‘Everybody Celebrates Everybody’: How Rachel Gillcrist Built a Classroom Centered on Connection
The W.M. Irvin Elementary teacher, recently named Cabarrus County Schools 2026 Teacher of the Year, says relationships, trust and celebrating students are at the heart of everything she does.
Sometimes it only takes a few minutes of conversation to understand why someone chose the profession they did.
Spend even a short amount of time talking with Rachel Gillcrist — watching her eyes light up as she speaks about her students and hearing the warmth and enthusiasm in her voice — and it quickly becomes clear she was always meant to be a teacher.
