In 2015, Nancie Atwell was the inaugural recipient of the Global Teacher Prize, referred to as the Nobel Prize for teaching. The award, given by the London-based Varkey Foundation, highlights the impact great teachers have on their students and their profession. The winning teacher is given $1 million. Atwell donated the money to the school she founded in 1990, the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, Maine. An English teacher since 1973, Atwell has written 13 books about education, including Lessons That Change Writers, Naming the World: A Year of Poems and Lessons, and Systems to Transform Your Classroom and School. She proudest, however, of In the Middle, which has sold over half a million copies and provides teachers with a set of blueprints for her signature writing- reading workshop, where students choose the books they read and develop their own ideas as writers. CTL is a nonprofit, low-tuition, demonstration school that teaches students grades kindergarten through eighth grade and classroom teachers from across the country. Students also learn about and support local nonprofits and global initiatives from the Boothbay Food Pantry and Lincoln County Humane Society to Safe Passage, the Nature Conservancy, and Maine’s Model United Nations Conference.