Hello and welcome back to another episode and a new "Teaching With Magic" season!

Our first guest is the incredible Dr. Kristine Larsen, astronomy and physics professor and pop culture extraordinaire. Kristine teaches courses at Central Connecticut State University. She is heavily involved in science outreach and serves on the Board of Advisors and as co-leader of the Solar Observing Section of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).

Kristine frequently publishes works on Tolkien, Lewis, and other fantasy and science fiction stories in the Journal of Tolkien Studies, and has a chapter in Approaches to Teaching Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" called "Melkor, Moon-Letters, and Menelmacar: Middle-earth in the Science Classroom." You can find more of Kristine's published works on her website.

Kristine and I talk about how science isn't all that scary, how to bring the humanities and sciences together in the classroom, and just how valuable experiential and inquiry classrooms are in today's society.

Like this episode? Be sure to leave a rating and a review!

You can visit our website at http://teachingwithmagic.blog for all of our episodes, and you can find the Hobbit Activity Packet on our Patreon site.

Resources for the Science Classroom:

The Hobbit: https://sites.ccsu.edu/astronomy/hobbit.htm

Harry Potter Series: https://sites.ccsu.edu/astronomy/hpstarfinder.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kODmcRM1SI&t=7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRy9f1vaUIw&t=27s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf1GkXhpYMw&t=32s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-H82bM0uNQ&t=42s

Article: Harry Potter and the Upcoming Venus Conjunction

Transits, Spots, and Eclipses: The Sun's Unique Role in Outreach

Background Artwork by Matej Cadil and Kip Rasm

Hello all, and THANK YOU for your unwavering support of the Teaching With Magic Project! I am so pleased to introduce the season one finale, a panel discussion with several friends of the Podcast who share their perspectives on the current state of teaching. We talk about the joys and the hardships of teaching and teaching fantasy, and we talk about some of the images and tropes that have contributed to some of the difficulties that teachers face. How much do pop culture, the media, and their depictions of teachers influence how real-world teachers are treated? Listen up, and don't forget to comment with your thoughts and ideas!

Topics:

1. Nick's first year of teaching (07:00),
2. Anachronistic teaching in the realm of King Arthur (18:00),
3. Our favorite teachers in pop culture and fantasy (32:34)
4. Methods and practices we emulate from our favorite teachers (58:30),
5. Common teacher tropes in the media; are they helpful or harmful? (1:25:00)

Panel biographies:

Nick Polk: Nick currently serves as the Production Editor for Mallorn, the academic journal of The Tolkien Society. He is a high school English teacher and has written various articles about Tolkien, adaptation, pop culture, and theology. He co-hosts the ⁠Tolkien Heads podcast⁠ with Tripp Fuller from Homebrewed Christianity and is the creator of the ⁠Tolkien Pop! Substack⁠ where he writes on the various intersections of Tolkien and pop culture. When he is not reading something Tolkien-related, Nick enjoys brewing and drinking coffee, listening to punk music, and watching the latest television series with his wife Kelly.

Dr. Joe Torres: ⁠Joe Torres⁠ is a mathematician and a teacher originally from Louisiana but now living and working in Michigan. In 2011, he earned his BS in Math from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. After teaching high school math for three years, he returned to school at Texas A&M University, where he earned his PhD in Math in 2020. Since then, he taught math at a community college on the Texas Gulf Coast for 2 years and now teaches at a small classical high school in the Catholic tradition in South Central Michigan. During this time, he earned his Graduate Diploma in Language and Literature focusing on Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Literature from Signum University and is now working on an MA in Philosophy focusing on Christian Wisdom at Holy Apostles College and Seminary. Joe loves reading, learning, and discussing math, literature, philosophy, and theology with friends and is a proud patron of the Prancing Pony Podcast – the best podcast this side of Bree.

⁠Becca⁠ is a community college English composition and literature instructor in southeastern Oklahoma and is currently a Ph.D. student working in Tolkien studies at the University of Swansea and the University of Central Oklahoma. Outside of academics, she serves as Barliman on the Prancing Pony Podcast, which truly is the best podcast this side of Bree. She is notorious for her ability to pun anything and her students have expressed some concern about the amount of coffee and tea she drinks. Becca can talk fantasy literature all day, every day, and loves finding ways to incorporate this love into her teaching.

⁠Jordan Rannells⁠ is an audio engineer, composer, and teacher from Ottawa, Ontario. Jordan has spent several years studying sound engineering, music, and teaching from college and seminars in Nashville with Victor Wooten and other renowned teachers and musicians. He has taught Recording Technology and Sound Design in Ottawa over the past few years and is currently spending his time creating full audio soundscapes for fantasy and sci-fi books, designing sound FX, and writing original scores to create a ‘movie in your ears’. And don't forget to support Teaching with Magic by visiting our ⁠website⁠, ⁠Patreon⁠, and ⁠Ko-Fi⁠ pages!

We'll be back in a few months with season 2.

Today's episode is all about podcasting! How do podcasting and audio make learning accessible? What do podcasts, streaming, and J.R.R. Tolkien have in common? Learn the answers to these questions and more as Teaching with Magic discusses the beginnings of Signum University, the Mythgard Institute, and the Tolkien Professor with Signum University President Dr. Corey Olsen!

Dr. Corey Olsen is the President of Signum University and Mythgard Institute. In addition to teaching classes on J.R.R. Tolkien, Chaucer, and modern fantasy literature for Signum, Dr. Olsen has extended the concept of the digital classroom to include non-traditional outlets. Through the Mythgard Academy, he offers free weekly lectures on works of speculative fiction chosen by Signum University supporters, and he has embraced the “new literature” of cinema and video game adaptations through interactive programs such as The Silmarillion Film Project and in-game discussions of Lord of the Rings Online.

On his teaching website, The Tolkien Professor, Dr. Olsen brings his scholarship on Tolkien to the public, seeking to engage a wide and diverse audience in serious intellectual and literary conversation. His website features a series of detailed lectures on The Hobbit and recordings of the weekly meetings of the Silmarillion Seminar, which worked its way through the Silmarillion chapter by chapter, as well as more informal Q&A sessions with listeners. His book Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s "The Hobbit" was published by Houghton Mifflin in September 2012.

Don't forget: you can visit Teaching With Magic at http://teachingwithmagic.blog for more updates, and you can support Teaching with Magic on Patreon and Kofi.

Just one more episode to go before the Season ends!