Becky Hallowell teaches fourth grade students at Wiscasset Elementary School on the bank of the Sheepscot River in Wiscasset, Maine. Hallowell earned her Bachelor of Arts in early childhood education from the University of Maine at Farmington in 1994 and then received her Master of Science in educational leadership from the University of Southern Maine in 2011. She is the 2024 Lincoln County Teacher of the Year and the 2025 Maine Teacher of the Year.  

Hallowell embraces a pedagogy that honors nature and place-based learning, establishing connections between students and the local, state and global community. She believes learning is more powerful when linked to content that students personally value and find meaningful as they engage in project-based learning. While she finds great joy in supporting student learning, Hallowell also commits to her learning and that of her colleagues. She is delighted to support new educators in finding the joy of teaching and has collaborated with pre-service teachers at the University of Maine at Farmington. She has teamed with the Maine Math and Science Alliance in a research project connecting place-based learning and science sense-making, presenting her work to other educators at conferences. Hallowell presented her work on using place-based learning to drive the writing process at the National Council of Teachers of English conference.  

Hallowell enjoys exploring new trails in her free time, often finding a lesson in a unusual mushroom or rock formation. She lives in Whitefield, Maine, with her husband and three sons.