The Great Big Schoolswap #2 – Map swap!

If you are a teacher and think your students could benefit from sending and receiving some postcards this term, the Great Big School Swap #2 is for you! The idea is simple. Get your class to send one postcard each and, hopefully they should all get one back!

How does it work?

You need to have a class of your own and a school address to take part. Fill in the form below with your class details by November 4th, 2011. After I have all the class details in, I’ll look for similar classes and assign partners. It’s a pretty complicated process as I try and make sure that each class sends and receives to/from a variety of classes from different places.

Within a few days I should have matched up all the partner classes and I’ll send everyone emails, containing a list of classes that they will send to and receive from. I’ll try and get the addresses of your partners to you by email by November 9th.

You will not be sending to the same class as you receive from (but you may choose to reply to them if you like). Once you have the addresses, all postcards must be sent by November 20th, 2011.

Where do I sign up?

It’s only the second time I’ve run this thing, and it will remains pretty low-tech, so please cut me a little slack – I only do this for a hobby, but I do take donations! You sign up using the google form below. To make things easier for me, if you have a number of classes, please enter the details for each one separately and include as much additional information as you see fit. I will do my very best to link you up with your preferred class types.

Your addresses will be submitted to a Google form, which is private. Nobody but I can access this and I promise to keep your data completely private. It will not be passed to anyone except the teacher who will send their class’s postcards to you. No participant information will be published unless I have your advance permission in writing.

What am I supposed to get my students to send?

This was the most frequently asked question in the last swap, and so I thought that this time I’d try out a theme so that everyone was sending the same type of thing. So in this swap, I expect that you’ll be sending POSTCARD MAPS, or variations of maps. You can choose to draw your own maps, buy maps and cut them up to collage, create your own maps, pick up local postcard maps, or do whatever you like as long as maps come into the postcard in some form! Use your imagination and let us see what your students send!

What if my partner doesn’t send? What steps are you taking to make sure this is more fair than last time?

I cannot guarantee that everyone will send, and when you take part in the swap you do so knowing that you may not receive exactly the number you send. I cannot be held responsible for people not sending, but I will of course take the credit when you get loads of amazing postcards from all over the world

Having run this once, I learnt a few things from the First Great Big Schoolswap and will be taking a few steps to ensure that this one has less flakers (non-senders).

1. I’ve looked at the dates of the school term in the UK and US this time. Yes it was a major oversight last time!
2. No school address can enter more than 2 classes
3. I will include a confirmation field in the signup form to make sure that people actually know what the date of the swap is when they sign up and explicitly agree to it
4. I’ll email each participant for confirmation when they’ve signed up
5. I will try to make sure that no class sends and receives more than half of their cards to a single class. Because classes are paired with a number of classes, if one class flakes hopefully the impact will be reduced.
6. I will request feedback after the swap is over and will ban any school that doesn’t send from future swaps. This is also active retrospectively, so if you know of a teacher you were meant to receive from in the last swap who didn’t send, please email me at andy@schoolswaps.net their details and I will ban them from taking part this time

After you’ve signed up, why not leave a comment below, or help get more people involved by adding the badge in the sidebar to your site, then spread the word on twitter or wherever you see fit. The more the merrier! You may also want to sign up to the Schoolswaps network too, where you can connect with other teachers and arrange swaps of your own, or upload pictures of the post you send or receive.

If you have any suggestions, queries, or concerns please don’t hesitate to ask. You may reach me through the comments, on twitter @schoolswaps or by messaging me through this site. I’ll try to get back to you as quickly as I can.

Sign up for the Great Big Schoolswap #2 : Map Swap

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