Philippa Rappoport
Manager of Community Engagement
Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology
Smithsonian Staff
I work in community engagement, education, and outreach at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (OET), and have a particular interest in creating collections about culture and heritage, as well as collections to support English and other language learning and the Smithsonian-Montgomery College Fellowship program. At OET over the last several years I have focused on creating 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
Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World (National Museum of Natural History)
<p>This collection complements Unit 8 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 Ashley Peery of the National Museum of Natural History.</p>
<p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands (National Portrait Gallery)
<p>This collection complements Unit 5 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 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>
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<p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Educating to Create Change: Let’s Talk About Race (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
<p>This collection complements Unit 2 of the EdX course, <em>Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the Community College Classroom. </em>It includes resources recommended by presenters Candra Flanagan and Anna Hindley of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) - links to:</p>
<ul><li>the museum's website (3rd tile),</li><li>the <em>Let's Talk About Race </em>portal (4th tile),</li><li>the Learning Lab profile page of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (5th tile), and</li><li>recommended reading (6th tile).</li></ul>
<p>Click on these tiles to open up content in a new window. In each case, you'll find information, objects, resources, and strategies that will help you think about how to incorporate these ideas in your classroom. </p>
<p>The Learning Lab profile page (from the 5th tile) is split into multiple content sections, and within sections, each tile leads you to a curated collection of content, with objects and strategies, from the NMAAHC Education team.</p>
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<p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
6
Learning Lab Introduction and Training for DC Embassy Adoption Program Teachers: Exploring Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq"
<p>This student activity explores Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" using Project Zero Thinking Routines to help students think critically and globally. The work is a metaphorical representation of political unrest in Iraq, and more broadly, an exploration of the human condition during times of crisis.</p>
<p>Included here are an image of the work from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an explanatory video with curator E. Carmen Ramos, several Thinking Routines from Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking materials, an array of prompts and Learning Lab tools and support, as well as a sample training assignment. <br><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
Digital Storytelling with Museum Objects in the Smithsonian Learning Lab
<p>This Learning Lab collection was made to complement the presentation, "Digital Storytelling with Museum Objects in the Smithsonian Learning Lab." During the workshop, co-facilitators <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/24977">Dr. Antonia Liguori</a> (Loughborough University, UK) and <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/212">Dr. Philippa Rappoport</a> (Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology) will demonstrate a variety of techniques to incorporate personal experiences in the exploration and use of museum resources. They will share how the Smithsonian Learning Lab and Digital Storytelling (DS) can be used together to access digital resources, build learning experiences, and cultivate collaboration and community over distance.</p>
<p>We will explore artwork from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, <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>), which compels viewers to consider how self-portraits reflect an artist’s identity through what is revealed and concealed. </p>
<p>After an introduction to the Smithsonian Learning Lab and previous experiences with Digital Storytelling within that environment, participants will be engaged in discussions about how Digital Storytelling can be used to support museum educators. In particular, digital storytelling as a co-created and participatory approach can foster workshop participants' capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance. <br></p>
<ul></ul>
<p>You will find in this collection:
</p>
<ul><li>a short icebreaker activity using exhibition images to start shifting from a cognitive appreciation of art to a personal connection to museum objects;
</li><li>some examples of annotated objects that demonstrate the functionality of the Learning Lab;
</li><li>some examples of digital stories made by students and also other educators during previous Digital Storytelling workshops;
</li><li>a description of the Digital Storytelling process;
</li><li>workshop participants' reflections;
</li><li>supplemental resources. </li></ul>
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Philippa Rappoport
38
Replicable Activities to Become Conversant using Digital Museum Resources in the Classroom: Flashcards
<p>This collection is designed to help educators think about how to incorporate museum content into the classroom experience. Along with its <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/replicable-activities-to-become-conversant-using-digital-museum-resources-in-the-classroom-close-looking-global-thinking/PSwYlJyjKTWfGxXE" target="_blank">companion collection of close-looking activities</a>, it is intended to demonstrate various ways to use the Learning Lab and its tools, while offering specific, replicable, pre-engagement activities that can be used directly, or copied to a new collection and then edited, to help students engage with museum resources. </p>
<p>Included here is a set of resources, connected to the theme of 21st-century challenges, that can be used as flashcards in both a virtual or in-person classroom. The benefit of this type of activity is that students begin to make a personal connection to the objects and issues they are exploring. They take ownership and, as a result, the conversation, sense of community, and any further activity become deeper and more meaningful. As you explore the resources yourself, be sure to click on the paper clips to see additional instructions and information. At the end of the collection, you'll see a template document that can be used to create and print your own specific set of flashcards. </p>
<p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Learning Lab Training Collection on the Theme: “Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic"
<p>This collection is designed to help educators bridge the classroom experience to a museum visit. It is intended as a preview activity to our upcoming workshop demonstrating 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 is 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, and some questions to guide users in exploring the objects.</p>
<p>In the following activity, explore the objects in this collection and choose one you might want to use in your classroom. Be prepared to share at the workshop the object you selected, why you selected it, and how you might use it in your classroom.<br></p>
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<p>Keywords: #MCteach</p>
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Philippa Rappoport
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Art and Technology Projects for Museums and Classrooms: From "Today I Am Here" to "Discovering US/Descubriéndonos"
<p>This collection contains assets and resources designed to help teachers (art, English, ESOL, social studies, and media technology), museum educators, and community-based informal learning educators recreate their own "Today I Am Here" project, based on the specific needs of their classroom or learning community. </p>
<p>"Today I Am Here" is a project in which students make a handmade book from one piece of paper, that tells the story of how they got to where they are today. This project is wonderful in a classroom to show the breadth and diversity of the class, and to encourage cross-cultural understanding. </p>
<p>Inside you will find instructions and images for the various components of the project, as well as samples of student work.
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<p>#LatinoHAC<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
15
Making "Family Memory" Storybooks: Fun for the Whole Family
<p>This collection includes a series of easy-to-do book projects designed to get families talking and creating together. Any of them can be used in the classroom (English, art, social studies), as a home project, or in an informal learning setting. All books are made from a single sheet of paper.</p>
<p>Titles are ordered generally from most complex to least complex for topic, and include:<br />"Our Home" Nature Walk Album<br />Today I Am Here<br />Connections<br />My Hero<br />Music Memories<br />Kitchen Memories<br />Special Person<br />Family Treasure<br />Things That Make Me <em>Me!</em><br />I Am A Star<br />My Clubhouse<br />Family Flag<br />My Name</p>
<p>At the bottom, you'll also find an interview with the creator of these design templates, book artist Sushmita Mazumdar, and a video of her reading one of her own books.<br /></p>
<p>Click on any of these demos and accompanying downloadable instructions to make your own "family memory" storybook!<br /></p>
<p>tags: art, crafts, crafting, how-to<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
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A Classroom or Family Project: "Today I Am Here," with examples of student work
<p>This collection contains assets and resources designed to help teachers (art, English, ESOL, social studies, and media technology), museum educators, and community-based informal learning educators recreate their own "Today I Am Here" project, based on the specific needs of their classroom or learning community. </p>
<p>The "Today I Am Here" book is a wonderful classroom activity, made from one sheet of paper, in which students can share their family stories. The design of the book works well for a K-5 classroom display, and helps to show the breadth and diversity of the class and to encourage cross-cultural understanding. The project also works extremely well with ESOL students of any age, although the teacher will need to be prepared for possible difficult issues to surface. </p>
<p>Included here are instructions to make the book, examples of student work (images and video of students reading), as well as images from classroom displays.<br></p>
<p>The book design is one of many available in another collection: Fun for the Whole Family: Making "Family Memory" Storybooks: <a href="http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/1tozk88HXhnFBU6d">http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/1tozk88HXhnFBU6d</a>.<br></p>
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Philippa Rappoport
10
Making a "Kitchen Memories" Family Recipe and Storybook
<p>This collection includes an easy-to-do book project designed to get families talking, creating, and enjoying food together. It can be used as a home project, in the classroom (English, art, social studies), or in an informal learning setting, and can be combined with a family interviewing video project. </p><p>The book is made from a single, large sheet of paper. Click on the demo and accompanying downloadable instructions to get started!</p>
<p>tags: art, crafts, crafting, how-to<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
7
A "Family Lessons" Storybook Activity for the Classroom or Home, with examples of student work
<p>This collection includes instructions and ideas for a classroom activity designed to get children and their families talking and creating together. It is suitable for K-5 classrooms, as an art, English, or social studies-based activity. Included here are examples of student work (images and video of students reading their books), as well as images from classroom displays.</p>
<p><span></span><span></span>In this activity, a 1st grade teacher from a bilingual school in Washington, D.C., used what we called the "Connections" handmade storybook design to have her students share important family lessons. She described how she did the activity: "I loved the book project and found that it was a way to get parents involved in making a book with their child at home. I pre-made the books since I thought the instructions were a little tricky. The instructions were to discuss and write about a Life Lesson that their families taught them. Our students created bilingual Spanish/English books. The format was perfect for this because it could be English on one side and Spanish on the other. Students enjoyed hanging their books up outside of the class for others to read and then sharing them with the class. It really helped them to understand what important life lessons families teach them and it helped to bring students' home knowledge into the classroom. We connected the books to our Life Lessons unit and plan to do the same thing this year."<span></span></p>
<p>This project is based on a handmade book design that can be found, along with several others, in another collection: Fun for the Whole Family: Making "Family Memory" Storybooks: <a href="http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/1tozk88HXhnFBU6d">http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/1tozk88HXhnFBU6d</a>.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
11
Making a "Things That Make Me Me!" Family Storybook
<p>This collection includes an easy-to-do book project designed to get families talking, creating, and celebrating together our unique and shared qualities. It can be used as a home project, in the classroom (English, art, social studies), or in an informal learning setting. Together with guidance from the "Talking about Race" materials from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this book project can also be used as a prompt to talk about race with young learners. </p>
<p>The book is made from a single, large sheet of paper. Click on the demo and accompanying downloadable instructions to get started!</p>
<p>tags: race, art, arts, crafts, crafting, how-to</p>
Philippa Rappoport
6
Power of Storytelling (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
<p>This collection complements Unit 3 of the EdX course, <em>Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the Community College Classroom. </em>It includes resources recommended by session presenter Kelly Elaine Navies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. </p>
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Philippa Rappoport
12
Museums as Pathways to Public Problem Solving? (The National Museum of American History)
<p>This collection complements Unit 7 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 Margaret Salazar-Porzio from the National Museum of American History.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
Are Parasites Always Bad? (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)
<p>This collection complements Unit 4 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 Katrina Lohan of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. </p>
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<p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic: Presentations from the National Museum of African American History and Culture
<p>This collection serves as a preview for the fifth of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Colleagues from the National Museum of African American History and Culture - Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Kelly Elaine Navies, Doretha Williams, and Auntaneshia Staveloz - will discuss signature programs of the museum's engagement, collection, digitization, and outreach strategy. </p>
<p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar session itself. A fuller description and presenter bios are included inside the collection.<br></p>
<p>Special thanks to Danielle Lancaster for her support of this program.</p>
<p>#MCteach</p>
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Philippa Rappoport
29
National Museum of the American Indian: Saving Sacred Spaces
<p>This collection serves as a preview for the sixth of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Four colleagues from the National Museum of the American Indian - Maria Marable-Bunch, Shawn Termin, Renée Gokey, and Hayes Lavis - will present and discuss the museum's <em>Living Earth</em> series and partners' work to safeguard sites sacred to Native peoples and nations. <br></p>
<p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar session itself. A fuller description and presenter bios are included inside the collection.<br></p>
<p>#MCteach<br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
16
Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and National Museum of the American Latino
<p>This collection serves as a preview for the fourth of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Andrea Kim Neighbors, from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Ameican Center, and Emily Key, Adrián Aldaba, and Natalia Febo, from the National Museum of the Amerian Latino, will discuss how their units are working to address issues of social justice through education, engagement, community building, collecting, programming, projects, and exhibitions. </p>
<p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before and after the seminar itself.<br></p>
<p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
26
Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic: the National Museum of American History
<p>This collection serves as a preview for the third of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Patty Arteaga and Orlando Serrano will discuss how the National Museum of Amerian History is addressing issues of social justice through collecting, projects, programming, exhibitions, education, and engagement. </p>
<p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before and after the seminar itself.<br></p>
<p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
26
Exploring Time, Memory and History Through Portraiture
<p>This collection serves as a preview for the second of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Dorothy Moss and Briana Zavadil White will discuss two National Portrait Gallery exhibitions: <em>Hung Liu: </em><em>Portraits of Promised Lands </em>and <em>Struggle for Justice, </em>as well as educational strategies for the classroom. </p>
<p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before and after the seminar itself.<br></p>
<p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
31
Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic: Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship 2022 Opening Panel Resources
<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the opening panel of the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic: The Hurdles Behind, the Urgency of Now, and Moving Forward after Covid." Five Smithsonian staff members will present at the session to explore the various ways that the Smithsonian is addressing issues of social justice in the time of pandemic. Presenters include Ashleigh Coren (Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and National Portrait Gallery), Ariana Curtis (Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past Initiative and National Museum of African American History and Culture), Healoha Johnston (Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center), Andrea Jones (Anacostia Community Museum), and Ranald Woodaman (National Museum of the American Latino). Their bios, presentation descriptions, and other resources are included inside. (Click on each tile for more information.)<br><br>As you explore these resources, jot down any questions you have for the presenters. It is sure to be a fascinating and thought-provoking seminar series!<br><br>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
22
English and Scottish Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways
<p>Here is a collection of English and Scottish ballads, recorded by Smithsonian Folkways and sung by Ewan MacColl, who is sometimes referred to as the "godfather of British folk revival." These recordings are in the Folkways Records Collection, 1948-1986.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
10
