The Kentucky Department of Education and ValvolineTM have announced the names of the semifinalists for 2018 Kentucky Teacher of the Year.

Those nine semifinalists are also FINALISTS in their respective categories of high school, middle school, and elementary school teacher of the year.

According to kentuckyteacher.org, the process began with 24 recipients of the 2018 Valvoline Teacher Achievement Award.

That number was trimmed to nine and after visiting the classrooms of the semifinalists and conducting interviews, a winner will be chosen from each category and then one will be named the overall 2018 Kentucky Teacher of the Year.

One of the nominees is Daviess County Middle School teacher Olga Payne!

Ms. Payne is a 7th grade science teacher at DCMS and I was interested to learn from her home page at daviesskyschools.org that she doesn't use text books...instead regarding science as a "hands-on" discipline.

So THAT'S why I had trouble in science. READING about it never seemed to work for me. I needed to get my hands in there.

We congratulate Olga Payne on what is already a tremendous honor and we wish her all the best and will "campaign for her in our hearts and minds" with regards to the 2018 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Award.

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