What is Postcrossing? The goal of this project is to allow anyone to send and receive postcards from all over the world! The idea is simple: for each postcard you send, you will receive one back from a random postcrosser from somewhere in the world. This is important. With Postcrossing there is no “penpal relationship” established, it’s a one-time communication only, and it goes one direction, that is you don’t write and receive from the same person (unless you do a direct swap).
Why? Simply because, like its founder, Paulo Magalhães, there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. Receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of!) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises — and who wouldn't like that?
How does it work?
Postcrossing for schools As it says on the website, Postcrossing was not made with schools in mind, but the project can be a wonderful tool to help students discover the world and practice their language skills. Here, there are several options. The Postcrossing team recommends opening an account as a teacher for our class (or school). We can also have a workshop with families so that parents open a joint account with their children, or if the children are older than 13, they may open their own accounts. SCHOOL TEACHERS You can open an account as a school or class in order to regularly work with Postcrossing as a school/class project. Please, bear in mind that if you do so, it would be a good idea to share the account’s information with the principal or your head of department, so that if you are on sick leave or you want another teacher to take over, it can be done easily and the account will not go inactive. Here are some examples of classes registered on Postcrossing:
EOI Noia Kereru MrJohnsonsClass GreatOaksStudents Project_Tuvalu PARENTS
You can also encourage families to open their own account. There are families that use Postcrossing as part of their kids’ homeschooling, as a hobby, or to introduce their children to postcard and letter-writing so they can take over and open their own accounts when they are older. CHILDREN There are privacy concerns here. Children under 13 should not use the website without the supervision of a responsible adult And you can read more about Postcrossing's experience in a school context on these posts on our blog. We would advise you to mention on the profile that the account is for a class, so that members are sure to send appropriate cards. If the class has special wishes for what you'd like the children to receive or learn about, make sure to mention them as well - many members would probably be happy to accommodate your wishes.
How can we start? It’s a good idea to start from what you have got in your community. THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION Is there a tradition of letter-writing or postcards in your area? Is there an exhibition of letters during a war period? Or maybe was there a migratory movement and people stayed in touch
with their relatives back home through letters? It would be great to start exploring that, and start from the “personal connection”, discussing this in class, or organizing a school trip to a museum where letters/postcards are exhibited. We can then students talk about this subject at home, or research with their families about letters, do their parents/grandparents keep any letters? How do they feel about them? Would they be willing to share their contents or the experience? THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF POSTCARD WRITING Most students will have never visited a post office. What about having a guided tour there to see how letters are processed, the types of stamps, amount of postage needed, etc? Do they know who their mailman/mailwoman is? What is their name? How about leaving a note and/or a treat for them? Have them research where they can buy postcards in town, and what the price is. This could be a research project in itself – what kind of landmarks are depicted? Do they like the view it gives of there area? Do they miss any landmarks? How about creating their own postcards of their town? Stamps can be another school project. You can delve in this subject for another school project. There is geography, history, technology and culture in stamps. Just as way of an example, in CEIP Frións, in Galicia, they have Postcrossing as a school project. This year they had a stamp exhibition brought to their school, philately workshops and a contest where students designed and voted for the best stamp which was then printed and is now used to send their Christmas card and in their Postcrossing exchanges. IT’S ALL ABOUT COMMUNICATION Postcard writing is fantastic for the language classroom. It provides us with a real context for written communication, and above all, a recipient for the texts we write (other than just the teacher). The good thing about Postcrossing is that the texts are brief, semi-formal in register and open-ended as far as topics are concerned, so they can be easily integrated in the school curriculum and it increases motivation, since it is seen as “doable” by our students, regardless of level of competence.
What are some ideas? Here is a small collection of ideas that you are welcome to adapt/modify to fit your context: -
Set up a Postcrossing wall where you can display all the postcards you have received. Stick a huge world map to the wall and pin up the postcards you receive. It will help students revise geography and at the same time serve as an exhibition for visitors.
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Speaking of exhibition, how about organizing a postcard exhibition? If so, maybe you will need to organize the postcards first. There are several options: by topic, or by country of origin, for example.
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Integrate ICT by having students record a sound or video message, upload it to Spreaker, Soundcloud or Youtube, link to a QR code and stick it on your postcard.
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Do you have a book club at school? In your next meeting, have students summarize their opinion of the book they read include that mini-review in the next postcard you send.
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Introduce students to mail art, to add an artistic dimension to the postcards you send. Maybe have a local artist come give a workshop?
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Speak to your post office to see if you could have a workshop on philately at school. Its history and evolution is really interesting, and stamps are normally very appealing to children! Use the postcards to play a Bingo, like this school has done
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For a more ambitious project, organize a postcard competition where students design their own cards and vote for a model to have it printed and sent.
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Written skills can be combined with oral skills by having different students research and prepare a short presentation about the country you are going to send a postcard to. You can see an example here.
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If there is a special commemoration at school, for example, the school’s anniversary, you can have a postcard done and use it in future Postcrossing exchanges. You can see an example here.
APPENDIX II: Poster summary
APPENDIX II: Sample letter to parents
Dear parent/guardian, I’d like to inform you about a new website that that (4th/5th…) graders will be using. The website is called Postcrossing and it enables a class to create a profile in order to exchange postcards with people from all over the world. The profile will be created for the (school/class) (not for the student) as an extension of the physical classroom that will be used to enhance the classroom experience. Students and teachers will be using Postcrossing to exchange postcards and in doing so, creating a real situation of communication to improve language skills. You can check the school/class profile in this link. For more information about Postcrossing you can visit https://www.postcrossing.com. The website’s privacy policy https://www.postcrossing.com/privacy.
is
available
at
this
address
Please tick one of the following choices and return it as soon as possible: ☐ I/We GRANT permission for a photo/image that includes this student without any other
personal identifiers to be published on the school website, newsletter, bulletin, Facebook page, or other social media outlets and publications. ☐ I/We DO NOT GRANT permission for a photos/images that include this student to be
published on the school’s website, newsletter, bulletin, Facebook page, or other social media outlets and publications. PRINT the name of your Child:_______________________________________________ PRINT the name of Parent/Guardian:_________________________________________ Signature of Parent/Guardian:______________________________________________ Relationship to Child:______________________________________________________ Date: __________________________________________________________________ If you have any questions, please contact (Mr… or Ms…) via …
Yours Sincerely, XXX