An American teacher has won a $1million prize recognizing educators around the world. Nancie Atwell from Edgecomb, Maine, received the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize from former President Bill Clinton during a presentation ceremony in Dubai on Sunday. The 63-year-old mother-of-one, who began teaching in New York in 1973, was selected over nine other finalists - including three compatriots from the United States. The writing teacher told The Daily Mail Online she plans to celebrate when she returns, but is more interested in getting back to her children at The Center for Teaching and Learning. Scroll down for video . Nancie Atwell from Edgecomb, Maine, received the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize from former President Bill Clinton during a presentation ceremony in Dubai on Sunday . Nancie Atwell holds the prize at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) 2015 in Dubai, alongside His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai (center), President Bill Clinton (left), Honorary Chairman of the Varkey Foundation and Sunny Varke (right)y, Founder of the Varkey Foundation . She revealed she will not be spending any of the prize money on herself, and hopes the check will be sent 'straight to her school' - where her 29-year-old daughter is also a teacher. After accepting the award, she thanked her colleagues and said: 'I love my teaching life - the intellectual, social, and personal challenges of working with young people and the satisfaction of developing methods that transform their lives and give them perspective on the lives of others. I am grateful to the Varkey Foundation for shining a light on teaching as a powerful profession, one of fulfillment, creativity, and lasting worth.' During an interview last week, Atwell said she's 'convinced that teaching language arts is one of the great careers', because it's 'demanding', but also 'meaning-filled' and 'interesting'. Atwell, 63, began teaching in 1973 . She said: 'I get to demonstrate what is possible, teach what is useful, establish conditions that invite engagement, support the hard work of literary reading and writing, and enjoy the kinds of relationships with adolescents that drew me to education in the first place. 'Because my students select the books they read and the subjects they write about, I'm able to help them discover what reading and writing are good for, here and now and in their literate lives to come. 'There is nothing more important than putting the right book in a child's hands at the right time.' Atwell founded the Center for Teaching and Learning in 1990, which uses experimental teaching methods on students in kindergarten through eighth grade. She built an 'excellent classroom library',  in hopes of letting her own students discover what they wanted to read on their own. 'I worry that educational bureaucrats have a problem with pleasure,' she told USA Today, 'that if kids are enjoying what they're doing, it can't be rigorous or worthwhile.' The other American finalists Naomi Volain and and Stephen Ritz. Volain said when she heard about the $1million prize, she told herself, 'Forget it. There are all of these teachers who are presenting internationally and doing big, big things'. But her own colleagues were inspired by Volain and her desire to have her students take part in lab work and go outside. She has spread her environmental education knowledge into as many classrooms as she can. 'I love teaching, and teaching science, because it allows me to learn and work along with my students,' she said. Stephen Ritz, 52, is an elementary school teacher in New York City's South Bronx area. He created a low-cost and portable gardening and nutrition program which led him and his students to install more than 100 gardens throughout New York to help families that have limited access to fresh produce . 'It's the shared experience that is so meaningful to me. Science is curiosity based - finding out why - with eyes, hands and mind. Science is collaborative, science communicates, and science is just so cool.' Ritz, who calls himself the 'Chief Eternal Optimist' of Bronx County, was originally a high school special education teacher but moved into urban gardening after the September 11 attacks. He and his students planted 15,000 daffodil bulbs across the city and now his gardening program grows 37 different vegetables, fruits and herbs. With a goal of sending students home with 100 bags of produce every week, he has established a food production business that focuses on maintaining 'food security' for families in neighborhoods that have limited access for fresh produce. He is currently converting a library at Public School 55 into a 2,000-square-food greenhouse and library. 'I love teaching because every day I get to do something great. Every day I get to lead children and colleagues on a new quest, we get to do something new, we practice, we dream, we learn and we work together,' he said about his program. 'I'm also the oldest sixth grader you'll ever meet; inherently, I too am very curious and easily excited - it's a perfect storm,' he added. The top ten finalists were chosen from 50 shortlisted candidates that came from a pool of more than 5,000 nominations from 127 countries including the United States, UK, Italy, Kenya, Uganda, India, Afghanistan, Australia, Argentina, Mexico and Jordan. The remaining finalists come from the United States, UK, India, Haiti, Kenya, Cambodia, Afghanistan and Indonesia. The United States is the only country to have more than one finalist in the top ten. Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation and the Global Teacher Prize, said: . 'I want to congratulate Nancie Atwell for being the very first recipient of the Global Teacher Prize. Your incredible story will shine a light on the tireless work that teachers do all over the world. 'We all need to find ways of collectively celebrating teachers, of saying to a celebrity-obsessed world that teachers are important and worthy of respect. 'Right now we need teachers more than ever. We need great teachers to grow great minds or we will never tackle the problems facing the world, from global poverty to climate change. 'Of course, more will be needed than the Global Teacher Prize to raise the status of the profession worldwide. But my hope is that it starts many conversations around the world about the role of teachers - from families around the dinner table and teenagers on social media to education ministries around the world.'
Nancie Atwell received the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize . The 63-year-old from Edgecomb, Maine, started teaching in 1973 . Received award during ceremony in Dubai, beating nine other finalists . Told the Daily Mail Online she will celebrate in New York, but all of the money will be going to her school - The Center for Teaching and Learning .