By Abigail W. Adams
Nancie Atwell is welcomed home from Dubai by the Center for Teaching and Learning’s students, staff, and some extra guests, at the school’s morning meeting in Edgecomb, Friday, March 20. Atwell sits between the Global Teacher Prize and the poem “The Teacher” written by a former student as she talks about her experience winning the Global Teacher Prize. (Abigail Adams photo) |
The morning meeting is a tradition at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb.
The school day begins with students, grades K-8, putting on slippers, cuddling together on pillows, and singing songs and reciting poems to start the day in a joyful way.
The ritual is just one of the unique features of the non-profit school that earned school founder Nancie Atwell international recognition as winner of the 2015 Global Teacher Prize.
On Friday, March 20, media outlets, community members, former students, parents, representatives from the offices of U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, and representatives from the Heinemann publishing company, publisher of Atwell’s seminal book “In the Middle”, joined the Center for Teaching and Learning for their morning meeting to welcome Nancie Atwell home.
Atwell described her trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the Global Education and Skills Forum and bombardment of press interviews and media attention as, “a whirlwind.”
In the morning meeting, attended by over 100 extra guests, Atwell focused her attention on the students.
Ann Atwell-Mcleod (left) stands with her seventh and eighth grade class to recite a poem the class wrote together about the Center for Teaching and Learning. The poem spoke of the school’s past, present, and future. “The prize will allow the dream to grow,” was one of the last lines of the poem. (Abigail Adams photo) |
She told them about the “over the top” architecture of Dubai – home to the world’s largest skyscraper, the warm weather, the sea shells she brought back from the Persian Gulf for a student’s sea shell collection, and commented on how thin Bill Clinton had become.
Atwell told students Clinton was her mother’s favorite president. Her mother passed away recently, Atwell said. Even though she was sad her mother couldn’t see her meet Clinton, Atwell said, she was able to tell Clinton about her mother.
She received tulips, hugs, and homemade signs from students. One student updated Atwell about her cat that ate all the cat food in her bowl.
Students, staff, and attendants, recited the poem “The Teacher” written by a former student and sang “The Nancie Song” written by Ted DeMille, first and second grade teacher at the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Songs and poetry are a part of every morning meeting at the Center for Teaching and Learning. “Nancie started the school day with singing so we can raise our voices every morning,” DeMille said before leading the audience in song.
“We’ll tell you a story about Nancie Atwell,” the song went. “She started a school called CTL. Then many years later she went to Dubai. And came back with the Global Teacher Prize … So while the world is watching and the cameras roll. We wanna tell Nancie we love her so.”
A montage of former students, many who went on to become teachers themselves, sent in their congratulations to Atwell. Many thanked her for helping them become the people they are today.
The winner of the Global Teacher Prize was a closely guarded secret, Atwell said, with only five people knowing the identity of the winner. Codenames were developed for the ten finalists so as not to give the secret away, Atwell said. Atwell was referred to as “Bob” and “Dumbledore,” the Harry Potter character.
Atwell said she didn’t realize her name was called when Sunny Varkey, of the Varkey GEMS Foundation, sponsor of the Global Teacher Prize, announced the winner. It was not until Kiran Bir Sethi, the Global Teacher Prize finalist from India, leaned over and hugged her that Atwell realized she was the winner.
Atwell’s daughter, Ann Atwell-McLeod, a seventh and eighth grade reading and writing teacher at the Center for Teaching and Learning, accompanied Atwell to Dubai for the ceremony. One of the greatest moments of the Global Teacher Prize ceremony, Atwell-McLeod said, was seeing the footage of Center for Teaching and Learning students.
“There was a gorgeous ceremony. We were sitting there in this incredibly loaded moment,” Atwell-McLeod said. “Then we saw the film of our kids half way across the world. We were both sobbing. It made us remember what we were there for.”
In a press conference following the morning meeting, Atwell said she hopes to use her new platform on the international stage to challenge common core standards and, what she said, were the negative effect they have had on the teaching profession.
According to Atwell, teachers are being scapegoated for problems in the educational system. The new educational standards are not allowing educators to teach children in developmentally appropriate ways and engage them in the learning process.
“I haven’t seen anything quite so bad in my 40 years as an educator,” Atwell said.
Atwell said she hopes to continue to spread the pioneering techniques used at the Center for Teaching and Learning, based on choice and dialogue, through public and private schools. She hopes to inspire teachers to “innovate with or without permission” in order to keep education and instruction child-centered, fun, and engaging.
The $1 million reward to be doled out to Atwell in $100,000 installments over the next 10 years will go to the Center for Teaching and Learning, Atwell said. The school will not expand beyond its maximum capacity of 80 students and will not host teams of educators, who flock to the school’s internship program to learn the school’s unique approach to education, for more than eight weeks out of the school year.
The award money will be used for a series of capital improvement projects at the school, such as two new boilers, some new windows, and a new roof. Some students suggested the money be used for a swimming pool at the school. There was some grumbling and some chuckling when Atwell said no.
There will, however, be an influx of money to the nonprofit school’s tuition endowment so children from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds will continue to be able to access it.
“This is the best part,” Atwell-McLeod said, “coming back here.”
