Megan Philbrook, named state teacher of the year semifinalist, brings history to life at Andover Elementary/Middle School

Seventh grader Parker Michaud faced the biggest decision of his young life.

Camped out in the thick Vietnam forest searching for hidden Vietcong soldiers, Michaud had the authority to call an Agent Orange airstrike. He just had to choose whether to do so.

“My character wouldn’t do that,” said Michaud, who had assumed the role of a 22-year-old soldier from Detroit, Michigan. “My character just wants to get out.”

His “battle buddy,” Ian Szilagyi, had a different perspective: “He wants revenge. Fifteen of his friends died.”

After some debate, Michaud and Szilagyi made the joint decision to deploy the chemical spray everywhere.

Thankfully, the spray would not cause generational harm because the seventh graders were not actually soldiers embedded in the forest of Vietnam. Rather, they were caught in a simulation in the classroom of Megan Philbrook, a social studies teacher at Andover Elementary/Middle School.

The decision won the battle buddies five points for its historical accuracy.

“America does use the chemicals,” Philbrook told her 17-student class. “America uses them at max capacity.”

Philbrook, the lone middle school social studies teacher at the kindergarten through eighth-grade school, was selected last month as one of nine Teacher of the Year semi-finalists in New Hampshire. Her self-created simulations and other experiential learning opportunities are a major reason why.

“This is just my favorite part of class, because it’s more of an active thing,” seventh grader Devyn Clark said. “In other classes, you just sort of sit around.”

Philbrook, a Pembroke Academy graduate, has taught at the Andover school since 2017. Her mantra, “Make learning magical,” has made her a favorite among her fifth- through eighth-grade students, who are eagerly rooting for her to win the annual contest.

“She’s the best teacher in Andover history,” Szilagyi said.

Inspired by some of her own elementary and high school teachers, Philbrook decided early in life to become an educator herself. The initial plan was to teach high school, but Philbrook couldn’t find any jobs out of college, so she took a position as a middle school teacher in Manchester.

“I thought: I’ll do it for a year, and then I’ll go back to high school, see what’s available, get more experience, beef up my resume,” she said. “And after a year, I was like, ‘I’m never leaving.’”

Philbrook said she was drawn to the turbulent period that is a child’s middle school years.

“That’s a horrible time in our lives,” she said. “So much is changing about our bodies and our minds and our view sets, and I do think that they need someone that’s going to love them the most when they love themselves the least.”

Like other teachers at the small school, Philbrook has the unusual opportunity of working with students for up to four years, building intense bonds with them as they grow from children into teenagers. It’s a role she has embraced wholeheartedly, according to her students.

“Some teachers give up on their students and don’t help them,” Szilagyi said. “But Ms. Philbrook doesn’t give up on anyone.”

Commanding her classroom, Philbrook is riveting, modulating her voice and emphasizing certain words. For a unit on the Cold War, the final of nine units in seventh grade, she focuses on the motif of “C” words — communism, conflict, containment, capitalism — and manages to fit one into nearly every sentence.

Philbrook’s teaching process involves four stages: content delivery, reinforcement, review and assessment. During the content delivery section, she typically does not lecture for more than 10 minutes. The reinforcement and review periods are entirely activity- and project-based.

Besides her trademark simulations, she has done a living history project with her eighth graders, complete with replica Revolutionary War regalia from an organization called American Battlefield Trust. The same organization is sponsoring a professional development trip for Philbrook this summer to Gettysburg, where she will learn about how to incorporate virtual reality into her Revolutionary War unit.

“Her engagement is next level, and she often times pulls in outside programming and things to support the curriculum that go above and beyond just your core curriculum,” principal Kelly George said.

Eighth grader Noah Hawkins, one of two students who nominated Philbrook for the award, has been in her class since sixth grade. He said his favorite project involved creating a massive picture that related the Renaissance to different carnival games.

“I feel like she’s just really excited to teach, very happy when she comes in,” said Hawkins, whose favorite subject is social studies. “That makes me want to learn more.”

Philbrook, along with eight other semifinalists, will give talks about their educational philosophies this summer. A Teacher of the Year will be selected in the fall.

During the Vietnam War simulation, students who had to decide whether to deploy Agent Orange also had to navigate four other scenarios. They were asked what to do when they received reports about a massacre at My Lai, how to handle foreign propaganda, whether to respect the neutrality of Laos and Cambodia and how to bring the war to a close.

Midway through the activity, seventh grader Mason Hewitt, mentally transported to the war, turned to Philbrook and asked, “Are we all going to die?”

“No, not in seventh grade social studies,” Philbrook replied, without missing a beat.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.