Joe Imel/Daily News Patrice Powell McCrary, a kindergarten/first grade teacher at Cumberland Trace Elementary was named to the 2006 All-USA Teacher Team.

Patrice McCrary is one of those teachers.

“My philosophy is, ‘all children can and will learn with joy.’ I greet all my children at the door with a hug … I want them to understand they are special to me,” said the Cumberland Trace Elementary School kindergarten teacher, who has taught for 15 years. “Research shows to feel secure, a child should have someone outside of family who loves and cares for them, and I want to be that person.

“If I ask them, they will say my job is to keep them safe.”

McCrary’s understanding of the classroom and willingness to see beyond curriculum has granted her a spot among the inaugural class inducted into the Gov. Louie B. Nunn Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame. She will be inducted, along with Jan Weaver Lanham of Bardstown and Sheila Ann Miller of Owensboro, during a Jan. 24 ceremony in Frankfort.

“To say that I was shocked was an understatement,” she said.

The Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame was created through a gift by Nunn, a former Kentucky governor who hoped to recognize the vital role that primary and secondary teachers play and the positive impact education has on the state’s economy. Western Kentucky University was selected as the home of the Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame because of its 100-year history in teacher education.

In the spring, Cumberland Trace Elementary School Principal Mary Evans notified McCrary about the foundation soliciting nominations. Evans nominated McCrary for the hall of fame, and she recently received notification she was to be inducted.

McCrary has earned numerous honors for her work in the classroom, including being named 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-USA Teacher Team.

Being part of the All-USA Teacher Team gave McCrary a chance to be a part of the Kentucky teacher forum, which has become a think tank for education in Kentucky, McCrary said, where issues in education are discussed.

Core content is discussed, as well as relevance and rigor, which McCrary said is the hot issue right now. She said there is a lot of discussion that teachers are spending too much time trying to give too much content, instead of digging into content deeper. Teacher quality and retention is also an issue of concern, she said.

“The issues people think would come up, don’t come up,” McCrary said. “It’s all about how to make education in Kentucky better … we have future lawyers, doctors, chemists and politicians in our classrooms.”

McCrary was also part of a panel discussion with educators in May on the subject of why proficiency is lacking and where to go from here.

Some roadblocks the panel identified included a looming teacher deficit, non-comprehension of core content, high school class size, lack of arts and underfunded mandates.

Teachers are busy looking at schools and scores instead of students, McCrary told the panel. She said the level of expectations for students and resources for teachers must be raised.

“In Kentucky, we are at a critical moment. We know 2014 is our year of reckoning … some schools are floundering right now meeting those requirements,” she said. “But Kentucky teachers have always managed to rise to meet challenges. It’s an encouraging time for us. We know what’s important for our children and what they need so there is no reason why we can’t meet our goal.

“The future is going to come at a rapid rate whether we are ready for it or not, and we have to be prepared to meet the challenges of a global world.”

As a National Board-certified teacher, McCrary mentors other teachers working toward that designation.

“The classroom is a calm place where mutual respect takes place. We are mathematicians, we are architects … we’re everything we want to be,” McCrary said. “No two days are ever the same. There’s never a day that