One day after schedule, but all the emails are now sent out for The Great Big School Swap!
By now you should have received an email containing one or more addresses to send to, with a number of how many postcards to send to each. Why more than one class? Because of the uneven number of students in classes, it’s more than likely you’ll have to send to more than one class. I’ve tried to pair you with classes from countries other than your own. Think of it as a bonus!
Now that the postcards are good to go what now? Here are my (slightly biased) suggestions
Write about the swap. If you have a blog of your own, it would be great if you could add the logo to your post and link back too! I’ve provided the code to do this, if you need a hand, just give me a shout.
If you haven’t already got somewhere to write about it, I’ve started a blog at http://thegreatbig.schoolswaps.net/, where anyone involved in the project can write and upload photos to. It would make a lot of sense if everyone on the project used it!
Join the schoolswaps site and make suggestions of what swaps you want to see next. To join you’ll have to send me a message on the Contact us page
As this is the first time I’ve ever run this swap, I’d be lying if I called this part the “Frequently Asked Questions” slot, but I have received some already and wanted to try to pre-empt some questions, and I’ll just quickly put some answers up. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.
How will we be matched?
The process will be manual, and I’ll look at any special requests and try my best to fulfil them, but I can’t promise anything. Your class will be put into a group with classes of similar age, and I’ll split the sending between them, ensuring that you send and receive as many as you have stated in your application. It is likely you will send to more than one class and receive from more than one class. You will not be sending to the same class you receive from, but something more like a round robin system will operate. Once I’ve figured out the partners I’ll send you the postal addresses that you will be sending to and the email addresses of the teachers that will be sending to you. Once you receive these details you can send your postcards any time before June 25th.
What if I don’t receive from one of my partners?
You will have the email addresses of the partners who will be sending to you. I hope that we don’t see any flakers but this is out of my hands. If you do encounter any problems, I would suggest getting in touch with the teacher yourself first, it could be a postal problem (remember that Canadian post is at this time not operating for example), and if you get no response then report it to me. I won’t be able to take much action but I will make sure to ban any flakers from future swaps.
Do I send handmade or store bought postcards?
The swap rules are very flexible on this swap. You can send whatever you like to your partner classes in theory and I trust your judgement as teachers to judge what is reasonable and acceptable. As a mailartist and English teacher myself, I rather like the idea of arty postcards or letters, but it’s up to you. Bear in mind that your postcards may be displayed in the receiving teachers classroom
Should I send them all individually or put them in a box?
Again, this is up to you. Whichever is most convenient and fun
Give me some ideas Andy
Ultimately, what you send is up to you. I decided not to be too prescriptive as I can’t predict what you will be teaching in your class and how you plan to use the postcards may well be totally different to how other teachers use them. You could choose to do a big poster and make it into a postcard puzzle, an art project, write about your culture or write poetry it’s really up to you!
Why do I have two emails from you/why do I have less addresses than I should?
The first thing I did when assigning partners was to split the classes by age. I split them by UK key stage, so if your class spanned a number of key stages, I split the class accordingly. This means that you will get one email from me with some classes in the lower key stage first, then in the upper one later. All addresses should be received by June 20th.
Any more questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.
Andy
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Extra bonus – If you have any extra cards and don’t know where to send them why not send a postcard to Schoolswaps’ first big public show, “My Extraordinary Imagination” run with the International Youth Arts Festival in Kingston. I dropped into the office a few daysand they’ve already received 300 postcards, so it’s going to be a big one! You can see a preview of the cards at their Schoolswaps subsite at http://iyaf.schoolswaps.net/ Get your postcards off to that show soon though, the deadline is looming
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Great Big School Swap – All partners now assigned!
By now you should have received an email containing one or more addresses to send to, with a number of how many postcards to send to each. Why more than one class? Because of the uneven number of students in classes, it’s more than likely you’ll have to send to more than one class. I’ve tried to pair you with classes from countries other than your own. Think of it as a bonus!
Now that the postcards are good to go what now? Here are my (slightly biased) suggestions
If you haven’t already got somewhere to write about it, I’ve started a blog at http://thegreatbig.schoolswaps.net/, where anyone involved in the project can write and upload photos to. It would make a lot of sense if everyone on the project used it!
As this is the first time I’ve ever run this swap, I’d be lying if I called this part the “Frequently Asked Questions” slot, but I have received some already and wanted to try to pre-empt some questions, and I’ll just quickly put some answers up. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.
How will we be matched?
The process will be manual, and I’ll look at any special requests and try my best to fulfil them, but I can’t promise anything. Your class will be put into a group with classes of similar age, and I’ll split the sending between them, ensuring that you send and receive as many as you have stated in your application. It is likely you will send to more than one class and receive from more than one class. You will not be sending to the same class you receive from, but something more like a round robin system will operate. Once I’ve figured out the partners I’ll send you the postal addresses that you will be sending to and the email addresses of the teachers that will be sending to you. Once you receive these details you can send your postcards any time before June 25th.
What if I don’t receive from one of my partners?
You will have the email addresses of the partners who will be sending to you. I hope that we don’t see any flakers but this is out of my hands. If you do encounter any problems, I would suggest getting in touch with the teacher yourself first, it could be a postal problem (remember that Canadian post is at this time not operating for example), and if you get no response then report it to me. I won’t be able to take much action but I will make sure to ban any flakers from future swaps.
Do I send handmade or store bought postcards?
The swap rules are very flexible on this swap. You can send whatever you like to your partner classes in theory and I trust your judgement as teachers to judge what is reasonable and acceptable. As a mailartist and English teacher myself, I rather like the idea of arty postcards or letters, but it’s up to you. Bear in mind that your postcards may be displayed in the receiving teachers classroom
Should I send them all individually or put them in a box?
Again, this is up to you. Whichever is most convenient and fun
Give me some ideas Andy
Ultimately, what you send is up to you. I decided not to be too prescriptive as I can’t predict what you will be teaching in your class and how you plan to use the postcards may well be totally different to how other teachers use them. You could choose to do a big poster and make it into a postcard puzzle, an art project, write about your culture or write poetry it’s really up to you!
Why do I have two emails from you/why do I have less addresses than I should?
The first thing I did when assigning partners was to split the classes by age. I split them by UK key stage, so if your class spanned a number of key stages, I split the class accordingly. This means that you will get one email from me with some classes in the lower key stage first, then in the upper one later. All addresses should be received by June 20th.
Any more questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.
Andy
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Extra bonus – If you have any extra cards and don’t know where to send them why not send a postcard to Schoolswaps’ first big public show, “My Extraordinary Imagination” run with the International Youth Arts Festival in Kingston. I dropped into the office a few daysand they’ve already received 300 postcards, so it’s going to be a big one! You can see a preview of the cards at their Schoolswaps subsite at http://iyaf.schoolswaps.net/ Get your postcards off to that show soon though, the deadline is looming
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++