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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

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      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
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      Stories of Irish American Assimilation in 19th-century America

      <p>"In 18th-century Ireland, a large majority of the Irish farming population had to rent or lease land from their English owners. When the English landlords switched from farming to cattle ranching to answer Britain's demand for beef, nearly 90 percent of Ireland's farm laborers found themselves out of work. Those not lucky enough to profit from the beef industry were left to live in extremely poor conditions, with families living in small huts, sharing a single bed of straw, and surviving on a diet of potatoes. By 1845, these difficult conditions became exponentially worse, with the appearance of a new fungus that attacked potatoes and caused 40 percent of that year's crop to rot. Thus began the migration of one and a half million Irish to the United States during what was known as the Great Famine." (see Ranald Takaki, <em>A Different Mirror:A History of Multicultural America, for Young People, </em>by Ronald Takaki, pages 106-107)<em></em></p> <p>This topical collection prompts students to explore Irish American life in 19th-century American through a selection of objects, stories, and articles, paired with with discussion questions from Project Zero's Global Thinking routine, "Step In, Step Out, Step Back." <br></p> <ul></ul> <p>For use in Social Studies, Ethnic Studies, English, and American History classes<br></p> <p>#EthnicStudies</p> <p>This collection supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course, and pairs well with chapter 4, "The Flight from Ireland," in Ronald Takaki's book, <em>A Different Mirror:A History of Multicultural America, for Young People.</em></p> <p></p>
      Philippa Rappoport
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      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>
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      2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program - Opening Panel Resources

      <p>This collection serves as an introduction to the opening panel of the 2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster a Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of a Rapidly Changing World.” </p> <p>Three curators from the National Museum of Natural History will present: Joshua Bell <em>(Cellphone: Unseen Connections)</em>, Igor Krupnik <em>(Living on the Changing Planet: Why Indigenous Voices Matter?)</em>, and Stephen Loring <em>(Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky).</em> Their bios and related resources are included inside. (Click on each tile for more information.)</p> <p></p> <p>#MCTeach</p>
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      2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program - National Portrait Gallery

      <p>This collection serves as an introduction to the fifth session of the 2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster a Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of a Rapidly Changing World.”<br><br>Briana Zavadil White, Head of Education and Public Programs at the National Portrait Gallery, will introduce strategies to engage students in reading portraiture, looking at the <em>Recent Acquisitions </em>and<em> 20th Century Americans </em>galleries. Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenter for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
      Philippa Rappoport
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      2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program - National Museum of Natural History

      <p>This collection serves as an introduction to the second session of the 2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster a Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of a Rapidly Changing World.”<br><br>Three Smithsonian staff members, Jennifer Collins, Siobhan Starrs, and Matthew Carrano, will discuss content and educational materials related to the National Museum of Natural History exhibition, <em>Deep Time,</em> as well as the <em>Human Connections </em>section of the Sant Oceans Hall<em>. </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>
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      Serving Community in the 21st Century: 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 2021 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Facing the Complex, Multiple Challenges of the 21st Century."<br><br>Five colleagues from the National Museum of African American History and Culture - Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Candra Flanagan, Anna Hindley, Kelly Elaine Navies, and Esther Washington - will discuss signature programs of the museum's engagement, education, 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 Candra Flanagan for the beautiful slides, and to Danielle Lancaster for keeping us all on track!</p> <p>#MCteach</p>
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      Rethinking Americans

      This collection serves as a preview for the second of six seminar sessions in the 2019 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “The Search for an American Identity: Building a Nation Together.”<br /><br /> National Museum of American Indian colleagues Paul Chaat Smith, Cecile R. Ganteaume, Colleen Call Smith, and Mandy Van Heuvelen will provide a behind the scenes look at the most daring exhibition the National Museum of the American Indian has ever staged. The exhibition argues that Native American imagery is everywhere in American life, and rather than being merely kitsch, stereotype, and cultural appropriation, it is evidence of the centrality of Indians in both history and 21st century life in the United States.<br /><br /> Resources included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br /><br /> #MCteach
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      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>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>
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      Reimagining a National Symbol: The Immokalee Statue of Liberty, by Kat Rodriguez

      <p>This teaching collection helps students to look closely and think critically by examining Kat Rodgriguez's <em>Immokalee Statue of Liberty</em>. In 2000 members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in Florida carried this statue on a two-week, 230-mile march for “dignity, dialogue, and a fair wage.” The CIW brought together diverse, interracial groups including agricultural workers, environmentalists, and community organizers, to negotiate for better working conditions and higher wages in the agricultural industry. The statue represents liberty, diversity, inclusion, and liberal rights, and seems to asks us to examine our ideas of national identity. <br></p> <p>This collection prompts students to consider both the Immokalee Statue of Liberty and the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island, and our changing notions of liberty. Included here are </p><ul><li>the statue</li><li>a suggested Thinking Routine, "See, Think, Wonder," from Harvard's Project Zero Thinking materials</li><li>a bilingual video with Smithsonian National Museum of American History curator Margaret Salazar-Porzio</li><li>two poems - "I, too, am America" by Langston Hughes, which was featured on the Immokalee statue's original pedestal, and "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, which is featured on a bronze plaque on the pedestal the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island, after which the Immokalee statue is reimagined</li><li>a discussion/writing prompt</li><li>supporting digital content from the National Museum of American History<br></li></ul> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, and American History classes<br></p> <p>#LatinoHAC #EthnicStudies</p> <p>This collection supports Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B 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> <p><br><br></p> <p></p>
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      Raven Steals the Sun: A Celebration of Tlingit Culture

      <p>This collections comes from an American Indian Heritage Month family festival focusing on Tlingit culture from the northwest coast of America. Included here are music and dance performances by the Dakhka Kwaan Dancers, storytelling by Gene Tagaban, Shelly Laws, and Maria Williams (of her book, "How Raven Stole the Sun"), a moiety game, and hands-on demonstrations by Shelly Laws of how to weave a two-stranded basket and to make Tlingit-style beaded ear loops .</p>
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      Puerto Rico’s Fragile Modernity: An Exploration of Francisco Rodón's Portrait of Luis Muñoz Marín, using Global Thinking Routines

      <p>This teaching collections aims to help students to think critically about Puerto Rico's past and present, as portrayed in the media and through close looking at a portrait. The collection explores Francisco Rodón's monumental portrait of Luis Muñoz Marín, the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico, known as “the Father of Modern Puerto Rico.” Although the portrait and supporting video with National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol were created before Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September 2017, a close examination of the portrait itself lends a deeper understanding not only of Francisco Rodón, but of the history of Puerto Rico itself, both pre- and post-Hurricane Maria.</p> <p>Included here are the portrait from the National Portrait Gallery, a video with the curator, two suggested Global Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero materials, a lesson plan from PBS Media on Puerto Rican Perspectives, and three news articles (from Vox and the New York Times) about Hurricane Maria, at the time in 2017 and almost one year later.</p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, American History, Art History classes</p> <p>#LatinoHAC, #EthnicStudies </p> <p>This collection supports Unit 3: Critical Geography and Current Issues, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part A course ("In this unit, students will identify historical patterns to understand how past events influence current policies, ideas and practices.") and Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course ("How do government policies and the judicial system in a democratic society impact diverse groups and communities?").</p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p>
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