We have mentioned before how Postcrossing as a school project can be a great idea. Teachers all over the world are discovering how to use Postcrossing as an educational tool. English, geography, culture – there’s so much one can learn through postcards!
Adriana Salim is one of those teachers and we are happy to be able to share with you all how her experience has been.
I am an English teacher at a public school in Petrópolis, RJ, Brazil. I teach classes to teenagers who keep me busy trying to get them interested and motivated. The dean of the school where I work found out about Postcrossing and here we are, the students and I, involved in sending and receiving cards.
I surely couldn’t have run into something more helpful! Everybody waits anxiously for the mail and the school mailbox is checked every single day. Isn’t it fun to learn English this way? Each student is a single user. They write and receive their own cards. Our enthusiasm has also hooked the Biology teacher who has joined Postcrossing with his own kids at home.
We have many projects at the school: theater, dance, environment protection, reading and Postcrossing! Some of the students take part in more than one project.
Before Postcrossing, the students used to swap cards among themselves to practice their English skills. Nowadays we realise that it’s much more fun to write real postcards with Postcrossing.
This is where we have our Postcrossing meetings once a week.
Our postcards are mailed to the school address. The mail is always brought by the same mailman. We go to the main post office downtown for stamps. We usually post our cards once a week at a smaller facility. The students keep their own cards at home in albums or on a wallboard. Now and then we display all the received cards at school.
This is our mailman delivering some mail and the school mailbox.
This is the board we keep the cards sent to the group as a whole.
This is the main post office where we buy stamps.
We once had a picture of the cards exhibition we prepared to celebrate the 18th anniversary of our school on the first page of Petrópolis newspaper.
As part of that commemoration a school postcard was created and is now available to be send by the students.
Thank you Adriana for sharing this with us!
Have other stories on how Postcrossing is being used on education? Then let us know! We love to hear about them.
25 comments so far
One of my official Postcrossing cards got sent to a school in Portugal (ESA10EF). I sent a card with a play on words in English (and a bit of English humour too). They seemed to have stopped now, which is a shame.
I received 2 cards from the same school but different class in the same week. Quite a coincidence. It's a great idea.
I love it when postcards are used for education! I used to co-lead a Geography club and we used postcards every month at the meetings. The kids loved them! Of course we had food from the country we were studying too - so that might have something to do with the success of the group :)
I have recently sent a postcard to American school. I hope it will be registered soon :)
Is there is an email address for Adriana? My husband is a Brazilian teaching here in the US and I keep telling him that it would be great for strudents to start postcard exchange!
Hi! If you are interested in discuss the use of Postcrossing at school send me a message and I'll be glad to share with you my experience.
Contact me at:
adriana.teacher.salim@hotmail.com
Adriana Salim
I also am a Postcrossing teacher. We register every card the day it arrives. I also disable my account about a month before summer vacation so there is little chance of a card sent right away arriving while we're not here.
My second graders LOVE Postcrossing. I found found no better tool to teach understanding of cultures and places around our world. Next time you get the opportunity to send to a class, take time to teach them something about your part of the world! I hope you someday send a card to my class. They BEG me to check the mailbox every day.
That's great!
I realy love this kind of projects. It's a good way to get people entousiastic to learn someting.
I have used the postcards I get as Writing prompts for our students.3rd to 5th graders. They often have a hard time thinking of an idea of what to write about. It opens up the imagination and expands the horizons of thinking.
They all know I'm a Postcard geek.
I also send the students random encouragment card.
GREAT ADRIANA, i imagine how happy you are with that project!! and i believe sending a card to a school means there will be much more people looking at it and trying to understand what's written on it- so use the chance everybody who gets the address, tell them something, show them the world!!
i was thinking of starting a similar project over here in italy but the problem is that i don't have an own class :(... has anybody got experience with a 'postcrossing promotion tour' in a school? please contact me directly, thank you!
Congratulations for the project! Wonderful example and motivation to all.
That cool!
I'm in the picture.
:)
From: Jean Leone!!
I would love to direct swap with a school group...if anyone is interested, please let me know!
I will be soon an English teacher in Spain and I'm looking forward to have my own students in order to introduce Postcrossing to them and learn about different cultures and countries while they have fun. I think it's a great idea to motivate students! :)
For the first time my 7th grade English students understood the purpose of learning how to describe themselves when they got in touch with this site and felt the need to write a profile. They are all becoming addicted to postcrossing and they are actually writing in English. Thank you! I'm a happier English teacher now! :)
I have a question! Whenever I send a postcard to a class (or homeschooler, there are lots of home schooled kids on PostCrossing which is equally awesome), I always want to send MORE than a postcard. Like some stickers, a letter and maybe some fun stuff I find at the tourist shop. Is that okay, or is it too much?
Well, I think it's more than O.K. Do whatever your heart tells you to do and you'll never do wrong. My students have received lots of things... letters, stickers, extra stamps for their collections... Take another peek at the wallboard picture and you'll be able to see some...
If you still have other questions or doubts contact me at
adriana.teacher.salim@hotmail.com
I received a card from http://www.postcrossing.com/user/Manzyschool, an American fourth grade class.
In addition, there is an English teacher in Israel http://www.postcrossing.com/user/Victoria1000, who organized postcards exchange for her school.
Fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing!! Postcrossing must be the most fun way to learn about the world!
My Mother's 3rd grade class also postcrosses under the username "MiniMarshmallow." They have "Postcard Fridays" where they send out a card every week :) They kids love it and get so excited when they have a new person to write too! Keep up the good postcrossing work teachers!!
Hehe, we made 2 swaps with ASALIM. :) Actually, we only planned one, but then I received a postcard with Adriana's school as a surprise. Of course, I've sent another postcard to her. :D Still travelling.
great idea! i thinks that its so good for schoolships!
i want too ;) but i didnt have a teacher in school with idea in postcrossing ;)
F A N T A S T I C !!!
I´M REALLY GLAD FOR THIS!! God bless postcrossers and our kids! :)
Great new! Congrats, Adriana and students!!! :D
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