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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

 

American Indian Responses to Environmental Challenges

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the third of six seminar sessions in the 2020 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Humans and the Footprints We Leave: Climate Change and other Critical Challenges.” <br></p> <p>National Museum of American Indian colleagues Edwin Schupman, Christopher Turner, and Mandy Van Heuvelen will explore how the National Museum of the American Indian's educational resources, exhibitions, and interpretive programs address the issue of climate change. <br>Resources included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br><br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
10
 

Passport to Argentina: Performances, Interviews, Demonstrations, How-To Videos

<p>This collections comes from a Hispanic Heritage Month Family Day, held in the Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, as part of a larger "Argentina at the Smithsonian" series. Included here are music and dance interviews and performances about tango, and a how-to demonstration to make a clay llama.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
5
 

Central American Traditions Festival: Demonstrations, Interviews, and How-To Videos

<p>This collection comes from a Hispanic Heritage Month family festival celebrating Central American traditions, and in support of an exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian, "Ceramica de los ancestros: Central America's Past Revealed." Held at the National Museum of American History, the festival featured a sampling of music and dance performances, food demonstrations, and hands-on activities. The museum's terrace featured fair tables that included demonstrations of foods such as papusas and tamales, traditional weaving from Guatemala using a back strap loom, and musical and dance performances, including El Salvadoran chanchona by Los Hermanos Lovo, garifuna by the New York-based group Bodoma, and Latin punk rock by DC-based Machetes. Inside, activities included designing a family "bandera" (flag), making a clay cacao pot, making "alfombras" or carpets, which are temporary artworks made with sawdust based on a 400-year-old Guatemalan tradition, a lecture on Central American ceramics with Alex Benitez, archeologist and George Mason University professor, and engaging in conversations about immigration based on objects in the museum's teaching collections.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
14
 

Training Workshop for NJ Arts Integration and Cultural Competency Project

<p>This collection includes digital museum resources and replicable activities that will serve as a springboard for discussion during a training with teachers participating in the <em>Arts Integration and Cultural Competency Professional Support for New Jersey Educators</em> project. <br></p> <p>This collection was co-created with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/9">Tess Porter</a>.  It was copied and adapted from a collection (included below) by <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/8">Ashley Naranjo</a>, that was designed to prompt discussion about identity, immigration, "master" or dominant narratives in history, and hero myths. </p> <p>This program received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.</p> <p>Keyword: Roger Shimomura<br>#APAArtsIntegration<br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
 

Facing Genocide: The US Response to the Holocaust

<p>My aunt remembers sitting at the kitchen table as a child while her parents, my grandparents, read the Yiddish newspaper, <em>Der Tag. </em>Often one would cry out, <em>nishta </em>("gone"), <em></em>"this one <em>nishta</em>; that one <em>nishta,</em>" in response to the paper's lists of towns in Europe overrun by the Nazis. </p> <p>This collection examines the US response to the Holocaust, pairing historical documentation with four thinking routines from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking and Agency by Design materials - "Unveiling Stories," :Think, Feel, Care," "The 3 Y's," and "Circles of Action," - to prompt students to ask important questions about our individual and collective responsibility to humanity. </p> <p>Included here are photographs, documentation, and resources from the National Museum of American History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), including a teaching resource and USHMM's online exhibition, <em>Americans and the Holocaust, </em>which examines "the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide." Examined with thinking routines from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking and Agency by Design materials, students will explore complex and deeply troubling issues that continue to have relevance today. </p> <p>This collection complements chapter 14 ("World War II and America's Ethnic Problem") of Ronald Takaki's <em>A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America, </em>and supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, and Unit 3: Local History and Current Issues, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course.  </p> <p>#EthnicStudies </p> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
 

Using Global Thinking Strategies with Latino Content

<p>Teachers looking to foster in their students a broader understanding and appreciation of today’s complex world can use these Learning Lab collections that pair Harvard’s Project Zero Global Thinking Routines with new bilingual Latino-content videos of National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum curators discussing works in the collection. <br /></p> <p>Each Learning Lab teaching collection includes additional supporting materials to add dimension, expand the activity, and deepen students' learning. <br /></p> <p>These four videos were created with federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.<br /></p><p>#LatinoHAC<br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
5
 

Joseph Stella in the Smithsonian collections

<p>Joseph Stella (1877-1946) was an Italian born American Futurist painter. He is best known for his renditions of industrial America.</p><p>Included in this collection are some his works from the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with oral history interviews from the Smithsonian Institution Library and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. You can find other works by searching the collections. </p><p><br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
32
 

African American History Month Family Festival: Interviews, Performances, Highlights

<p>This collections comes from a African American History Month family festival created to complement the exhibition, "The Black List." Included here are a gallery tour with curator Ann Shumard, and interviews with puppeteer Schroeder Cherry, guitarist Warner Williams, the Taratibu Youth Association Step Dance Group, silhouette artist Lauren Muney and collage artist Michael Albert.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
7
 

The Democratization of Portraiture: Prints and Drawings of all the People by the People

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the first seminar session of the 2018 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “We the People: America’s Grand and Radical Experiment with Democracy.” </p> <p>National Portrait Gallery curator Asma Naeem and educator Briana Zavadil White will present an engaging and interactive examination of the democratization of portraiture in the United States, and model close looking techniques that Fellows can use with their students. Included within are a presentation description, participant bios, a "reading portraiture" guide, and images and articles for participants to consider in advance of the session.</p> <p>#MCteach</p> <p>Christopher Columbus, Yarrow Mamout, Charles Mingus, Lena Horne, Leonard Roy Harmon, Bill Viola</p> <p><br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
10
 

Capturing Visitor Voices in Teen-Made videos

<p>In 2011 the Smithsonian joined with the Pearson Foundation to train ARTLAB+ teens to document personal stories at Smithsonian Heritage Month family festivals. ARTLAB+ is a design studio based out of ArtLab space in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The teens captured visitor voices through several years, covering a variety of topics including views on race, culture, nature, belonging, music and food.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
 

6 Jewish American objects for Jewish American Heritage Month

<p>This is a collection of six objects, from the National Museum of American History, that were selected by museum staff for what they reveal about the Jewish American experience.</p><p>I've created this collection from the blog post by Tory Alrman. <em>Tory Altman has also blogged about <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/patriotic-anthems">patriotic songs beyond the national anthem</a> and <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/new-project-explores-what-it-means-be-american">what it means to be American</a>.</em></p>
Philippa Rappoport
6
 

Women's History Month Family Festival

<p>Here is a collection of videos from a Women's History Month family festival, that includes interviews and performance footage with Kathak dancer Prachi Dalal, Native American singing group Ulali, mother-daughter storyteller and artist Yona Zeldis McDonough and Malcah Zeldis, and the Georgia Tech Glee Club paying tribute to the women in the audience for Women's History Month. </p>
Philippa Rappoport
5