Attendees celebrate as it’s announced Becky Hallowell was named 2025 Maine Teacher of the Year. She was nominated for the award by her colleague at Wiscasset Elementary School, Neera Harmon. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record

Becky Hallowell, a fourth-grade educator at Wiscasset Elementary School, was named Maine’s Teacher of the Year in a surprise celebration at the school Thursday morning.

Before first block began on Oct. 10, Hallowell joined a schoolwide assembly in the gymnasium. Confetti was tossed. The kids had a dance party and the chorus sang a rendition of Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me.” 

This was not Hallowell’s first accolade. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Farmington in 1994 and her master’s from the University of Southern Maine in 2011, she taught at kindergarten at Whitefield Elementary for 11 years before transferring to Wiscasset. 

In 2024, she won the Lincoln County Teacher of the Year award for her nature-based teaching methods. Now, she has been named Maine Teacher of the Year after a rigorous selection process that started with over 500 nominations across each of Maine’s 16 counties.

As 2025 Maine Teacher of the Year, Hallowell will spend next year advocating for students and teachers, speaking about the importance of education in preparing Maine students for the future.

Becky Hallowell receives her 2025 Maine Teacher of the Year award from the state Department of Education on Oct. 10. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record

At the award celebration, Joshua Chard, 2024 Maine Teacher of the Year and third-grade teacher at East End Community School, compared Hallowell’s reach to that of a mushroom (her favorite fungi) — just as they have an intricate underground network of mycelium that’s important to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, “her reach extends beyond the confines of classroom walls.” 

“Becky is about to embark on the professional journey of a lifetime,” Chard said. “Her outdoor education work perfectly positions her to be a leader in this national cohort of exceptional educators.” 

Awestruck, Hallowell was moved to tears by the nomination. She recalled coming from a family of educators — at one point, her mom, aunt and cousin were all teaching first grade. When her grandfather told her to pick a handle on the CB radio, and she chose “Little Teacher,” she joked, “From that point on, everyone knew I’d end up in public education.” 

As a mother, she said her perspective expanded; she saw that a full moon could lead to beautiful poetry, and spelling got easier when you sang it while spinning in a circle. 

“Teachers have the most important job of guiding students to become the best possible versions of themselves,” Hallowell said. “Our children are Maine’s most valuable resource, and, as Maine Teacher of the Year, I look forward to celebrating the dedicated, creative and compassionate teachers who show up for [them] every day.”

OWLS (Outdoor Wonderful Learning Space)

What sets Hallowell apart? 

For starters, she sparked the concept of the Outdoor Wonderful Learning Space. 

The program incorporates experiential learning; students conduct science experiments and document their findings along the Sheepscot River. It doesn’t require expensive tools. Thanks to a grant from the Maine Environmental Educators Association, Hallowell received a supply of outdoor gear for students to explore throughout the seasons.

OWLS isn’t the only way nature is incorporated into Hallowell’s pedagogy. Her students load backpacks to visit the sunken garden weekly and the Hidden Valley Nature Center monthly. 

The town’s historic landscape has also shaped her curriculum. Last year, after reading Lea Wait’s novel “Stopping Home,” set in Wiscasset in the 1800s, her students retraced the characters’ steps. The walking tour was a history, literature, science and math lesson. At the Ancient Cemetery, the class discussed how lichen and wind impact the rock (science) and calculated the deceased’s age based on headstone dates (math). 

Becky Hallowell was the founder of the Outdoor Wonderful Learning Space (OWLS), an experiential learning program that allows Wiscasset Elementary School students to explore along the Sheepscot River. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record