Frustrated With Post Card Exchange!!

[3grteacher]

Why do people sign up for a post card exchange if they have no intention of keeping up their end???

I have 31 students who are very dissapointed that we have only receieved 8 postcards all year.

How do you get kids all excited about participating in this activity and then not follow through with it!!


JUST FRUSTRATED...............


ILLINOIS

 

[tired]

I agree but......

many things could have happened. For example, I agreed to do a post card exchange and I'm a new teacher who has not participated in postcard exchange so I didnt know how it was supposed to work. The teacher who started it emailed me and said she would email me the details about how it works and provide addresses for where I needed to send the postcards but then she didnt. I had a computer crash and lost her email and had no idea how to contact her to let her know I didnt know where to send my postcards. It was just a big ole mess.

 

[ABBA]

Me Too!

I was so excited to sign up for a postcard exchange this year. The person who started it decided that all cards should be mailed by December which was fine with me. As of today I only received 25 postcards and my class is always asking me when are we going to get more cards. The part that surprised me is the person who set up the whole thing never sent us her postcard from Florida! I'm going to give it one more try for the next school year and try to find a new postcard exchange to join.

 

[maryteach]

I don't have time

for postcard exchanges. I get all sorts of requests every year, and I just toss them. I don't have time to introduce it, sign kids up, make sure they're doing it.....if a teacher does not intend to follow through, they shouldn't agree to participate. That's unfair.

 

[Ima Teacher]

I have never been part of a postcard exchange, but I did have trouble with a pen pal exchange one year. I received a very irate letter from the teacher I was doing the exchanges with. She was not happy AT ALL because she hadn't gotten letters from my kids after she went to the trouble of having her kids write to mine.

Well, it happened that I was that I had gotten really, really sick and ended up in the hospital where I nearly died from kidney failure. I missed 45 days of school . . . and it seemed even longer when you count holidays and weekends.

Sure there are people who sign up for things with no intention of doing them, but I think that's not typical. Usually there are other circumstances.

 

[bamateach]

postcards

I am part of a postcard exchange and have saved that for after state testing. Things just get too busy! I don;t know if we are part of the same one, but if so you can expect ours anytime now. I have also received about 8, but I truly understand. STRESS and BUSY!

 

[hescollin]

Petunia

We were in a postcard exchange this year. We got all but seven or eight. We have some left over cards if you e mail me your address we will send you one we have left over. We made ours on large recipe cards with a buffalo (our state animal) on the front with data and a KS message on the back with the address. We have two and half weeks of school left so this has to be a quick trade. Send your reply to me e mail, because I don't always get back here and check very often.

 

[SusanTeach]

I understand

I've been in postcard exchanges for the past 3 years and my students always love them! They look forward to them so much. I know things happen, but I find it hard to believe that it happened to that many people in the exchange. For example, Hurricane Katrina hit our town - we didn't have school for 7 weeks. Some of my students lost their homes, some teachers lost their homes, and 2 (out of 4) elem. schools in our district got wiped out. That being said.... I still managed to get out my postcards. I knew it was important to my students, so we took a day (part of a day) to write them out, and I sent them off. It was not hard by any means. My students don't understand how we can manage to make time for it, and several other states couldn't. Definite lesson in itself.

 

[fun_friend]

I've never been invited to a post card exchange, but I have received a couple of letters from the Great American Mail Race. I went all-out last year and didn't get very many replies, but one child got a bunch and she was just the child who needed the attention! This year we received a letter from the Mail Race. I just didn't feel like getting it together, so I had one student write the girl a letter so she wouldn't get nothing. We told her that our school year is nearly over and we aren't participating, but we wanted her to get at least one letter.

 

[Miss C]

I'll send you one!

Hey~
Post your addy or PM me and I'll send you one from Charleston, SC! I, too, have sent out several this year, and haven't gotten many back. My kids don't really get involved in the though. I pretty much do it, and then they're just pleasantly surprised if one shows up. They pass it around and look at it, and then we put it on our "really cool stuff" board so that they can look at it later if they want. Anyway, yeah, I'd be glad to send you one!

 

[NJ Teacher]

Postcard exchanges

I belonged to two this year, and I don't think I received cards from anywhere near all the participants.In one of them, I never received the address list until December, so we were late sending those out. I also sent out Valentines for a Valentine exchange, and we sent flat gingerbreads to a teacher in PA who was organizing that, and received no gingerbreads in return. I don't get overly stressed about it, we appreciate what we had, and I know that what looks good in August when many of us sign up, is not good for some come later in the year.I look at signing up as an obligation. I too, had a negative penpal experience a couple of years ago. We weren't writing back quickly enough for this teacher, and she was sending me nasty e-mails. We sent her the letters we had in progress, and never heard from her again. Another thought...this year, there was a postage stamp increase in January. I'm wondering if some of these cards never reached their intended destinations because of that. Postcards don't get returned the way letters do for insufficient postage.

 

[2teacher2]

Which states are you missing?

I live in TX, my parents live in NY, my in-laws live in Maine and Arkansas, sister in Mass and brother in Nevada. Have friends in Louisiana and Mississippi. Need any of these? I would be glad to help you out! just let me know!

kbauer-severy@wacoisd.org

 

[wilmart77]

Postcard Exchange-Fresh Start

I joined Pro Teacher in February, simply to join in on the postcard exchange that was on the message boards at that time. I sent out 21 postcards, and only received 5 in return. Yes, it was disappointing, but we still managed to get a postcard for every student (from other avenues). There was a posting earlier this week, May 1-5, about being involved in one at the start of next school year. My address went there and I will place it here. Anyone who sends a postcard to me or the class, will get one from Germany, or Oregon, my home sweet home! It's a terrific way to explain a different state or, in our case, a city outside of the USA. And, there's so much you can do with postcards! Send me one...I'll send you one in return. Include your address!

Mrs. M. A. Howell
USAG Bamberg
Unit 27535 Box 23417
APO AE 09139

Thanks, MH

 

[metoo]

post cards

I agree. We got about 9 post cards this year. I sent all mine out early in the year. I will not join one next year because it was such a disappointment to my students this year.