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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

 

Student Activity: An Exploration of Immigration/Migration Experiences

<p>With this collection, students can explore people's stories of moving to a new country or culture (both forced and voluntarily), and then walk, fly, or sail "a mile in their shoes" to imagine some of the challenges they encountered in moving to their new home.</p> <p>Then, they can write up their own family stories, using a variety of resources including a "Today I Am Here" homemade book, or PBS Learning Media's resources, "Digging at the Roots of Your Family Tree."</p> <p>#EthnicStudies <br></p> <p>This collection supports Unit 1: Precious Knowledge - Exploring notions of identity and community, Personal history / identity / membership / agency, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part A course.</p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p>
Philippa Rappoport
11
 

Student Activity: Exploring Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq"

<p>This student activity explores Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" using two Project Zero Thinking Routines to help students think critically and globally.  The work is a metaphorical representation of the unrest taking place 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, two  Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking materials, an array of prompts and Learning Lab tools, and an assignment. This collection is adapted from a larger teaching collection on the same theme (Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" ( <a href="http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/mBWHa8fHUy9vJsE5">http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll...</a>), that includes extension activities. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Keywords: #LatinoHAC, Latinx, Latino, global competency, competencies</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
 

Student Activity: Looking at the Holocaust through Art

<p>This student activity explores the Holocaust through art - three sculptures and one photograph of an artwork, with additional references to give historical context . Using two of Harvard's Project Zero Thinking Routines, students take a deeper dive into the material through guided looking and by considering the significance of the Holocaust personally, to the country and to the world.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
10
 

Teaching with the Smithsonian Learning Lab: A Workshop for George Washington University Faculty and Graduate Students

<p>For the workshop, <strong><em>Teaching with the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab – Millions of Resources at Your Fingertips! </em><strong>(January 8, 2020),</strong> </strong>this is <em>a </em>collection of digital museum resources and instructional strategies.  It includes a warm-up activity, a close-looking exercise, and supporting materials for participants to create their own teaching collections. </p> <p>This collection was co-created with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/9">Tess Porter</a>. </p><p>#GWTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
45
 

The Art of Gaman: Storytelling, Musical and Dance Performance, and Hands-On Activities Demonstrations

<p>This collection comes from an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month family day in the Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery of Art. The festival was created to complement the Renwick exhibition, "The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946." Included here are an interview with the curator of the exhibition, as well as musical and dance performances by Nen Daiko and the Kikuyuki Dancers of America, storytelling and an interview with Anne Shimojima, and hands-on origami and doll-making demonstrations.</p>
Philippa Rappoport
10
 

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
 

The Social Power of Music

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the fourth of six seminar sessions in 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>James Deutsch and Atesh Sonneborn of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH) will explore with Fellows the social relevance of music, and how music conveys meaning in our lives. They will also take Fellows on a guided tour of the CFCH collections.</p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
9
 

The William Steinway Diary, 1861-1896: A Unique Perspective on post-Civil War New York

<p>This teaching collection asks students to explore William Steinway’s Diary—which includes diary passages, Steinway family photographs, maps, and advertisements that bring alive the fear and chaos of the 1863 Civil War Draft Riots and his hands-on role in the creation of the New York City subway and the company town of Steinway in modern-day Astoria, Queens - as a jumping off point to understand the second half of the 19th century. Included are two Project Zero Thinking Routines and an Analysis Sheet to help students analyse these primary documents. Students can also expand the activity by researching other historical writings (newspapers, journals, city maps, etc.) from the time period, to gain a deeper understanding of this dynamic period in American history. </p><p>The online exhibition describes: "Over 36 years, nine volumes, and more than 2,500 pages, entries record a newlywed’s exuberance, his observations of a country at war, and his emergence as a leader in the cultural, political, financial, and physical development of New York City. In near-daily entries until his death in 1896, William details the period’s financial panics and labor turmoil, rise of the German immigrant class, growing sophistication of transportation, and fierce piano manufacturing wars in which his family firm, Steinway &amp; Sons, was a major player. A proud member of New York’s German American community, William was at once an immigrant success story and an ambitious industrialist whose development of the company town of Steinway left a lasting imprint on modern-day Queens."</p><p><br /><br /></p>
Philippa Rappoport
14
 

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
 

Using Biography and Portraiture to Learn about Asian Pacific American History | Cultivating Learning

<p><span dir="auto">This collection serves as a digital companion to a <em>Cultivating Learning</em> professional development session with Andrea Kim Neighbors, Head of Education at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), exploring </span>how biographies and portraits can be used to learn about Asian Pacific American history, art, culture, lived experiences, and more. In the session, participants practice techniques to analyze a portrait from APAC's book, "We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States," emphasizing the story of tennis star and activist Naomi Osaka. This session focuses on close looking and reflection on how Osaka spoke up about social injustice, the Black Lives Matter movement, and her experiences as a mixed-race woman of Japanese and Haitian descent. Included here are 30 classroom-ready digital activities that can be used with middle and high school students, and strategies to use with portraiture and biography.<br><br>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><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
7
 

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
 

Using Technology to Explore Our Nation’s Difficult Past

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the fifth of six seminar sessions in 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>Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Rex Ellis, Helsynia Brown, Adam Martin, and Jessica Johnson will engage participants in an exploration of the National Museum of African American History and Culture's efforts to use technology to make the museum a participatory environment. A fuller description and presenter bios are included inside the collection.</p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
9