Laura Waite - Otisfield Community School

She also noted that the school support staff, about 200 people, had all lost their homes. The expatriot teaching staff was more fortunate and for the most part, lived in better quality housing. Her best experience, she recalls, was in Brunswick where she was doing a lot of work with experiential education - learning by doing - and the mindfulness caring classroom an awareness of one's conduct and the quality of one's relationships, inwardly and outwardly, in terms of their potential to cause harm. The children, she explained, ended up taking the project over, making phone calls, getting speakers and making a film. They then asked the local cinema if they could show their film their and were told "sure, for $75."

"They were devastated," Waite says, "and begged me to teach diem persuasive writing." She did, they wrote. Ultimately they got the screening for free and ended up on the front page of the local newspaper. She says she hasn't figured out her professional goal as yet. "I am happy to have a job. I do want to go back to school and learn more about rising technology in the classroom." Her other goal, she said is to continue to deepen,rher practice with mindfulness"' She is mom to Brooke, 25, and Kyra, 29, and soon-to-be mother-in-law to Matt and grandmother to his daughter Emily, 9.

She enjoys hiking, live theater and is learning to quilt. "I love to cook! I am very active kayaking, camping, paddle boarding, snowshoeing and skiing." She also enjoys gardening and travel. She plans a visit back to India in the near future. "I think what I learned in India is to be in the moment and appreciate what I have."