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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

 

Inquiry-Based Learning at Its Best Using Digital Museum Resources: A Presentation for NCSS2020 Conference "Advancing Social Justice"

<p>This collection includes digital museum resources and replicable activities that will serve as a springboard for discussion during the NCSS 2020 Online Conference, <strong><em>Advancing Social Justice </em></strong><strong>on December 5, 2020. </strong>The collection models how digital museum resources can be leveraged to support critical thinking and deeper learning, using promising transferable practices developed in a school/museum pilot program on Ethnic Studies.</p> <p>This power session supports educators in accessing and developing instructional materials relevant to middle/junior high grades 6-12 social studies and Ethnic Studies courses. Participants will explore the Smithsonian Learning Lab and find a wide range of multimedia resources from different times and places. They will have an opportunity to sample and consider several applicable Harvard Project Zero visual thinking and global thinking strategies that can help students access and understand primary sources, deepen their critical thinking skills, and learn to trust and articulate their ideas. Participants will leave with enough information to independently use the Smithsonian Learning Lab and implement new classroom ideas.<br><br>Participants will: <br>•       Try out inquiry-based looking strategies using digital museum resources that are suitable for middle and high school social studies and Ethnic Studies courses but applicable across curricula.<br>•    Learn the basics of Smithsonian Learning Lab, a Webby Award-winning platform for users to create and share digital resources with students and a growing national network of educators.<br>•    Explore instructional materials created by educators for Ethnic Studies courses that include digital museum resources and inquiry-based strategies, and are available on the Smithsonian Learning Lab.<br></p> <p>The collection can be copied and adapted for use in your own classroom. </p><p>To browse published Learning Lab content created from the <em>Supporting the Innovative Teaching of High School Level Ethnic Studies Courses in Texas</em> project, see <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/search/?f%5B_types%5D%5B%5D=ll_collection&st=%23EthnicStudies&s=&page=1">https://learninglab.si.edu/search/?f%5B_types%5D%5B%5D=ll_collection&st=%23EthnicStudies&s=&page=1</a>.  Click on each individual tile to explore its associated collection.<br></p> <p>This collection was co-created with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/8" target="_blank">Ashley Naranjo</a>.  This program received Federal support from the Latino and Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pools, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.</p> <p>#EthnicStudies<br></p> <p></p> <p></p>
Philippa Rappoport
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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
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Exploring Digital Storytelling within the Learning Lab: Personal Responses to Covid-19

<p>This Learning Lab collection was made to complement the presentation, "Exploring Digital Storytelling within the Learning Lab: Personal Responses to Covid-19," for  <a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vsu.ru%2Fenglish%2F&data=04%7C01%7Crappoph%40si.edu%7Cac8bd60cd8604dfa674308d8bd2b78ae%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637467341725810423%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=5dcdEkeScZ3%2FaX%2F2U5YLeMej%2F%2B9b9akCQFhzYSw%2BV5k%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://www.vsu.ru/english/" shash="lMDtMdMW/eKRFcDwiIcYf/QEzB2Q4BoZDnhsm+EjmLdHFlCh1Fk97gNkn04c3bWtn9uUxvQlQ5y4wULP2F1GPYOqtUn584nH64Bhd8QiND6c5RyWhGlNplgWV4XMURWywXsV63QKtogzBT18zlfrd+pLko5xcUn9Ui5IFD+BH7Q=" title="Original URL: https://www.vsu.ru/english/ brClick to follow link.">Voronezh State University</a> faculty and students, and supported by the <a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.britishcouncil.ru%2F&data=04%7C01%7Crappoph%40si.edu%7Cac8bd60cd8604dfa674308d8bd2b78ae%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637467341725800426%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=ZqPzqPd5xh79B%2FcFa1QsJjQDux6jRz9uTrjD6coeUJc%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="http://www.britishcouncil.ru/" shash="G/O3+23lyl/KRoOIOyvJjUFEiQI8+IC31k+9BSAa27MXMln5+fgYWt6jtTGRy4fp6LhqurA4w2Z/hCL0c+WpRGG9MDFMls0nB0SJ5O9/OwmzWDwvGqsszfXJc0ZT2N1vSVKyzHp/j2fnCNcrIaq2/q25Q37YihV8Y96YtngICcQ=">Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow</a>. <br></p> <p>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 the Smithsonian digital collections, including 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. We will look specifically at the <em>Eye to Eye </em>artworks from the context of social distancing and unrest in the time of Covid-19 as a prompt to make personal connections.  <br></p> <ul></ul> <p>You will find in this collection: </p> <ul><li>some examples of annotated objects that demonstrate the functionality of the Learning Lab;<br></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>a short story circle activity using exhibition images to explore shifting from a cognitive appreciation of art to a personal connection to museum objects;</li><li>workshop participants' reflections;  </li><li>supplemental resources. </li></ul> <p>#DigitalStorytelling</p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Preview Activity for 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 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 that you would want to work with in your classroom. Be prepared to introduce yourself at the workshop by sharing the object you selected, why you selected it, and how you might use it in your classroom.<br></p><ul></ul> <p>Keywords: #MCteach</p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Deep Time (National Museum of Natural History)

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the second of six seminar sessions in the 2021 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Facing the Complex, Multiple Challenges of the 21st Century." </p> <p><br>Three Smithsonian staff members, Jennifer Collins, Siobhan Starrs, and Scott Wing, will discuss content and educational materials related to the National Museum of Natural History exhibition, <em>Deep Time. </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
19
 

Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the third of six seminar sessions in the 2021 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Facing the Complex, Multiple Challenges of the 21st Century." </p> <p><br>Two Smithsonian staff members, Dorothy Moss and Briana Zavadil White, as well as artist Hung Liu, will discuss the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, <em>Portraits of Promised Lands, </em>and educational strategies for the classroom. </p> <p>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
16
 

1619 Project: Support collection of resources from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

<p>Here are some resources suggested by colleagues at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in support of a professional development workshop with the University of Arizona's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and The 1619 Project Advocates of Arizona.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
6
 

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
 

Periodical Cicadas: In Homage to Brood X

<p>Life in Spring 2021 along the Eastern strip of the United States, stretching from New York to Tennessee, has been infused, overpowered, inundated with the creeping, buzzing, molting, crunching, and altogether inescapable presence of Brood X cicadas. They come above ground every seventeen years and have arrived this year in deafening numbers to woo, mate, and lay and hatch their eggs. The newly-hatched nymphs fall from their host trees and burrow into the ground to begin the next subterranean cycle, uniting sky and earth, and continuing the life cycle. This process aerates the soil and prunes trees, while the cicadas' bodies feed a wide variety of animals and serve as an important source of nitrogen for growing trees. Entomologist Eric Day of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University extension said of their arrival, "This is a real treat. This is an unusual biological phenomenon. Periodical cicadas only occur in the eastern United States; they don't occur anywhere else in the world. It's just going to be an amazingly big, big show."</p> <p>This collection pays homage to these fascinating creatures, reminding us of the mysteries and wonders of life, both above and below "the surface." </p> <p>Keywords and hashtags: DST2021, digital storytelling, Just Future, DST2021<br><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Identity, Narrative, Transformation, and Change: A Learning Resource in support of "Critical Conversations" (a DC Public Schools course)

<p>This collection includes activities to enable critical conversations in the classroom in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. The collection supports the "Identity and Narrative" first section and the "Transformation and Change" fourth section of the District of Columbia Public Schools course, "Critical Conversations," and can also be used in a variety of courses, including Ethnic and Area Studies, Social Studies, English/Composition, Media and Technology, and History. It addresses the following content standards: </p> <ul><li>Understand the importance of one’s identity as it relates to their place in history and influence in transforming today’s society.</li><li>Examine and identify master narratives and counter-narratives relating to individual and other affinity groups.</li><li>Evaluate the complexities and factors that influence and dictate identity formation.</li><li>Identify and analyze their social, ethnic, racial, and cultural identities and examine societal perceptions and behaviors related to their own identities.</li><li>Identify and analyze the issues and root causes that currently affect the DC community. </li><li>Create solutions that combat injustices within the DC community. </li><li>Understand how critical consciousness can lead to action.</li></ul> <p>The collection is split into seven sections of activities and resources that build on each other but can also be used modularly. It includes a range of suggested activities aimed to develop in students visual literacy skills, empathy, confidence, and self-expression, and introduces users to the five-step Digital Storytelling process: briefing and story-circle (here these are the "close-looking" and "considering representation" activities); writing; recording; editing; and sharing. The final suggested activity asks students to reflect on their own lives and how they can be agents for change in their own communities. These suggested activities are detailed on the left side panel of each section heading tile. They should open up directly so that you see the descriptions, but if not, click on the paper clips to open them.</p> <p>The materials and methodology for this collection reflect my work in heritage education and community engagement at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (OET) and as a college instructor in Russian culture and folklore, as well as work specifically in Digital Storytelling, which I have been practicing since having had the pleasure and good fortune of being introduced to it by <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/24977" target="_blank">Dr. Antonia Liguori </a>(Loughborough University, UK) when she was a Smithsonian Fellow at OET in 2018. Dr. Liguori's research project, "Storying the Cultural Heritage: Digital Storytelling as a tool to enhance the 4Cs in formal and informal learning," explored the use of Digital Storytelling in combination with the digital resources of the Smithsonian Learning Lab. (You can read more about that project <a href="https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/conference_contribution/Digital_storytelling_in_cultural_and_heritage_education_Reflecting_on_storytelling_practices_applied_with_the_Smithsonian_Learning_Lab_to_enhance_21st-century_learning/9319391" target="_blank">here</a>, and click on "Conference Proceedings, pages 63-75.) Also reflected here is work from two multi-year, ongoing, inspiring program partnerships: in Family Literacy Engagement with Micheline Lavalle of the Fairfax County Public School Family Literacy Program and Beth Evans of the National Portrait Galery, and in Educator Professional Development and Digital Storytelling with Professors Sara Ducey, Jamie Gillan, and Matthew Decker of Montgomery College.</p> <p>Digital storytelling is very special. I hope you can experience the magic of it in your classroom. Please do share your experiences on the Padlet at the end of the collection.</p> <p>#EthnicStudies #MexicanAmericanStudies</p> <p><br></p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
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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
 

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
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