Carol Glanville

Carol Glanville is an Educator, Leader, and Innovator. Following her passion for Education, she began the undertaking of starting a consulting company, Contemporary Education Solutions. She is committed to working with schools, as a consultant, to create engaging classrooms, technology driven curriculum, where students collaborate together in a creative design process.

Growth and Expertise

Carol’s work in education has taken many different forms, from teaching Spanish in Middle School, to teaching English in South Korea; then, on to curriculum designing and a Masters Degree in Technology and Curriculum Design. This led her to the position of Technology Specialist and eventually to a Director of Technology with the Diocese of Grand Rapids. She has taught in a variety of education settings, as well as possesses experience at both the college level, and administration. This wealth of experiences have given her the perspective and knowledge to be able to take on the role of consultant, and help to spread her knowledge to districts looking to enhance their use of technology in the classrooms, and taking on a more collaborative and design based learning approach.

Innovation and Consulting

  Carol’s work with her company, Contemporary Education Solutions, takes many forms. She specializes in helping schools create an innovative learning environment. One of her biggest projects has been working with a cohort of 20 different teachers across different grade levels and content areas. Carol worked with the teachers to develop lessons based on the process of Design Thinking. This yearlong process ended with a showcase of student work. Here is a link to Carol’s Blog  to see the outcomes. Carol works to help preservice and veteran teachers to understand the importance of creative design thinking and collaboration in the classroom.

Collaboration and Design

  Carol’s work in education has taken many different forms, from teaching Spanish in high school and English in South Korea to a Master’s Degree in Technology and Curriculum Design which led her to the position of Technology Specialist and eventually to Director of Technology for the Diocese of Grand Rapids. She has taught in a variety of educational settings, as well as possesses experience at the college level, and as an administrator. This wealth of experiences has given her the perspective and knowledge to be able to take on the role of consultant, and help to spread her knowledge to districts looking to enhance their use of technology in the classrooms, and taking on a more collaborative and design based learning approach.

Making Failure A Positive

  The idea of failure, to most people, has a negative connotation. We don’t like to fail. Carol understands that to grow and learn we must understand our failures and work to improve them. To make the idea of failure contain less of a negative meaning, and act more as motivation for improvement and a time for collaboration, Carol has teams start staff meetings with failures of the week instead of successes. This openness creates a safe space to share failures, and then as a group to collaborate on different methods to implement for improvement.

Continue Learning and the Future

  To stay current on best practices, trends, new ideas, and continue her profession growth Carol belongs to Twitter and blog networks, attends conferences (including being a presenter at the 2017 IIE in Ann Arbor), reads books, and works to grow her professional network. She continues to consult with schools and design innovative and collaborative learning experiences and curriculum that engage students and provide them with the tools needed to thrive in the ever changing learning environment.

“Education is my passion. Change management is my specialty.” 

Written by: Austin Whelpley August, 2017