Meet Your Neighbor: Michelle Hanus Is Brevard's 2026 Teacher of the Year
Melbourne High ESOL teacher Michelle Hanus was selected from 93 school-level honorees as Brevard Public Schools’ 2025–26 Teacher of the Year.
Michelle Hanus helps students learn English while they are also learning everything else school asks of them. In January, Brevard Public Schools named the Melbourne High School ESOL teacher its 2025–26 Teacher of the Year.
She was selected from 93 school-level Teacher of the Year honorees across the district.
Helping students find confidence and a voice
ESOL teachers work with students who are learning academic content and the English language at the same time. Some students are also adjusting to a new country, school culture or set of expectations.
Hanus described teaching as helping students build confidence, strengthen their skills and recognize what they are capable of achieving. She also emphasized that teaching is collaborative work shaped by colleagues across a school.
Photo courtesy of Brevard Public Schools.
One teacher representing many
The annual ABC Awards recognize one teacher from each district school before naming the countywide winner. As Brevard's honoree, Hanus represents the district in Florida's statewide Teacher of the Year program.
The award belongs to one person, but the setting matters: 93 educators gathered in one room, each already selected by a school community that sees their work up close.
Meet Your Neighbor is a Brightside Brevard series about the people who make the Space Coast feel like home. Teachers, volunteers, makers, small-business owners and everyday helpers all belong here. Send us a name when somebody in your corner of Brevard deserves a wider audience.
Sources
Claire Szewczyk
Claire has called Florida home for a decade, but her love of the Space Coast goes back further — to the beat-up Kennedy Space Center coffee table book she found in a thrift store when she was five. She writes about the people, places, and history that make Brevard County great, and those stories are where Brightside Brevard began.
