A dance and English teacher known for creative lessons that bring literature to life and a growing care closet to benefit students across her campus is Killeen ISD’s secondary teacher of the year.
Savannah Carr expressed surprise Wednesday when KISD Superintendent King Davis and Principal David Dominguez joined a crowd of well-wishers, including her parents and pre-kindergarten daughter interrupting class to present the high honor.
The award-winning teacher has done a lot in 10 years of teaching.
The 2012 Ellison graduate earned a degree in medical humanities at Baylor University at age 19 and went on to earn a master’s degree of business administration before beginning her teaching career.
Carr was a teacher and instructional specialist at Indian Spring Middle School in Waco seven years and has been an AVID coordinator at Manor Middle School and dance coach at Killeen and now at Ellison High School, where she is associate director for the Emeralds and director for the JV Jewels dance team.
She also teaches freshman English.
One of her popular lessons was an assignment to build understanding of symbolism and character development in a novel through creation of a tattoo sleeve. Students used a variety of resources from original artwork to stickers and other media on the project.
“I transformed my classroom into a ‘tattoo parlor’ for the duration of the project. Using
campus blacklights and providing neon highlighters for students, I intentionally set the tone to mirror a real-world environment,” Carr explained.
“I try to relate learning to real-life experience…Halloween was coming up and I thought about a tattoo sleeve to reflect a character,” she said. “That got a ton of kids really interested. They had a lot of choice, and everyone was really successful.”
Leading into the holidays, Carr spearheaded creation of a care closet that began with community donors meeting specific student needs and has continued and grown through staff and student support.
The closet holds donated supplies that meet basic needs of students in a quiet way without drawing attention. Students have taken ownership of the closet with campus organizations assuming much of the donation and organization effort.
“These experiences transform the care closet from a resource into a living example of community in action. Students are not just recipients of support - they are contributors, leaders, and advocates,” she said.
“A lot of students I donated to have donated back. That made me emotional because that’s the goal. We want them to be productive citizens. That’s the goal to teach beyond the reading and writing.”
“Getting to impact young people in a lot of ways (is satisfying). You don’t realize what all students have to overcome to be successful in life. To play a role in that is extremely satisfying. I want them to do all the things in life they want to do.”
After attending Mountain View Elementary School, Union Grove Middle School and Ellison High School, Carr said her competitive spirit and Eagle pride continues to shine through and she’s thrilled to represent her community.
“It feels really special. I feel really seen,” she said of winning the districtwide honor. “It’s satisfying to know that (the hard work) pays off. I’m competitive. I want to win the next phase.
“It feels special to represent a district I graduated from and that I’m a part of. I was successful coming from here and everything I’ve done has led me back.”
Secondary Teacher of the Year finalists are Blake Jones (Union Grove), Gerald Nicholas (Chaparral), Sunny Luevano (Killeen) and Terrell Scriber (Early College).
Later in the day, the KISD award crew visited Skipcha Elementary School and honored fifth grade math and science teacher Halli Richards as the KISD Elementary Teacher of the Year.
Elementary Teacher of the Year finalists are Gelixa Rodriguez (Peebles), Rachel Dunton (Pat Carney), Misti Gaskamp (Cavazos), Nancy Anderson (Reeces Creek), Desire Varga (Ira Cross) and
Nancy Scott (Douse).
Each of KISD’s 52 campuses nominated their own teacher of the year. A committee reviewed nominations, made classroom visits and conducted interviews to select the elementary and secondary teachers of the year for KISD.
Those two chosen teachers received $5,000. They are now KISD’s entries into the teacher of the year process for the Region 12 Education Service Center, a qualifier for the state teacher of the year.
Killeen ISD photo albums: https://www.killeenisd.org/photos