Here’s some words of inspiration educator Nancie Atwell, an award-winning English teacher who founded the innovative Center for Teaching & Learning.

Nancie discovered a love of books as a child, when she became bedridden with rheumatic fever as a child. Today she teaches English as a writing-reading workshop, an innovative approach to reading she first described in her book In The Middle, now in its third edition (the first two editions sold half a million copies). In her workshop, Nancie’s students choose the subjects they write about and the books they read. The kids, who may not have been readers before taking her workshop, read an average of 20 pieces of publishable writing and 40 books each year. They are also engaged in writing practice that leads to improvement in their writing and reading skills.

In 1990, Nancie founded the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), a non-profit demonstration school she  organized to develop and disseminate effective classroom practices. The center’s faculty conduct seminars, write professional books and articles, and invite teachers from across the US and other countries to spend a week at the school. There they experience the center’s methods firsthand and expose students to other culture groups. So far, 97% of CTL graduates have matriculated to university.

Since 1976 Nancie has written nine books on teaching (with praise from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education), edited five collections and delivered 120 keynote addresses on her teaching. In addition, Nancie has won awards from the Modern Language Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2011 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire.

To learn more about the Center for Teaching & Learning, examine their website at CTL.