Frank I. Brown Elementary

Monica Malcomson loves to ask, “Why not?”

Her teaching philosophy, rooted in community participation and hands-on learning, earned her Cumberland County Teacher of the Year, a recognition awarded to one teacher in each of Maine’s 16 counties. There were more than 550 nominees this year.

Malcomson, a Cape Elizabeth resident and second-grade teacher at South Portland’s Brown Elementary School, is now in the running for Maine Teacher of the Year.

Malcomson, who has been teaching in South Portland since 2018, said she is constantly searching for opportunities to provide real-world applications to her students, asking herself the question: “How can we creatively, as teachers, find ways to broaden our scope and create a larger learning environment for our students?”

Her second-grade scholars, as she calls them, didn’t just learn about aquaculture for a science unit, they experienced it.

Luke and Laisee Holden, of Luke’s Lobsters, visited the classroom as guest speakers, bringing live lobsters, buoys and lobster traps. Students read books about lobstering, learned how to identify the parts of a trap by completing a coloring sheet, and examined the lobsters up close.

Laisee Holden said it was clear that Malcomson’s students were prepared for the lesson. “The kids told me facts about lobsters that I didn’t even know,” she said with a laugh. And she could tell that Malcomson often creates meaningful, interactive experiences by the way the students engaged with the lesson.

“We all remember the teachers who really made a difference,” Laisee Holden said. “Monica is a teacher who her students will be talking about forever.”

For another aquaculture lesson, students went on a field trip to South Portland Seafood and were tasked with designing their own lobster or oyster dish. And they had to figure out the pricing math.

“We want to get kids excited about careers and about how they can continue to take care of the environment while also doing something fun and exciting and unique to our state of Maine,” Malcomson said.

Malcomson is particularly mindful of connecting her lessons with local communities and landscapes because for many of her students, some of them new Mainers, it might be their first encounter.

“Public school is the best place for any child to get all of the experience and all of the exposure,” she said.

Outside of the classroom, Malcomson fosters school community. She’s the chapter president of Best Buddies, a program that she describes as “centering friendship and allyship.” She’s working to connect students of all abilities in a schoolwide program.

Malcomson is also the founder of Brown School Skates, an afterschool club for second-graders interested in learning how to ice skate. Malcomson realized that many of her students never had the opportunity to go ice skating, an expensive sport.

As a former professional figure skater who spent summers training at Lake Placid, she knew she had to fix that. With support from her principal and donated skates from the Portland Gear Hub, Malcomson teaches students how to skate on the frozen Mill Creek pond once a week in the winter, weather permitting.

The club is going into its fourth season, and is open to any second grader at the school, regardless of whether they have their own skates or helmets. For the past two years, Brown School Skates has partnered with Best Buddies for a skating event at the Cape Elizabeth Community Arena.

Jill Vaughn’s daughter Matilda was in Malcomson’s class two years ago. Malcomson helped Matilda with her reading and taught her how to ice skate, all with a kindness and care that led both Vaughn and her daughter to call Malcomson a friend.

“She’s a treasure,” Vaughn said. “She gives her heart in a way that most people aren’t able to. It’s genuine.”

Vaughn sometimes volunteered in the classroom, and she was struck by the warm environment that Malcomson nurtured and the emotional intelligence that she modeled.

“I need to start approaching my problems in the same format,” Vaughn said, laughing.

Both inside and outside of the classroom, Malcomson loves working with 7- and 8-year-olds.

“Students still love school,” she said. “They still love their teacher. There’s still this sense of wonder and hope that for whatever reason, as humans get older, is somehow lost.”

And she learns from her students, too, she said.

“It’s a mutual teaching experience,” she said. “I learn about how to be a better human.”

During her year of recognition, Malcomson will work with the other honorees to develop programs to support teachers and students across the state. In preliminary conversations, Malcomson was particularly excited about ideas that integrate environmental studies into the classroom, encouraging students to connect with nature and community.

Even when it’s difficult, Malcomson loves what she does.

“I can’t see myself doing anything else,” she said.