Colt Andrews' Educator Named Rhode Island History Teacher of the Year

Bristol’s own Carol Glanville has been named the Rhode Island History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehman Institute of American History.

Nominated by a North Farm neighbor and fellow teacher, Glanville was required to submit materials including lesson plans and statements outlining her educational philosophy to be considered for the honor.

A first grade teacher at the , Glanville has won a $1000 archive of books and historical resources for her school, as well as earning Colt Andrews the honor of being named a Gilder Lehman Affiliate School. According to its Web site, the affiliate program of the Gilder Lehman Institute is a “unique gateway to educational resources, events and tools designed to bring American history to life in the classroom.”

Bringing American history to life in the classroom, and throughout the area, is something Carol Glanville has been doing for decades.

She founded the History Kids, a group of students at Colt Andrews who learn history by living it. They wear historic clothing, play old-fashioned games, and reenact tableaux from Bristol’s history at events and locations including their home base at the , Coggeshall Farm, and Bristol’s old Statehouse on High Street. Most recently, the History Kids served as docents at the seasonal opening of Linden Place, educating visitors on the history of the historic Federal-style mansion.

According to Caroline Parker, a fifth grade student at Colt Andrews, History Kids has really helped her gain an understanding of local history.

“Acting out events that happened long ago make them seem more real,” she said. It also makes history enjoyable for the students, who enjoy the opportunity to dress up, act, and play off-the-grid games like chess and rolling hoops.

“I love History Kids,” said Maggie Cromwell, a Colt Andrews third grader. “Mrs. Glanville makes history fun.”

Though Carol Glanville officially launched the History Kids club in 2001 while teaching at the former Reynolds Arts Magnet School, the program had its genesis years earlier, when she dressed her own young son and daughter in period clothes and brought them with her while serving as a docent at Warren’s Maxwell House.

Since then, hundreds of children have participated in History Kids, some beginning as Pre-K students, tagging along with older siblings and continuing through the fifth grade. In 2008, Glanville and her History Kids were recognized in Best Practices For Teaching Social Studies: What Award-Winning Teachers Do by Randi Stone.

In Glanville’s own words describing the History Kids at Linden Place, excerpted from the Stone book, “Fourth and fifth graders explained the Triangular Trade and the economic dependence on this trade that led to the town’s bankruptcy in 1825. These are vague concepts and are often not very meaningful, even for secondary students. But for History Kids, the events in books come alive.”

When the Reynolds and Byfield Schools joined forces in 2008 and moved to the renovated Colt Andrews campus, interest in Glanville’s History Kids expanded accordingly. Though she had previously made all the History Kids costumes herself, she found that there were just not enough hours in the day to keep all the kids costumed. Mothers and grandmothers stepped up, sewing costumes and helping to organize and maintain the club’s impressive collection of Colonial through Victorian-era garb.

Glanville would like to continue to expand the program, by partnering with other educators in the other district elementary schools.

As the parent of History Kids myself, one present and one past, I would love to see chapters in every elementary school in the district. Carol Glanville is teaching our kids to grow where they are planted, and I am just one of her many admirers. Congratulations, Mrs. Glanville!