Search results for: “tolkien”

  • Thoughts on leadership, ethical decision-making, and identity from Tolkien

    Last year I read the seven books in “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis with my son over many months at bedtime, and afterwards we decided to read “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. We started with “The Hobbit,” and this past weekend finished “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Tonight we finished…

  • Joys of sharing Lewis and Tolkien

    Over the past year or so, I have read the entire Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis to my son at bedtime, one chapter per night. Some days we miss out on this, but it has become a pretty regular routine for us. He had listened to “The Silver Chair” on his own as a…

  • Batting 1-1 With Three More Pitches Coming

    I’ve been wanting (and perhaps even NEEDING, as other bloggers might be able to understand) to write about our son’s college application journey for a long time. This isn’t just his journey, although it certainly is principally his decision to make and entirely HIS life to live. It’s also a journey for our family, and…

  • Exploring the Hobbit on iTunes University and Course To-Dos

    This afternoon I opened the iTunes University app on my iPad and found the free “Exploring The Hobbit” course. It’s mostly audio lectures, and looks good for Tolkien fans like yours truly. I’m particularly interested in seeing, experiencing “as a student,” and analyzing the way iTunesU provides and manages both course “to dos” and assignments.…

  • Your Next Textbook Will be a Palantir

    In advance of next week’s #beyondthetextbook forum hosted by Discovery Education, David Warlick has posted a good “fill in the blank” challenge on his blog: “The learning device(s) that our learners will walk into their classrooms with will be more like a ________________.” After submitting “palantir” on his Google form I responded with a comment:…

  • The Hobbit in Five Minutes [Video]

    One of the summer reading books for sixth graders at Classen School of Advanced Studies, in Oklahoma City Public Schools, is “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. To review the book before the start of school Monday, my kids and I created a four minute and eighteen second “quick edit” movie about “The Hobbit” using Legos,…

  • Thanks Project Gutenberg for underwriting our 6th grade summer reading list

    Yesterday our family legally obtained four of the five books on our school’s official sixth grade summer reading list for 99¢, courtesy of Project Gutenberg, the free Amazon Kindle application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the Amazon Kindle store. I am both amazed and thrilled that our access to mobile, digital devices as…

  • Podcast303: Transforming Pedagogy in NZ Schools, Duck Hunting in Hobbiton, the Easy Talk Microphone, and Kid Witness News

    This podcast includes a series of three interviews from the Learning@School 2009 conference in Rotorua, New Zealand. The first is an interview with Dean McDonnell, a school principal near Matamata. One of the families whose children attend at Dean’s school own the farm where Hobbiton was built for the film trilogy The Lord of the…

  • Erewhon, Mt Sunday (Edoras) and the Rangitata Valley

    Today was another marvelous day in New Zealand. Thanks to the generosity and kindness of friends, I had an opportunity to realize a dream: I saw and stood near the actual landscape setting for “Edoras” in the film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.” Mount Sunday is located near Mt Potts Sheep Station in the…

  • Great themes in HP5 movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

    J.K. Rowling is a master-storyteller, and director David Yates has done the best job to-date bringing one of Rowling’s books to the movie screen in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” My love for the fictional works and worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis is strong. While I still enjoy the greater…