KYTHF

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Patrice McCrary

Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame Inductee, 2008

McCrary has been recognized at the local, state, and national levels for her teaching. She was named the Outstanding Young Educator of the Year in Bowling Green/Warren County; Kentucky Elementary Teacher of the Year; Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and to the USA Today All Teacher Team.

“I am a fortunate person,” McCrary wrote. “For 19 years I have been paid for doing what I love to do – teach.”

McCrary began her career in Fort Worth, Texas, and has spent the last 14 years at Cumberland Trace Elementary in Bowling Green. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Blue Mountain College in Mississippi and master’s in elementary education from WKU.

McCrary’s teaching style is characterized by the excitement her students exhibit about learning and by her involvement in her students’ lives.

“When an excitement of learning is the atmosphere in which the students are immersed, then future success is much more of a reality,” she wrote. “I feel at peace with myself when I know 24 students are on the road to success…. I make a difference in our world; and I love doing so.”

McCrary says she shows her students they are important to her by showing them respect and by coming to outside activities, such as ballgames and recitals. “If I am invited to an event in the life of one of my students, I make every effort to be there.”