Sometimes they even create their owns myths, language and history, just as novelist J.R.R. Tolkien did in such works as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This isn't the way your parents learned history, but Stacey's creative approach in the classroom is one reason she has been named one of the winners of the Distinguished Teaching Awards.

It was almost inevitable that Stacey would go into teaching. Her father taught English at the University of Denver and her mother was a middle school teacher. But it was her college experience that nudged her toward the classroom.

"I wanted to drop out of college after my first year at the University of Colorado. It was too big, so I transferred to Colorado College and had a fantastic teacher, Susan Ashley. She was enthusiastic, intense and passionate about her subject and you ended up living the French Revolution in her class. I was never bored and always on the edge of my seat because I became so engaged in her classes."

Stacey acknowledges that her area of expertise, the Middle Ages, may not be something that 21st century students readily gravitate toward. But she can engage and capture the attention of those same students.

"The Middle Ages can be pertinent," she said. "For example, Heloise and Abelard is one of the great writings of Western literature and I challenge anyone who has ever been dumped in a relationship to read it and not be moved."

Stacey produced a buzz in the history department in the past year when she created a new course that utilizes the fictional writings of Tolkien to understand England's past by probing how mythology and history overlap yet differ from each other.

The course grew out of a student suggestion in a Norse history class she was teaching, and as a longtime Tolkien fan, she took up the challenge of developing a course.

"Tolkien is such an intriguing figure to me. He explores all kinds of issues such as heroism and what it is, and the relationship of language and myth," she said.

She taught the Tolkien class for the first time last fall as an honors class, drawing rave reviews from students. This spring she is teaching it again as a senior capstone course to an equally enthusiastic audience.

"The next step is to turn it into a regular history class, and our main concern will be trying to find seats for the numbers of students who will want to take it," said History Department Chair John Findlay. "By focusing a history class on Tolkien, Robin has created a means to make history compelling to students who would otherwise not find their way to our curriculum."

Stacey's sure but subtle style is appreciated by both her students and colleagues.

Byron Nakamura, who is now teaching history at a Connecticut college, said, "She has an uncanny knack of stewarding discussion almost effortlessly where historical revelations and insights are revealed as if by accident to the surprise of the students involved. It is as if we have gone on a journey by sail and made these wonderful discoveries ourselves gently guided by the wind. It never seemed we were ever pushed in a predetermined course, but at the end it seemed we ended up quite satisfactorily in the place we needed to be. I continue to be amazed at her technique."

One former student who was unable to squeeze another Stacey-taught class into her schedule said, "If there was any way that I could take any additional courses with her, I would in a heartbeat. It doesn't matter what the topic is or the difficulty associated with it. Just to be her student again would be reward in itself."

Endorsements such as that are what motivate teachers.

"There is nothing like having a student take one of your courses because they have to in order to fulfill a requirement and then have them want to take the next course and the next course from you," Stacey said. "That's the greatest reward, along with seeing faces come alive"