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Philippa Rappoport

Lead, Education and Engagement
Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology
Smithsonian Staff

I work in education and engagement, teacher professional development, and outreach at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (OET), and have a particular interest in developing and producing trainings, programs, teaching techniques, and platforms that foster deep learning and contribute knowledge to improve practices in museum and preK-16 education and engagement. At OET over the last decade+, I created digital assets for schools, families, and new immigrant English Language learners to complement teacher professional development and pan-Smithsonian programming, including Learning Lab teaching collections, YouTube videos with tradition bearers, a handmade family stories book-making website, and online heritage tours.

Philippa Rappoport's collections

 

2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program - National Museum of Natural History

<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the second session of the 2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster a Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of a Rapidly Changing World.”<br><br>Three Smithsonian staff members, Jennifer Collins, Siobhan Starrs, and Matthew Carrano, will discuss content and educational materials related to the National Museum of Natural History exhibition, <em>Deep Time,</em> as well as the <em>Human Connections </em>section of the Sant Oceans Hall<em>. </em>Their bios and presentation descriptions are included inside. Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
20
 

2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program - National Museum of American History

<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the second session of the 2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster a Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of a Rapidly Changing World.” </p> <p>Educator Orlando Serrano will present and discuss the museum's exhibition, <em>Many Voices, One Nation, </em>and <em>Becoming US </em>educational content. Curator Theo Gonzalves will present and discuss the exhibition, <em>Entertainment Nation.</em> </p>
Philippa Rappoport
21
 

Learning Lab Training Collection on the Theme: “Facing the Complex, Multiple Challenges of the 21st Century"

<p>This collection is designed to help educators bridge the classroom experience to a museum visit. It is intended to demonstrate various ways to use the Learning Lab and its tools, while offering specific, replicable, pre-engagement activities that can simply be copied to a new collection and used to help students engage with museum resources. </p> <p>Included here: </p> <ul><li>Section 1: a set of flashcards, a template document so that teachers can create and print their own specific sets, and strategies for their use in their classrooms. </li><li>Section 2: a variety of student activities and resources to explore artist Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq," a metaphorical representation of the unrest taking place in Iraq, and more broadly, an exploration of the human condition during times of crisis.  This section includes an image of the work from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an explanatory video with curator E. Carmen Ramos, two  Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking materials, and  an array of prompts and Learning Lab tools to help students think critically and globally.  </li><li>Section 3: a short assignment to get participants started using the Learning Lab.</li><li>Section 4: spacer tile template to serve as chapter headings in longer collections.</li></ul> <p>This collection is adapted from a teaching collection on the same theme (Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" ( <a href="http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/mBWHa8fHUy9vJsE5" style="background-color:rgb(63,63,63);">http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll...</a>), that includes extension activities. It was created for the 2019 cohort of the Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program on the theme, "The Search for American Identity: Building a Nation Together," and then adapted for the 2020 program on the theme, “Humans and the Footprints We Leave: Climate Change and Other Critical Challenges." </p> <p>Keywords: #MCteach</p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
82
 

DCPS Arts Innovation Leadership Institute: Incorporating Arts and Technology in the Classroom with the Smithsonian Learning Lab

<p>This Learning Lab collection complements an introductory Learning Lab training for DCPS educators in the Arts Innovation Leadership Institute (AILI). We will explore artwork and resources from the Smithsonian digital collections, including the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition, <em><a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/IgLygJNprGf3JA%20and%20https:/npg.si.edu/exhibition/eye-i-self-portraits-1900-today">Eye to I: Self-Portraiture as an Exploration of Identity</a></em>, as a way to consider the functionality of the Learning Lab and help AILI educators understand how they can use the Learning Lab to enhance their students' learning and classroom experience. </p>
Philippa Rappoport
34
 

National Portrait Gallery / Gallery Educators Introduction to the Learning Lab: Opening Activity

<p>This Learning Lab collection complements an introductory Learning lab training for National Portrait Gallery (NPG) gallery educators. We will explore artwork from the Smithsonian digital collections, including NPG's exhibition, <em><a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/IgLygJNprGf3JA%20and%20https:/npg.si.edu/exhibition/eye-i-self-portraits-1900-today">Eye to I: Self-Portraiture as an Exploration of Identity</a></em>, a way to consider the functionality of the Learning Lab and how the platform can support gallery educators in their teaching. <em>Eye to I </em>compels viewers to consider how self-portraits reflect an artist’s identity through what is revealed and concealed.</p> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
26
 

Deep Time: A Planetary Heat Wave 56 Million Years Ago (National Museum of Natural History)

<p>This collection complements Unit 6 of the EdX course, <em>Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the Community College Classroom. </em>It includes resources to support the session presentation by Scott Wing, Research Scientist and Curator of Fossil Plants, at the National Museum of Natural History. </p> <p></p> <p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
21
 

Topical collection for State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE)

<p>This topical collection is designed to introduce SEADAE educators to the Smithsonian Learning Lab and to help them consider a variety of ways to incorporate digital museum content - images, video footage, and learning activities -  into their new toolkit for arts educators.</p> <p>#SEADAE</p>
Philippa Rappoport
36
 

Stories of Irish American Assimilation in 19th-century America

<p>"In 18th-century Ireland, a large majority of the Irish farming population had to rent or lease land from their English owners. When the English landlords switched from farming to cattle ranching to answer Britain's demand for beef, nearly 90 percent of Ireland's farm laborers found themselves out of work. Those not lucky enough to profit from the beef industry were left to live in extremely poor conditions, with families living in small huts, sharing a single bed of straw, and surviving on a diet of potatoes. By 1845, these difficult conditions became exponentially worse, with the appearance of a new fungus that attacked potatoes and caused 40 percent of that year's crop to rot. Thus began the migration of one and a half million Irish to the United States during what was known as the Great Famine." (see Ranald Takaki, <em>A Different Mirror:A History of Multicultural America, for Young People, </em>by Ronald Takaki, pages 106-107)<em></em></p> <p>This topical collection prompts students to explore Irish American life in 19th-century American through a selection of objects, stories, and articles, paired with with discussion questions from Project Zero's Global Thinking routine, "Step In, Step Out, Step Back." <br></p> <ul></ul> <p>For use in Social Studies, Ethnic Studies, English, and American History classes<br></p> <p>#EthnicStudies</p> <p>This collection supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course, and pairs well with chapter 4, "The Flight from Ireland," in Ronald Takaki's book, <em>A Different Mirror:A History of Multicultural America, for Young People.</em></p> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
14
 

Celebrating Cultural Diversity and Our Shared Humanity | Cultivating Learning

<p><span dir="auto">This collection serves as a digital companion to a <em>Cultivating Learning</em> professional development session with Marjorie Hunt, curator and education specialist </span>at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The session explores the Center’s award-winning “Masters of Tradition: A Cultural Journey Across America” story map. This free multimedia platform features the stories of extraordinary artists from across the country who have been awarded the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor for excellence in the folk and traditional arts. With its abundant photographs, audio, video, short text, and first-person quotes, students can discover and explore the great diversity of cultures, communities, and artistic traditions that enrich the United States — and be inspired to learn more about their own cultural heritage and the traditions of others. The session focused on grade 5-12 classroom applications for a variety of key themes, including immigration and migration, local history, identity, heritage, and community, and shares with participants replicable techniques and free online resources to help foster a shared sense of belonging, build cultural bridges, and bring people together. <br></p> <p>This interactive webinar is part of “Cultivating Learning,” a professional development webinar series focusing on techniques to use digital museum resources for learning. Check out “Cultivating Learning” and other Smithsonian Learning Lab webinars: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW0tbkVMdEJJcVd0QzRxcEU0QzYyZjh5VEY2d3xBQ3Jtc0trUFVObFlPY0hsWXZxX3c2RWNRVklOdnlrenNrVERXQXZnSTVSQ28tZVVuLU9rSjhLTkdyN3doT2s0RlN0eURHV1lYclB2R0hvNDlUdnU3Zi1xdTdXWnRGajAySzFianJZYUtOY0Qzc3dfSV9GMXZmZw&q=https%3A%2F%2Flearninglab.si.edu%2Fhelp&v=s6WrXnRH2Iw"></a><a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/help">https://learninglab.si.edu/help</a>.<span dir="auto"> </span></p>
Philippa Rappoport
14
 

Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands (National Portrait Gallery)

<p>This collection complements Unit 5 of the EdX course, <em><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-with-the-smithsonian-addressing-21st-century-challenges-in-the-community-college-classroom" target="_blank">Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the College Classroom</a></em><em>. </em>It includes resources to support the session presentations by artist Hung Liu and curator Dorothy Moss of the National Portrait Gallery, discussing the exhibition, <em>Portraits of Promised Lands.</em></p> <p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
17
 

Replicable Activities to Become Conversant using Digital Museum Resources in the Classroom: Close Looking, Global Thinking

<p>This collection, along with its <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/replicable-activities-to-become-conversant-using-digital-museum-resources-in-the-classroom-flashcards/r0h2qObCwQZvSGxR" target="_blank">companion flashcard activity collection</a>, is designed to demonstrate various ways to use the Learning Lab and its tools, while offering specific, replicable, pre-engagement activities that can simply be copied to a new collection and used to help students engage with museum resources. The activities below can be used in both a virtual and in-person classroom in a variety of ways - to introduce concepts, to develop observational skills in students and confidence in their ability to express their ideas, perhaps as an activity to prepare them to visit a museum, and much more. <br></p> <p>Included here are three sets of looking activities that pair works of art and other resources from the Smithsonian collections with thinking routines - "See, Think, Wonder," "The 3 Y's," "Step In, Step Out, Step Back," and "Think, Feel, Care" - from Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking materials, to help participants develop their observational skills and to encourage a cross-disciplinary approach to help students think critically, globally, and empathetically. As you explore the objects below, we encourage you to move directly to the padlet so that you can do the first part of the activity - the "See, Think, Wonder" routine - before you have read the title and supplementary information next to the artwork itself. After doing the first part of the close-looking activity, you can then return to the Learning Lab collection to view the correlating video in the second part of each looking activity, and then record your next set of comments in the padlet. </p> <p>Content in the "Additional Resources" section will help you in creating your own Learning Lab collection. Be sure also to check the <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/help" target="_blank">Learning Lab Help Page </a>for specific guidance in creating your collection. </p> <p>This collection complements the opening unit, "Introduction to the Learning Lab and Museum Resources," of the EdX course, <em><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-with-the-smithsonian-addressing-21st-century-challenges-in-the-community-college-classroom" target="_blank">Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the College Classroom</a></em><em>. </em></p> <p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
36
 

Power of Storytelling (National Museum of African American History and Culture)

<p>This collection complements Unit 3 of the EdX course, <em><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-with-the-smithsonian-addressing-21st-century-challenges-in-the-community-college-classroom" target="_blank">Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the College Classroom</a></em><em>. </em>It includes resources recommended by session presenter Kelly Elaine Navies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. </p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
12