Murfreesboro City Schools is proud to announce that Doris Coffey, reading interventionist, has been named the 2013 IRA/Weekly Reader Eleanor M. Johnson Award Recipient. This national award recognizes one outstanding elementary classroom teacher of reading and language arts.

“When you love teaching children, you never work a day in your life. My award is not so much a result of an extraordinary teacher, but rather an extraordinary belief in my students,” says Coffey.

Coffey is an early elementary reading specialist at Hobgood Elementary. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Huntington College in Indiana. The first thirty years of her career were spent in Michigan where she taught grades K-3 and later served as Reading Recovery teacher and literacy coach. She earned a master’s degree from Michigan State University, and later became a certified Reading Recovery teacher through Ohio State. Now as a reading specialist at Hobgood Elementary, she teaches literacy training to teachers and strategic reading interventions to students in grades K-6.

“Mrs. Coffey is the model of an effective teacher,” says Dr. Tammy Grizzard, Principal, Hobgood Elementary. “Her energy and enthusiasm toward reading is contagious. The IRA could not select a more qualified and deserving person for this award.”

The award honors Eleanor M. Johnson, founder and editor-in-chief of Weekly Reader. It carries a $1,000 prize grant. It is presented annually to an elementary classroom teacher who exhibits outstanding dedication to reading and language arts.

Murfreesboro City Schools is a district of twelve schools committed to the academic and personal success of each child.

For more information on this annual award, visit: http://www.reading.org/Resources/AwardsandGrants/teachers_johnson.aspx.