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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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      MAS Digital Archives: Integrating Digital Cultural Resources in your Curriculum (#EthnicStudiesY2)

      <p>This collection includes digital museum resources and replicable activities that will serve as a springboard for discussion during the <em>MAS Digital Archives: Integrating Digital Cultural Resources in your Curriculum</em> workshop, held online with the University of Texas at San Antonio's Institute of Texan Cultures and Mexican American Studies Program, the Intercultural Development Research Association, and the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, on July 26 and 30, 2021.<em> </em>The collection models how digital museum resources can be leveraged to support critical thinking and deeper learning for Mexican American Studies curricula. The collection can be copied and adapted for use in your own classroom. </p> <p>This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.</p> <p>#MexicanAmericanStudies #EthnicStudies </p> <p>Keywords: TEKS</p> <p><br></p> <p></p>
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      Digital Museum Resources for the High School Ethnic Studies Classroom (#EthnicStudiesY2)

      <p>This collection includes digital museum resources and replicable activities that will serve as a springboard for discussion during the <em>Ethnic Studies Exploration: </em><em>Resources and Strategies</em> workshop, held online with the <strong>City of Austin Parks & Recreation Department (includes the </strong>Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, the Asian American Resource Center, and the George Washington Carver Museum), Texas State University,  <em>Academia</em> <em>Cuauhtli, </em>and the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology on March 27 and April 17, 2021.<em> </em>The collection models how digital museum resources can be leveraged to support critical thinking and deeper learning for high school Ethnic Studies curricula. The collection can be copied and adapted for use in your own classroom. </p> <p>For an archived collection of recordings from these training sessions, please see this Learning Lab collection from the City of Austin Parks and Recreation: <em><a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/ethnic-studies-exploration-resources-and-strategies/gxwYMlDZeahfuQI7">Ethnic Studies Exploration: Resources and Strategies</a>. </em></p> <p>This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.</p> <p>#EthnicStudies </p> <p>Keywords: TEKS</p> <p><br></p> <p></p>
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      Community Engagement and Heritage Best Practices Lecture Series

      <p>The videos shown here are from a series, hosted by the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology and the Smithsonian Heritage Months Steering Committee, that features colleagues from around the country doing innovative work in the fields of community outreach and heritage. Featured here are colleagues from the Tenement Museum in New York City presenting, "Widening the Conversation: Involving Communities in Interpretive Planning," Martha Norkunas presenting "Listening Across Differences," and Faye McMahon and Benjamin Virgilio presenting, "Not Just Child's Play: Emerging Tradition and the Lost Boys of Sudan."</p>
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      From Deer to Dance: How-to Demonstrations and Informational Videos

      <p>This collection comes from a family festival at the National Museum of the American Indian that explored uses of leather in Native communities - literally from the hunting and tanning of deer and their hides, to their use in ritual and everyday life. The collection includes demonstrations of deer-hide tanning, moccasin making, bead working, instructions to make a leather pouch and a daisy chain bracelet, and an interview and performance by Lawrence Baker and the White Oak Singers.</p>
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      Inclusive Memory Project: Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Strategy in the Smithsonian Learning Lab

      <p>This Learning Lab collection was made to complement the presentation "Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Strategy in the Smithsonian Learning Lab," as part of the series, <em>The Inclusive Memory Project in the Post Covid Era</em>", hosted by the Centro di Didattica Museale at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre. <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>You will find in this collection:<br></p> <ul><li>a short icebreaker activity using exhibition images to start shifting from a cognitive appreciation of art to a personal connection to museum objects; </li><li>some examples of annotated objects that demonstrate the functionality of the Learning Lab; </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>workshop participants' reflections;  </li><li>supplemental resources. </li></ul> <p>#DigitalStorytelling</p>
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      Toward a More Inclusive America through the Arts: Statues of Liberty and other National Symbols

      <p>This collection asks students to explore the importance of national symbols to our cultural, political, and collective identity. By examining symbols that are meant to reflect our highest ideals as a nation - the Statue of Liberty, the American flag, the Star Spangled Banner, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and other cultural artifacts - and their many interpretations, students will consider difficult questions facing us today: Who is included? Who decides? Why and how do people use national symbols as a way to protest? How have our notions and ideals of liberty changed over time?</p> <p>Included here are </p> <ul><li>images of the artifacts and supporting objects</li><li>three suggested Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder," "Think, Feel, Care," and "The 3 Ys" - from Harvard's Project Zero Artful and Global Thinking materials<br></li><li>supporting interpretive videos, podcasts, and articles</li><li>a discussion/writing prompt</li></ul> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, Social Studies, Ethnic Studies, and American History classes<br></p> <p>#EthnicStudies #LatinoHAC </p> <p></p>
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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>
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      Classroom Activity with "¡Pleibol!”: Close Looking to Explore One Family’s Story of Latino Baseball

      <p>This teaching collection helps students to look closely and think critically by using three Thinking Routines to explore the cultural relevance of one family's baseball-related objects from an exhibition at the National Museum of American History, "¡Pleibol!: In the Barrios and the Big Leagues." The exhibition seeks to document the history of Latino culture through the lens of baseball, and explores baseball not only as a pastime close to the hearts of many people in many communities, but also for Latinos as a place to advocate for rights and social justice. <br></p> <p>Included here are the objects themselves, a bilingual video with curator Margaret Salazar-Porzio, three suggested Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder," "The 3 Y's," and "Picture Writing" - from Harvard's Project Zero Artful Thinking and Global Thinking materials, and supporting digital content about the exhibition. At the close of the activity, students are guided to examine a personal object of their choice and tease out the story it tells.</p> <p>For an extensive teaching collection created by the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Services as a companion resource for the traveling exhibition, "¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas," see <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/pleibol-in-the-barrios-and-the-big-leagues-pleibol-en-los-barrios-y-las-grandes-ligas/bohbJm2MXuqjdHmY">https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/pleibol-in-the-barrios-and-the-big-leagues-pleibol-en-los-barrios-y-las-grandes-ligas/bohbJm2MXuqjdHmY</a>.</p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, and American History classes</p> <p>#LatinoHAC #EthnicStudies</p> <p><br></p> <p><br></p>
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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>
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      Origami Cranes: Activity and Background Information

      <p>People from all over the world have enjoyed doing traditional paper crafts for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. In this set, you'll explore the tradition of the origami Japanese paper crane, a symbol of hope. A demonstration video is included for those who want to make their own crane. Appropriate for classroom, home, or informal education settings.</p> <p>The Japanese word "origami" comes from two smaller words: "ori" which means "to fold," and "kami" meaning "paper." Although this is the most common word in the United States for the craft of paper folding, the tradition is known to have existed in China and Japan for more than a millennium, and from there it spread to other countries around the world. Japanese patterns tend to focus on animals and flowers, while Chinese designs are usually for things like boats and hats. Paper folding's earlier use was ceremonial, but with time the tradition became popular as a children's activity. <br /></p>
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      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>
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      Religion in Diaspora: How did a Shofar Come to the National Museum of African American History and Culture?

      <p>This teaching collection asks students to consider a Jewish ritual object, the shofar, as an entry point to discuss the transmission of traditions and beliefs across the globe. Using Project Zero looking and global thinking  routines, students can examine images of shofars, listen to shofar music,  explore photos from African American Jewish communities,  and consider how traditions and religious beliefs are carried around the globe with their practitioners. The activity concludes with a discussion to foster in students a broader understanding and appreciation of today’s complex world.</p>
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