Doris Jean Hurd Savoy is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and a proud product of the Atlanta Public Schools. She received her BA degree with a double major degree in Spanish and Education from Morris Brown College with further study at Howard University, Trinity College and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her first and only job has been with the DC Public School System. Her teaching experiences in the DCPS system include assignments at Hine Junior high School and Rabaut Junior High School. Currently, she is teaching at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School. At Coolidge, in addition to being a Spanish teacher and the Chairperson of the World Language Department, Mrs. Savoy is a member of the Local School Restructuring Team (LSRT); Coordinator of the Science, Engineering, Communication, Math Enrichment (SECME) Program; and sponsor of the International Student Exchange Program. She also serves on the Multicultural Festival Committee, a program that she founded first at Rabaut and now at Coolidge.

I incorporate into my lesson plans activities that will involve every type of learner. I do Total Physical Response activities in my classes for those students who learn best as they move around the room. We have been known to dance out points of grammar or stamp and tap a beat to learn the colors. With the use of Cooperative Learning activities, the students, by working in groups, can he1p each other develop and sustain the four basic skills of foreign language learning (reading, writing, listening and speaking). Outcome Based Education activities are also used in my classroom because I want the students to be able to synthesize and apply successfully what they have learned in the classroom to real life issues and situations. I try to integrate as many Technology Related activities as possible so that my students can stay in tune with our world today of cyberspace information. I encourage my students to speak and use the language whenever they can. They speak to me in the hallways in Spanish, they tell me stories of how they have helped someone with limited English language abilities, they participate in Spanish immersion days where they do nothing but speak Spanish all day and they even e-mail me in the language. I truly believe that the flexibility that I use in my classroom is the key to reaching many of the young people who are assigned to take Spanish and that no one technique is the only one that will work. I believe that techniques and strategies are constantly evolving and that I must find exciting ways of getting my subject matter over to my students.

National Board Certified Teacher/Specialty Spanish...DC Public Schools Teacher Hall of Fame...Washington Post Education, Language and Culture Fellow to Spain... Washington Post Agnes Meyer Teacher of the Year... Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar/Japan... Washington Education and Cultural fellow to Japan... District of Columbia Teacher of the Year... Recipient of Goals 2000 Grant ($2,500)... SECME Master Teacher (Science, Engineering, Communication, Math Enrichment Program)... Appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show as one of the Outstanding Teachers in America... Walt Disney Outstanding American Teacher Award for High School Humanities... Recipient of Disney Collaboration Grant ($5,000)... SECME Teacher of the Year Finalist.. Recipient of SECME Grant ($1,500)... Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (nominated by both high school and college students)... McDonald’s (Kroc) Outstanding Teacher Award... C & P Telephone Company Outstanding teacher of the Year Award... DC Public Schools Outstanding Instructor in the Gifted and Talented Program... Rabaut Jr. High School Outstanding Teacher Award... Outstanding Young Woman of America in Education

She received her BA degree with a double major degree in Spanish and Education from Morris Brown College with further study at Howard University, Trinity College and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her first and only job has been with the DC Public School System.

Mrs. Savoy lives in Columbia, Maryland with her husband Rodney Purcell Savoy III, and her three children Sean Perrin, Scott Purcell, and Courtney María