Nancie Atwell of Southport has been selected as the grand marshal for this year’s Bath Heritage Days parade. She is the inaugural recipient of the Global Teacher Prize, which is referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Teaching.”

Atwell was one of more than 5,000 nominees selected for the prize and said she was “gobsmacked” when she was announced as the winner.

An educator since 1973, Atwell is the founder of the Center for Teaching and Learning, a nonprofit school in Edgecomb that serves 80 K-8 students of Mid-coast Maine and classroom teachers from across the country. She founded CTL in 1990 “as a way to teach children and teachers at the same time.”

Atwell taught seventh and eighth grade writing, reading and history at CTL until 2013, when her daughter was hired to replace her. Today, she is the school’s writing support teacher, working alongside 3-8 grade teachers and conferring with students about their writing.

In 1987, she wrote a book about her signature method, the writing-reading workshop, where students choose the books they read and the ideas they write about.

“In the Middle,” now in its third edition, has sold more than half a million copies to teachers who hope to encourage their students to act as real writers and readers — “to have choices and voices,” as Atwell puts it.

All together, she has written nine books for teachers, including “The Reading Zone,” “Lessons That Change Writers” and “Systems to Transform Your Classroom and School.”

Atwell has donated the full $1 million Global Teacher award to CTL, with the first installment of $100,000 being used to supply tuition assistance, purchase more children’s literature for classroom libraries and replace 25-year-old boilers and carpets.

In addition to the Global Teacher prize, Atwell received an honorary Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire; writing and research awards from the Modern Language Association and National Council of Teachers of English; the title of River of Words National Poetry Teacher of the Year; and recognition in Esquire, People, O: The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, USA Today and Maine Magazine.

As for who nominated her for the Global Teacher Prize, Atwell said all she knows is that it was a former student.

She and the other nine international finalists were flown to Dubai in March.

“Each of us was escorted on stage by a child holding the flag of our country. My escort was a 10-year-old boy from India named Verun,” she said. “I told him, ‘No matter how things turn out, the coolest thing is that we got to be friends.’ He was the light that was shining for me in that moment, a reminder of what this prize is all about.”

Atwell will be surrounded by lots more little “lights” on Saturday as CTL students from Bath and Brunswick will accompany her at the head of the parade.