
Tess Porter
User Experience Strategist (she/her)
Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology
I'm the User Experience Strategist at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology. Here, I focus on the use of digital museum resources to support teaching and learning. My work draws on my experience as a museum educator, digital analyst, usability researcher, and content designer. I hold a B.A. in Anthropology and a B.A. in Art History from University Colorado Boulder, and an M.S. in Museums and Digital Culture with an Advanced Certificate in User Experience at Pratt Institute.
Tess Porter's collections
Perspectives in Portraiture: Wendy Red Star
<p>How can museum resources help your students consider multiple perspectives and find ways to uplift the voices of others? </p>
<p>This collection contains an activity and additional resources to help students build close looking skills, unveil stories, and explore diverse viewpoints—including their own. The first section of this collection is designed to use directly with students. The following sections are designed for teachers and include additional portraits, teaching ideas, and Smithsonian Learning Lab support to meet students' needs.</p>
<p>This collection was created with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/eveeaton">Eveleen Eaton</a> to support the 2023 Washington International School Summer Institute for Teachers (WISSIT). When used during this session, participants uploaded and annotated self-portraits with Google Slides. Consider using a digital or physical format to collect and display self-portraits created using this activity. <br><br>#WISSIT #WISSIT23</p>
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Identity, Community, and Fire Hats
<p>What can objects reveal about the values and beliefs of the people who created them? Explore fire hats, worn by volunteer fire fighters on the East Coast during the 1800s. Created for use during both fires and parades, these ornate hats contain symbols – historical figures, allegorical images, patriotic scenes, and more – that proclaim the wearers' cultural and political identity, as well as their positions on religion and immigration. What symbols do you see?</p>
<p>This collection contains a small selection of fire hats from the Smithsonian. To continue exploring, <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/search/?f%5B_types%5D%5B%5D=resource&st=fire%20hats&providers%5B%5D=National%20Museum%20of%20American%20History&s=&page=1">search for fire hats in the Smithsonian Learning Lab</a>. </p>
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National Portrait Gallery’s Asian Pacific American Portraiture (Artists & Sitters)
<p>This topical collection contains portraits and artwork that depict or were created by Asian Pacific Americans. Leslie Ureña, National Portrait Gallery Assistant Curator of Photographs, curated this group of resources from the National Portrait Gallery’s ever-expanding collections. A list of the museum’s collections on this topic is included as the second resource. <br /></p>
<p>Teachers and students may use this collection as a springboard for classroom discussion; for example, this collection may inspire students to conduct research about other Asian Pacific American artists and individuals. This collection is not comprehensive, but rather provides a launching point for further research and study. </p><p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. </em> <br /></p>
<p>Keywords: portraiture, photograph, sculpture, article, primary source, painting, poster, letter</p>
<p>#APA2018</p>
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Investigating Tribal Sovereignty through Objects
<p>This collection was created to accompany the live session <em>Cultivating Learning: Investigating Tribal Sovereignty through Objects,</em> hosted with guest educator Renée Gokey from the <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/" target="_blank">National Museum of the American Indian</a>, which focuses on transferrable, inquiry-based techniques to help students explore and understand tribal sovereignty through cultural objects. Tribal sovereignty is the authority of Native nations to self-govern, and it impacts how Native nations operate their own governmental systems, manage tribal lands, build economic strength, and facilitate complex relationships with local, state, and federal governments. This collection includes digital museum resources and standards-based approaches discussed during the session. </p>
<p>This session aired live on June 13, 2022 at 4:00 PM ET; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX7k1_pWa00" target="_blank">click here to view on YouTube</a>. </p>
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Richard Wright: Examining Portraiture
<p>This teacher's guide provides portraits and analysis questions to enrich students' examination of Richard Wright, an American author whose works investigate the toll that racial prejudice exerted on society. Includes the video "Defining Portraiture: How are portraits both fact and fiction?" and the National Portrait Gallery's "<em>Reading" Portraiture Guide for Educators, </em>both of which provide suggestions and questions for analyzing portraiture. </p>
<p>Consider:</p>
<ul><li>What do these portraits have in common? How are they different?</li><li>How are these portraits both fact and fiction?</li><li>How do these portraits reflect how they wanted to be seen, or how others wanted them to be seen? Consider for what purpose these portraits were created (such as the stamp, etc.).</li><li>Having read one of his stories, does the portrait capture your image of Richard Wright? Why, or why not?</li><li>If you were creating your own portrait of Richard Wright, what characteristics would you emphasize, and why?</li></ul><p>Keywords: mississippi, ms, writer, native son</p>
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Homo floresiensis: Teaching Resources
<p>This topical collection gathers resources related to Homo floresiensis, commonly known as the Flores “Hobbit." H. floresiensis, was discovered in 2003, making it the second most recently discovered early human species. Contains a video, websites, a 3D interactive tour, and articles.</p><p>Keywords: physical anthropology</p>
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American Ingenuity, Innovation, and Enterprise: National Portrait Gallery Seminar Resources
<p>This collection previews the third seminar of the 2016 Montgomery College / Smithsonian Institution Fellowship seminar series. Fellows will visit the National Portrait Gallery, explore the exhibitions, and learn strategies for examining portraiture in the classroom. Two National Portrait Gallery staff members will lead this seminar: David C. Ward, Senior Historian, and Briana Zavadil White, Student and Teacher Program Manager.</p>
<p>Included in this collection: presenter bios, presentation description, and resources chosen by the presenters for attendees to explore before attending the session. Fellows will be asked to discuss their answer to the quiz question during the seminar. Other resources are not required, but will help fellows prepare for discussion the day of the seminar.</p><p>#MCteach<br /></p>
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American Ingenuity, Innovation, and Enterprise: Renwick Gallery Seminar Resources
<p>This collection previews the first seminar of the 2016 Montgomery College / Smithsonian Institution Fellowship seminar series. Fellows will visit the Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s branch for contemporary craft and decorative art, which recently re-opened in November 2015 after an extensive two-year renovation. Two Renwick Gallery staff members will speak at this event: Nicholas Bell, Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-In-Charge, and Nora Atkinson, Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft. </p>
<p>Included in this collection: presenter bios, presentation descriptions, and resources chosen by presenters for attendees to explore before attending the session. These resources are not required, but will help fellows prepare for discussion the day of the seminar.</p><p>#MCteach<br /></p>
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American Ingenuity, Innovation, and Enterprise: National Museum of American Indian Seminar Resources
<p>This collection previews the second seminar of the 2016 Montgomery College / Smithsonian Institution Fellowship seminar series. Fellows will visit the National Museum of the American Indian, tour the exhibition "The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire," and watch the documentary "Caravan of Memory." Dr. José Barreiro, Assistant Director for Research, Director of the Office for Latin America, and co-curator of "The Great Inka Road," will lead the seminar.</p>
<p>Included in this collection: bio of presenter, presentation description, and resources chosen by the presenter for attendees to explore before attending the session. These resources are not required, but will help fellows prepare for discussion the day of the seminar.</p><p>#MCteach<br /></p>
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Social Justice: Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Resources
<p>This collection previews the fourth seminar of the 2017 Montgomery College / Smithsonian Institution Fellowship seminar series, <em>The Social Power of Music</em>. Two staff members from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage will lead this event: James Deutsch and Atesh Sonneborn.</p>
<p>Resources and questions included in this collection have been chosen by the presenters for participants to explore and consider before the seminar itself. Two resources, included at the end of the collection, are optional materials for those interested in addtional background information on Smithsonian Folkways.</p>
<p>#MCteach</p>
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Social Justice: Opening Panel Resources
<p>This collection previews the opening panel of the 2017 Montgomery College / Smithsonian Institution Fellowship seminar series, <em>Social Justice: America's Unfinished Story of Struggle, Strife, and Sacrifice</em>. Four Smithsonian staff members will speak at this event: Igor Krupnik (Arctic Studies Center, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History), Lanae Spruce (National Museum of African American History and Culture), Ranald Woodaman (Smithsonian Latino Center), and E. Carmen Ramos (Smithsonian American Art Museum).</p>
<p>Each text annotation in this collection contains each speaker's presentation title, description, and bio. Following each text annotation are resources and questions chosen by the presenters for participants to consider before the panel itself.</p>
<p>#MCteach<br /></p>
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American Ingenuity, Innovation, and Enterprise: National Museum of American History Seminar Resources
<p>This collection previews the fifth and final seminar of the 2016 Montgomery College / Smithsonian Institution Fellowship seminar series. Fellows will visit the National Museum of American History to explore the issues and topics surrounding the upcoming exhibition, "American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith." Harry Rubenstein, Curator and Chair of the Division of Political History, will lead the seminar.</p>
<p>Included in this collection: bio of presenter, presentation description, and resources for attendees to explore before attending the session. The first two resources in this collection - the video "Bill Geist with curators Harry Rubenstein and Larry Bird on the campaign trail, 1996" and image "Where is Democracy" with attached quiz question - are required. The others are not, but will help fellows prepare for discussion the day of the seminar.</p><p>#MCteach<br /></p>
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