At recess on Thursday, second-grader Reid Philbrook got the news: His mother, Megan Philbrook, was about to be named New Hampshire’s Teacher of the Year.
Reid’s father picked him up and shuttled him to Andover Elementary/Middle School, a town over from their home in Salisbury. Now, it seemed like all of Andover was waiting for his mother alongside him.
Just after 1 p.m., Reid watched as Andover’s new firetruck, sirens blaring, made the righthand turn onto School Street and came to a stop.
A blindfolded Megan Philbrook sat in the passenger-side seat.
After gingerly making her way down the truck’s steps, Philbrook’s guide permitted her to untie the bandana covering her eyes. The first person she saw was Reid, who ran into his mother’s arms, bouquet of flowers in tow.
“It’s kind of exciting,” Reid said.
He might be as gifted at understatement as his mother is at the immersive, project-based style of social studies teaching she has pioneered in Andover since 2017.
After Philbrook received hugs from Reid, her younger son, Grady, and her husband, Dan, Andover’s tight-knit school community practically enveloped their favorite teacher in a blue, pom-pom-waving fracas.
The culmination of a nearly year-long competition that began when former students Noah Hawkins and Aiden Sava nominated their teacher for the award, Thursday’s event celebrated Philbrook’s creativity and enthusiasm, as well as Andover’s embrace of a small-town educational model.
“Now we’re on the map, thanks to Mrs. Philbrook,” principal Kelly George said.
Like other middle school teachers at the school, Philbrook works with her students from fifth through eighth grade, developing deep bonds over four years.
“It truly is a community award, and the Andover community really came out for Megan, and they truly have her back. I think it was very clearly seen that they value her, and they value education and they value the teachers here,” said Elizabeth Duclos, the 2024 Teacher of the Year and a member of the selection committee.
From simulating the Vietnam War with seventh graders to making papier-mache globes with fifth graders, Philbrook’s guiding mantra is “make learning magical.” Her students say she succeeds in doing so.
Seventh grader Millie Newton’s favorite memory from Philbrook’s class was an ancient Roman play she did last year.
“She had made an outline for us, but then she gave us the creative spark to go off and fill in more of it,” said Newton, who played the narrator. “And it was just really exciting because she gives us that creative freedom and that creative spark while guiding us to be the best that we can be.”
Students said they also appreciate the care Philbrook puts into helping them when they face challenges.
“I love it how she reads with people when they’re struggling to read,” sixth grader Brayden Perry said. “She goes over there and reads with them, and she makes them feel good.”
Described as an “adult cheerleader,” Philbrook is known for showing up at her students’ sporting events. At a basketball game last year, “she was probably more excited than our coaches,” said seventh grader Acaydia Wright.
On her way to school, Philbrook will sometimes take detours so that she can wave to her students at bus stops.
“She’ll tell me there are kids absent before the bus has even come,” said middle school science teacher Ryan Murphy.
Philbrook’s parents, Chester Bobola, Jr. and Laura Whittemore, said there were early signs that their daughter might become a teacher. She would teach herself how to do things like tie her shoes, Bobola said.
The profession runs in the family: Bobola wanted to be a teacher growing up, and one of Philbrook’s aunts taught in New Mexico.
After graduating from Pembroke Academy, Philbrook attended Wheaton College and initially aspired to teach high school. A lack of teaching jobs after graduating, however, led her to a middle school position in Manchester, instead.
“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 in an interview earlier this year. “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.”
As Teacher of the Year, Philbrook plans to use the platform to spread her interactive pedagogical approach — which she has dubbed “Top Notch Teaching for the 603” — across the state. She is also considering launching a podcast.
Fighting back tears, she thanked her students.
“You make teaching so much fun because you are so much fun,” she said. “You’re funny, and you’re talented and you’re brave. And you work so hard every single day. I am so motivated to work for you, because you work so well for this town and you make us so proud in the Granite State.”
Philbrook will now move on to a national competition against Teachers of the Year from all 50 states and several territories.