Award-Winning Teacher

Nancie Atwell addressing the audience after winning the Global Teacher Prize.

This was the first year of an award that is planned to become an annual event, a sort of Nobel for teachers. A group of more than 1300 applicants from 127 countries represented the best of the best. When the field became narrowed to the ten finalists, they all met in The Kingdom of Dubai for the announcement on March 16, of the one teacher who merited the $1 million THE GLOBAL TEACHER PRIZE.

The teacher selected to receive the prize had to be at the top in the field, an exceptional educator. When the announcement came, the person selected was definitely at the top of her field, an educator in the area of literature for 42 years, none other than Nancie Atwell, who comes from rural Maine. Nancie teaches at the school she founded back in 1990, the CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING, a nonprofit demonstration school for grades K-8, with the purpose of devising and disseminating her groundbreaking teaching methods. And that's where she plans to spend her prize money.



Nancie is no stranger to awards, since she has won many over the years for her innovative teaching methods. She has written nine books during her career. But her students remain the focus of her life and career. As she says, "I find that I'm validated every day just by the experiences I have with children in the classroom."

The school that Nancie Atwell founded reflects a different sort of learning environment. By the standards of the large schools that exist in most districts, this one is rather tiny, only 80 students attend; the classes are small, only 16-18 students in each, with only nine in kindergarten. It's a homey, inclusive atmosphere. You'd never hear a voice raised or see any standardized testing done. It's a world of books, of following where your learning takes you. It's unique.

Nancie explained the learning approach, "If we want them to be highly literate, we have to value the power of stories and self-expression. Anything else is a false choice. Anything else will be an exercise that gets kids good at doing exercises." Besides all of the reading that they do, the students here also engage in a lot of writing. The school has many success stories, including graduates who have gone on to publish their own books.

So, when Nancie returned home from her award-winning day, she found great comfort in the greeting from her students. At the beginning assembly that starts every day at the school, she told her students, "I was so homesick. When they were showing video clips of our students back home I would ache seeing your angelic faces." Too bad there aren't more teachers like Nancie Atwell; even more so that schools like the Center For Teaching And Learning are such rareties!

Nancie (in rocking chair) back at home with her beloved students.

Thanks to this article from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/teacher-prize-dubai-2015_n_6878384.html?utm_hp_ref=good-news&ir=Good+News; and this article from Wicasset Newspaper: http://www.wiscassetnewspaper.com/article/welcome-home-nancie-atwell/50082.

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