<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>

<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>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>

<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> <p><br></p>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>

<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>