Tracy Rock

Impacting Teachers and Students
Associate Professor of Reading and Elementary Education

After teaching elementary school and earning her master’s and doctorate, she returned to UNC Charlotte to help prepare other students for the teaching profession.

“It’s a great honor to be able to have that influence,” she says. “I have the opportunity to impact not only the teacher candidates but also their future students. I can make sure our candidates have the right skills and the right attitude to have a positive impact on children and their families in our community.”

Her classroom work has been recognized with UNC Charlotte’s 2015 Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award and 2014 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. Beyond teaching, she led efforts in the elementary education program to revise the structure of the early clinical experiences, such that teacher candidates are now placed in partner schools for a two-week intensive experience in their second semester of the four-semester preparation program. As a result of these efforts, early clinical experiences are now more intentional, structured and integrated with the curriculum.

She strives to go beyond simply teaching the classroom skills students need to be effective teachers. “Even more importantly, I try to provide them with the right dispositions and attitudes—the importance of being passionate about what you do.”