https://docs.google.com/document/d/17BdEWE8EIO9gYIsa7zUEuyOE_Syw0odDMiNtnrtbewg/edit?usp=sharing

 

Greetings from Europe!

Postcard Exchange

Celebrating 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage

 

0) Contextualization

This year Europe celebrates its cultural heritage and the best way to learn about our European countries is exchanging colourful postcards, showing everyone their country's cultural heritage (monuments, festivities, etc) with shorts notes as to what they are and what they mean.

The aim of this project was to send/receive as many postcards as possible to create a colorful European map where we could showcase all the postcards received in a special corner of our school to celebrate "2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage". We planned to have our map ready by mid April and progress of our work was mostly posted through pictures on Twinspace.

In this project, we asked our partners to work together on sending postcards showing aspects of their cultural heritage they wish to share (monuments, traditions, food, etc). They used ready-made postcards or created their own using pictures or drawings.

Partners and students were responsible for gathering information, writing postcards, sending them by post and setting up a small corner to display what they received. Pupils were involved in the whole process as teachers guided and aided them.

The numbers of postcards sent was up to each partner. Around 4/5 postcards per group/class were sent to each partner showing the different aspects of their cultural heritage (one about a monument, another with images of food). A document of all the addresses from partner schools was available on Twinspace for postage purposes.

The main aims of this project were:

- Mobilizing cultural, scientific and technological knowledge to understand the world around us and to approach situations and problems of our daily life;

- Doing activities in an autonomous, responsible and creative way whilst cooperating with others in common tasks and projects;

- Using languages from different cultural, scientific and technological areas adequately to express oneself, especially through the use of images, gestures, sounds, illustrations or diagrams;

- Mobilizing linguistic and paralinguistic resources in verbal interaction, in the reception and production of oral and written texts, having in sight adequate performances in communicative situations;

- Using mother and foreign languages to communicate in daily situations, gathering knowledge and structuring self-awareness and European awareness;

The end result of this project was a map celebrating 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage with all the postcards received from all the partners. With these postcards, students were able to see different aspects of cultural heritage from a diverse number of countries and learned about them using English as a means to communicate information in meaning and contextualized situations.

 

1) Pedagogical Innovation

The innovative aspect of “GREETINGS FROM EUROPE! POSTCARD EXCHANGE celebrating 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage” seems to lie in the fact that it involved in just one 3-month project hundreds of European learners of different levels and schools, from kindergarten to secondary schools and schools for children with special needs. It took a great deal of planning and coordinating on the part of the teacher administrators and the partner teachers at the beginning, so as for all 34 partners to know what to do in terms of steps within the project itself and the timeline of each step in the project. The project ended up as a massive celebration of culture because of the many different countries and schools involved – 14 countries, 34 schools, nearly all of which were active throughout the project - and because our topic was as rich as the cultures of the countries involved.

The teachers, after introducing the project and the Twinspace to the students and also informing the parents about it, did a brainstorming activity in class about what cultural heritage is and what are some of the elements of their country’ s cultural heritage. The Unesco World Heritage list was used and discussed in class but the conclusion was that the cultural heritage of each country is much richer and more diverse than what is inscribed on the list, therefore both the teachers and the students had to do a lot of research to come up with those aspects of culture (both tangible and intangible, natural or digital) that they wanted to show to their partners. A popplet mind map about the different aspects of cultural heritage was created and shared with the other schools on the Twinspace, and then a padlet wall was created where each partner could present elements of their country’s cultural heritage – a padlet accessible by teachers, students and parents who were free to post and comment - and so they did.

Apart from posing questions for the students to research, the teachers also included pedagogical methods such as information gathering, comparative work, collaborative creation (both literary and artistic) and had a variety of working arrangements such as working individually, in pairs or groups.

The project products required the participation of as many partners as possible and would not be obtained unless the participating students became researchers, writers and artists, under the guidance of their teachers.

 

(2) Curricular integration

The project was based on the school curriculum and the main part of the work was done by the students in class. In some partner schools, it was part of Geography classes and Religious Education classes (“Children of the one God all over the world”). It was included in manual hiring hours and in counselling hours. In other partner schools it was considered as a cross-cultural project.

The majority of partners schools used this project integrated in their English lessons since the language of communication and collaboration was English. The project helped students practise their foreign language skills and showed them, in the best way, that English is an international language in order to communicate with other people and for them to be able to understand their culture. Except for some simple words and expressions in the students’ mother tongues, English was used as the language teachers and students used to communicate and collaborate on the journal and on the postcards, giving the students the chance to practise their foreign language skills. Apart from that, the students, through their interaction with the Twinspace and the project’s digital activities, had the chance to practise and develop their ICT skills as well. They learnt to look up information and pictures for the project, print pictures and texts, and they learnt to use tools like Padlet. Making the postcards gave them the chance to develop their fine motor skills and learn some postcard basics, like what a postcard’s front and back sides look like, where to place the stamp and to write the recipient's name, and how to actually make a postcard and post it. The teachers guided and helped the students collect materials about the elements of their culture that they wanted to present to their partners (print pictures, cut pictures out from magazines and brochures, bring ready-made cards to class, make their own drawings). In teams or pairs the students made and wrote their postcards while the teachers uploaded a lot of photos and videos of the whole process on the project journal.

 

(3) Communication and exchange between partner schools

The students communicated mainly through the postcards that they prepared for their partners and the ones they received from them. Through these postcards, they exchanged information about the different aspects of their culture and learnt from each other about the topic that the whole of Europe is celebrating this year - its vast cultural heritage. The students (and the teachers) also got to know each partner school through looking at the many pictures and videos that were posted on the Project Journal and the Twinspace Pages. They learnt about their partners' hometown and school, about their culture and about making, posting and receiving postcards. This way they acquired a better understanding of different cultures and their diversity, and thus becoming more tolerant and open minded about others.

Creating digital games with the information from the postcards received and from the powerpoint presentation about different cultures presented at the beginning of the project as well as playing these games was another way of encouraging the students to view the work of their partners and learn from it.

While planning our work (the postcard templates and the games), there were certain web tools recommended (like canva), for all the teachers and students to be able to work in a similar way. The photos uploaded on the project journal by some partners were a source of inspiration for all the others. Last but not least, these hundreds of photos were a reason to motivate the partners and make them react, always in positive ways.

(4) Collaboration between partner schools

In every partner school, a special corner was set up where a colourful map of Europe with all the postcards received was exhibited, a map which other students, teachers and parents had the chance to admire and learn from. That was the final product of our project, which would have never been accomplished without the collaboration of all the partners. All partner schools did their best to collaborate in this project with the resources they had  (sometimes limited) and never hesitating to use Twinspace’s Teacher Bulletin for help or posting their queries and doubts about what steps to take in the project. The partners helped the teacher administrators with the planning/coordinating at the beginning as there were a lot of countries joining the project one by one. Other partners helped with making excel worksheets with addresses and email addresses, or making a zeemaps to show where each school was located, or looking up cultural heritage and its different elements and creating a popplet mind map, or by helping new eTwinners with suggestions as to what web tools to use.  The partners also helped in organizing the Twinspace Pages in the best way, so that all the work done by the students is public and easily accessible. Each one of the partners updated the Pages with their school’ s work and we all collaborated on writing the application for a  QL.

(5) Use of technology

Web tools were essential and always present throughout this project. Despite the fact that the main goal of this project was to exchange physical postcards, most of the work done, in terms of building up to this goal and communicating between partner schools, was done using web tools. Padlet was used a lot by both the teachers and the students. Canva was used by many partners to help them make their digital postcards. We also used Google Docs and Google Forms, Zeemaps, pizap (for collages), Answergarden (for evaluation purposes), and game making tools like Kahoot, Proprofs, Quizlet, Learningapps, h5p and Jigsawplanet. Also, software like Powerpoint, Word, Movie maker and Excel helped us with presenting and organising the project. Last but not least, we used the tools of our Twinspace to organise and evaluate our project, communicate, present our work and comment on each other’s (Project Journal and Teacher Bulletin, Pages and Materials, Twinmail and Forums). We should also mention the use of Email as a means to exchange postcards and cultural information. In some schools QR codes were created for the postcards received so to help anyone admiring the colourful map of postcards set up in the school to scan the codes with their phones/tablets and learn more about what was being shown on the postcards. eSafety rules were kept with the students not being identifiable in the photos/videos uploaded on the Twinspace, especially due to the new  European General Data Protection Regulation, and copyright issues on images were also taken into account.

 

(6) Results, impact and documentation

During the project, the teachers used the Project Journal on Twinspace to upload their work and post comments on each other’s work. Also, teachers were able to share their experiences and thoughts on the project, sharing materials and answering queries and doubts that they had. Teachers supported and helped each other throughout the process which translated into a massive cooperative project with outstanding results all around - all partner schools were able to send and receive postcards, as well as create our final project product, a colourful European map with postcards which showcased everyone’s work!

This project enabled students to practice their foreign language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) to describe their own cultural heritage and to compare their cultural heritage to the cultural heritages of the other partner schools. It allowed student to reflect upon how students of other countries use English as a means to communicate about themselves and gave them a meaningful context to use the language in a practical, hands on way.

Besides that, this project enabled students to think about how diversity can become a means to unity and make them aware of this. It also took them beyond the physical frontiers of their classroom walls to so many different places that otherwise wouldn’t be possible for them to see, visit or learn about.

This project also enabled students to use local public services, like the postal service, to post their postcards and, in an age when most post offices have become obsolete and become scarce, to see how easy it is to send and receive postcards by this means and how exciting it is to receive all sorts of things via traditional mail.

There were several games created by different schools based on the postcards received and played by the students in class. This way the students were more engaged in learning from the postcards in a fun way. The games included matching pairs, riddles, quizzes and crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, kahoot games and others. There were other activities as well, through which each teacher engaged their students in learning from the postcards according to their level (each school played the kind of games suitable for their students’ level and needs).

Students with special needs looked at the materials on the Project Journal on Twinspace (videos, PowerPoint presentations, pictures and comments), mapped the partner countries and searched on Google Maps for their capitals and cities. These students were enthusiastic about making letters, putting stamps and posting them. Special needs pupils from four different classes worked on this project and were excited to see their work and their postcards being received by fellow students. Every letter received was a reason for joy and it became part of their classroom routine.

Students were able to talk about all the pictures and artwork received, and the teachers and/or pupils explained to the whole class the postcards they received showcasing their cultural marks and comparing recipes, monuments and ways of living with their own local cultural background.

In most schools other members of the community, such as caretakers and administrative staff, got involved either by helping teachers in handing in the received mail, or by organizing the spaces used to put the maps. This showed that this project went beyond the classroom and sparked the curiosity of all members of the schools community (staff, other teachers and students, parents as well as outside visitors of the schools) and they too learnt about the cultural heritage of countries of the partner schools. An excellent project that involved not only the students who actively participated, but everyone in the school!

Teachers assessment of the project was done through comments on the Project Journal on Twinspace where they shared their feelings of the impact this project had on them as teachers and how this project allowed them to also learn about new and exciting things. They also expressed their gratitude towards all those involved who helped throughout this process. A page on Twinspace was created where most of these thoughts were posted. Partner teachers also commented on the work done by fellow schools in the Padlets that were created for the project and the project was assessed on Google Forms on a link posted in the Twinspace Forum.

The students who actively participated in this project filled in a questionnaire to evaluate the activities they enjoyed the most during the project. Their votes can be seen on an embedded form from Tricider posted on a Twinspace Page created for this purpose.

Teachers, students, parents and other member of the schools’ community were able to access the Twinspace’s Answergarden embedded on the Evaluation Page of the project to express their thoughts and impressions of the project in a few words.

This project was made known outside the partner schools not only through the public link of the Twinspace, but also through publications in their school’s Websites, Blogs and Facebook profiles. Some schools also published their work in their newspapers and local government officials (parishes and city halls) shared photographs and posts about the project on their own Websites, Blogs and Facebook profiles.

Some schools organized open days at school in order to inform students of other classes and parents about the project. They presented the map of postcards, sang songs about peace and then students versus parents played games. In other schools there were exhibitions of the postcards created and the ones received, or an exhibition as part of the school’s local “European festival week”. In another school there was an eTwinning symposium on the theme of Creativity and Innovation.