Barbara Brock, an 8th-grade science teacher at High Springs Community School, has been named Alachua County Public Schools' 2026 Teacher of the Year and will represent the district in the Florida Teacher of the Year program.
Brock was among 40 teacher nominees who were honored at the recent Robert W. Hughes Teacher of the Year celebration, which was hosted by The Education Foundation. The nominees included Elementary Finalist Katie Dawson from Meadowbrook Elementary School and High School Finalist Ryan McNickle from Buchholz High School.
Brock has been a classroom teacher for more than twenty years. She acknowledges that she came to the teaching profession through a roundabout route. Before coming into a public school setting, Ms. Brock worked in the science field for a variety of organizations, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps and private industry. She also opened her own business, selling science-related toys and training teachers, museum staff and others how to use toys as a tools for learning.
“All that taught me a simple truth,” she said. “Science doesn’t live in textbooks. It is in questions, in play, and in those moments when someone suddenly says ‘Oh, I get it.’ That realization pulled me into the classroom.”
As a classroom teacher, Ms. Brock has created numerous opportunities for students to participate in extra-curricular science-related activities, secured grant funding for such programs, created curricula and trained fellow teachers. She has also been involved with science and child-focused organizations in the community.
Brock says its her job to spark interest every day and to create a space where students feel they belong and where it’s safe to take risks, fail and try again.
“Teaching isn’t just about test scores, data points or metrics,” she said. “It’s the qualitative that matters too; curiosity, ‘aha’ moments, laughter, resilience and creativity that numbers can’t capture.”
At the annual awards celebration, all forty of the district’s Teacher of the Year honorees were presented with $500 checks and other gifts donated by local sponsors, including primary sponsors Cox, Florida Credit Union and SWI Photographers.