking, How did you even manage to get that done? You know, because projects can be you know, they call them white elephants, they can start and just cannot be finished. So a bit of an inflection point here, you know, because we kind of skipped over one aspect of your journey, you know, went straight from your work in the United States, and went straight to Kosovo. But there was a point in your life where you are working in Africa, how did you end up?
Dr Shannon 12:06
So I was at a job fair in San Francisco. And I had six different job offers. And one was principal position. One was drama, teaching position, IB, I didn't even know what IB was at the time. And this was 2007, an art teaching position in Morocco. Anyway, I called my daughter on the payphone at the time in the lobby. And she was 14. And I said, M I don't know, where where do you want to go? And she said, Oh, let's go to Zambia. And so then I got, I went into the study area, and I started searching Zambia about Zambia, landlocked countries and central of Africa. And so yeah, six months later, after doing a lot of research and downsizing my house and going through a lot of new, a lot of new things. We went to Zambia for two years.
Megel R Barker 13:01
And what was that like for you?
Dr Shannon 13:04
It was incredible. Yeah. It was incredible. Um, everyone has, it seems like an image of what it means Africa. Right. And I think the epitome of International Education is what you think it is, is not at all what it is.
Megel R Barker 13:22
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Dr Shannon 13:25
You know, so I was working in a school where there was 40% Indian population in the heart of Africa. And there were 77 different nationalities. So it was a really an international school, that people that made up the school were, it was truly it was an international school. And I just loved it. Yes.
Megel R Barker 13:52
So you're so while you're in Zambia, and you're taking in all the African scenery, you're beginning to immerse yourself in your first international school experience working abroad and all that. And I suppose you might be traveling the country as well and trying to connect with the local people. Yeah, and see what their culture is like teaching. Are you teaching IB theater theater studies as well? Yeah. So you are teaching all kinds of stuff, at some point in that you decided, you know, I want to document this and I'm gonna write a book. Did you write your book while in Zambia? Yes. So you wrote your book, what came over you what was the kind of what was the moment?
Dr Shannon 14:38
So the director of the school, believed it was important for team building to take the team on a safari, okay. And we went on a safari to a place called treetops and my daughter Mia, the French teacher, a new PE teacher, a cat school counselor, we were all the new team. Coming in international team, and we were in a safari car, a Jeep, and an elephant started charging. And I took some great photos. And then later on, that was the first blog entry. And so I had many friends that have 17 years living in Oregon, that I shared my blog with. And at the time, it wasn't a blog, it was just an email list of about 700 people. And I just emailed and I started it and the personal responses were so great that I decided every weekend, I'm going to try to document something. Oh, wow. And so I did that for two years.
Megel R Barker 15:49
Wow. And eventually had just a lot of content, right?
Dr Shannon 15:57
Yes. I had a lot of content. And, gosh, I felt so young. And so wading through waters, I didn't know what I was creating. I didn't know what was there. Yeah. And, but I, it was great. It was. So I took those together. I had several friends of mine that were also writer authors published authors, and they were really encouraging me saying, Shannon, you know, this, there's a lot of good stuff here. You're having Shannon, you are having a really special experience. And many readers would say I'm living vicariously through you.
Megel R Barker 16:39
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you, you, you your book is called breaking free. In Zambia, tears of a Western woman. It shows tales. Why tales?
Dr Shannon 16:57
Well, you know, there's a rich storytelling history in Africa. For humans, tales. Their personal Yeah. And so I don't know, what do you think they should be? You read my book?
Megel R Barker 17:17
Tales. You know, it sounds like you're writing a lot of stories. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So like, fictional you to that thinking that a tale could be a fictional story that maybe has a meaning. So that's why I'm asking them how?
Dr Shannon 17:35
Well, I know, you know, the idea for me is breaking free, is breaking free of the life, I lived in the expectations. I lived as a married woman, a mother, a Westerner, kind of this wonder woman syndrome, who did everything, and finding a new pace, a new way of living. So I was breaking free of that. And so the tails are, I guess, when I think of Western tails, so yeah, but you know, you're making me question. And again,
Megel R Barker 18:13
oh, no, I'm just, I mean, sometimes, you know, people make decisions in even the exact I mean, you chose breaking free and you kind of give some clarity to the to the to that in how you describe it. And the thing is, your book is a memoir. So in many ways, we know that this book represents a snapshot of your life in that time. But you did kind of roll back things that happened before Zambia in order for us to, to understand those experiences, right. So you so you, you, you are documenting this through your email lists, writing and you're getting encouragement from your friends about moving forward making this into something? So how did it become from emails and to the point where you said, You know what, I'm going to make this get this into a book and get it published. What happened
Dr Shannon 19:06
now? So I reached out to a lot of my published friends, and they said, Shannon, in the world of publishing is very difficult. You can spend years trying to get something published, and they would describe the story of, you know, sending a query contacting the editing is natural, right? We should all do netting, editing, I wasn't afraid of the editing. I was afraid of spending so many years in limbo with it, like just not know, reaching out, not getting feedback. And so then I was moving from Morocco to Turkey. So this is three years after Noah was at Morocco to Turkey Turkey. Yeah, so it wasn't it was maybe five years later that I actually put it all together and published. Okay, I was on my computer. One day, and an advertisement for self publishing came to me through Amazon. Wow. And I read it. And then I spent like two hours of a quick immersion in it. And I said, Oh my gosh, I need this is something I can do. Yeah, yeah. So I had a window of about three weeks moving between countries moving between jobs. Yeah. And I said, I don't care what I do. I'm going to get this into a book. So that it's done and preserved. It's you know, it's done. Yeah. And I just said, I put it together into I'm telling you, prior to that, though, the revisions, the revision process is really difficult. It takes time and a lot of energy it did for me. But getting all those little pieces into something that made sense. Because as you said, I'm tying together early childhood experiences, my experiences in the bush of Zambia, I'm trying to make sense of things. Why am I there? How did I end up there? Yeah. Why do I do what I do? Why do we do what we do?
Megel R Barker 21:19
Yeah. So you were in Zambia, and then you move to Morocco? It seems Yeah.
21:23
I'm Zambia. I went to Morocco. Okay.
Megel R Barker 21:27
And then from Morocco, you went to Turkey.
Dr Shannon 21:31
So sorry, 2007 2009 was Zambia. 2009. Was Hungary. Hungary in 2010. Was Morocco. And then 2014 was turkey. Wow. So you can see and each of these positions. So I was a teacher, a theater teacher until them and then I became an assistant principal. And then I became a high school principal. So there was so much movement in my career. I was doing so much professional writing, and professional thinking. I knew that that those chapters of Zambia had to be had to be closure
Megel R Barker 22:14
to them. Yeah. Yeah. Because you had moved to a different kind of space. Yes, yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes, I have. Yeah.
Dr Shannon 22:22
I have broken free. From the idea. Yes. Being the perfect wife living in America.
Megel R Barker 22:30
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, even coming to that realization must have been kind of a warm kind of feeling and liberating feeling, just to kind of come to that idea that you've broken free from that was a societal change, so to speak.
Dr Shannon 22:49
Yeah, well, it's, you know, and people who do move abroad, they can be breaking out of something that I have to say, the other thing that was true for me was, as I shared at the very beginning, where I had a curiosity of other people, yeah, I've, I've always had this curiosity of culture and of learning. So the other it's so I had to break free from expectations of staying in my hometown, the rest of my life. Yeah. And then at the same time, I was so passionately curious, I wanted to learn more. So it's both of those things, right?
Megel R Barker 23:27
Yeah. Yeah. See, it's traveling around a bit. And so while you were so you, you got that published on Amazon? It seems Yeah. Yeah. Breaking free. I, it's funny, I knew you. But I didn't know that you had published this book. Right. So I think one day, I don't remember what I was doing. And I don't remember, I might have even just typed your name into Google just to I don't remember what I was trying to figure out what you spelled your last name. Right. I'm trying because I knew you were at Kosovo. So I think I type something in and it came up. All right. Cool. Yeah. So it came up and I I realize that you said I actually bought the book and started to read it and actually read the book over like, a weekend, like just read it non stop, because it's kind of diary form, right. It's a diary form book. And, you know, so I mean, even the style that you write it in, I think that was quite interesting. interested. Yeah. I suppose No, it makes a lot more sense to me because what you've said is that when you were writing that book, you're actually kind of writing emails. I suppose. It just brought that together.
Dr Shannon 24:45
Yeah, that's that's how I did it. But it was structure wasn't really easy. Whether I go chronological whether I take a theme approach. In the end, I tried to go chronological with embedded themes. Right. But I, I do think every once in a while as I'm looking now at what what I want to work on next, I am interested in this doors of collaboration of professional work that I want to do that is like bringing together all my professional lives where I have started that. And that is also a book that needs to get finished. But I have also looked at editing, revising, making a second edition of breaking free that would maybe in cat yeah, I've tried to stretch it to fit other years of experience. But I think that this is I think this is just the two years in Zambia, I think that that is enough of an interesting topic. And the learning that was there I think, is enough. But I have looked at revising it and editing it.
Megel R Barker 25:59
Okay. Just to just to maybe make some parts of it flow in a different way. Is that the way that you're thinking about it to make it
Dr Shannon 26:06
better, right, with all the perspective, the life experience, I have now as a writer to, to really take it, rewrite it and submit it to for official publication somewhere. Because it doesn't really matter if somebody publishes it now. Right? Not to me. So it can take five years.
Megel R Barker 26:24
Yeah, yeah. And to be fair, having the proof of concept that it's already published might encourage someone to take a second edition because there are some legs legs in it. But that would be nice. Yeah. So yeah. So I mean, you don't introduce yourself as an author? I don't know. I don't think you do. You don't do that. While other people do as soon as they have published there are no an author. Right. And I know you have gone on and published other things. I mean, we have a collab ourself. And I know you have published in another book. I don't. But I think if you were to count, when would you say that you have gotten a few things published? What number would you be working with?
Dr Shannon 27:13
Wow, in my lifetime, probably 30.
Megel R Barker 27:19
Yeah, yeah,
Dr Shannon 27:20
maybe. And you have to look at everything from digital magazines to magazines. I was paid for, you know, in the old days, I got paid for an article. But you know, I realized was thinking about this today, thank you, Miguel for your your, you're always kind of encouraging people around you and I feel encouraged by you in this. I've been writing for the local newspaper and the Azores. Oh, wow. It's called di D. And I have written two articles that have been translated. One was published
Megel R Barker 27:56
yesterday, right in English, and it's translated into Portuguese.
Dr Shannon 28:01
Good bye, good friend. And now I've written three. And I've, the fourth one is already coming. And so these are full page articles that they are printing with my photos. And it is a similar approach and experience on having as a global citizen living here in the Azores. And it's almost like little vignettes like I had in Zambia, right. So
Megel R Barker 28:29
you're gonna end up with that, you're gonna end up with a memoir of your time I having a little bit more healthy perspective, a little bit more integrated. Yeah. A little more of a chore? Yeah, yeah.
Dr Shannon 28:43
Yeah. Okay. But I've gotten some great feedback. And the community really seems to appreciate the articles. And so I guess, you know, this is the advice I would give everyone is if you have an inkling, if you feel you need to write something, you really need to do it and in a small away as you can, it's better to do something small, and build up, and then put it all together and then try to make sense of it. Then just to wait for the day that you have six hours, or wait for the day when you have 12 or wait for the day when your child is raised. And then it's all the thinking that goes into what we did for our doctorate degree.
Megel R Barker 29:29
Yeah, yeah. It's funny you say that because the inspiration for this blog comes from I would say, from my own awareness that I do, sometimes take the approach that you're just describing where I'm thinking I need to find six hours. And so one of the the the idea behind this blog is to talk to people who have managed to produce a published book so that they can understand what are the ways in which they overcame came these things in a way to also motivate me in order to get on with my own project. So in a sense, it's kinda like, it's in one way, this is a research project I'm doing. But at the same time, it also gives the authors who comes on to this program, the opportunity to talk about their stories and tell their stories, but I'm learning as well, as well as my audience. So there's a lot of that's happening for me. But I want to admit, that's a disclaimer here that I'm listening, and I'm trying to learn through your experience.
Dr Shannon 30:40
But Miguel, you are infusing your goal with collaboration. Yeah. Okay. And so the process of writing can seem secluded and lonely sometimes. Yeah. And, but I really believe when us humans get together and share, we this we do stretch ourselves. We look at that zone of proximal development, right? We are we are we're supporting each other, even if it's just sharing, you do become an author that you're sharing with. Yeah, you're an author in training, you're an author in writing, and it's great. It's a great process. I think you're in.
Megel R Barker 31:24
Yeah, we're coming to the end. And I'm glad that you've shared your story. And you've given us this idea about a book that you publish. And you also are telling us about something that seems to be emerging in a more organic, maybe not organic, actually, it might be organic, it seems organic in the end, but a lot more just happening as you're living your life in the Azores. And so that might lead to something else. But um, any any tips that you could give to anyone who is looking at getting into who wants to write, but I'm saying that because you don't come from a writing per se, English author, but grown in that sense, you're just, you just enjoy writing, and you go for it. So any tips that you have that you would share? So,
Dr Shannon 32:18
in the I took the Oregon writing project in like 1993, and it's a creative writing process, I recommend taking those little University weekend courses, meeting with other people owning and, you know, in any art form, what we do is we identify what we like, do I like mystery? Do I like fiction? Do I like memoirs? Do I like biographies? But except what you like, and focus on that? Yeah. Because it's okay, it's good enough. There are other people in the world who if we can connect with, there's something, I really believe that if you do what you like, you get better at it. And pretty soon, you can be very good at it just by following what it is that you'd like. So if somebody says Miguel, let's say, Miguel, you want to write a memoir, but everybody else around you saying, Miguel, please get that professional book done. I think you're an amazing leader. But you really want to write that personal story. Yeah. Write the personal story.
Megel R Barker 33:26
Okay. Okay. Okay. No, thank you, Shannon. A lot of inspiration there. Thank you for coming on the show. Thanks for coming on and sharing your story. It's a lovely story, a story of someone in some ways coming of age and breaking free. As you say, it's open and honest. And that's exactly who you are. So we're really, really glad to have you on the show. And we're again, can people get this book if they want to go and read about your little two years in Zambia.
Dr Shannon 34:06
So it's amazon.com and it's called breaking free in Zambia Tales of a Western woman. It's 4.99. And I think I get 14 cents.
Megel R Barker 34:17
That's a lot of money in these days.
Dr Shannon 34:23
You can also visit my Web my blog, Shannon's global tails and I publish about there twice a month and some of those articles there are coming in the local newspaper here the DI in Andhra to put a small into set a Portugal. But also there are other older stories from different places I've lived as well as some of the Zambian stores.
Megel R Barker 34:47
Shannon's global tails. So that's a blog if they want to keep up with what's happening right now. Yes. I'm sure a lot of people will be getting a few hits soon. So Thank you, Miguel. Such a pleasure talking with you today. Thank you for joining. I wish we could continue talking. But no thanks for having you. So there you have it, everyone. That's Dr. Shannon Bruce from aka telling us sharing her story and telling us about her book. Thanks for joining us. Bye bye