Implementation of ‘Places in Stamps’ (SOI-HR-239)

The learning scenario was implemented during vocational classes related to tourism. Before the implementation, the students studied the Europeana platform, because they had not yet worked on it. Students learned to search for sources, to use filters to narrow the search and to properly use permitted materials. This was very helpful for their work during creating postcards.

During the discussion about the future work, the students expressed a desire to make a two-sided postcard, in order to study and find more sources in Europeana. On one side they decided to put a text and a postage stamp, the original or the one they will make themselves. On the other side, they put a selected picture of a postcard. Even after the introductory part, I saw that the students were extremely motivated. Last summer, some students did an internship in Cyprus as part of the Erasmus + project. There they saw stands with postcards that were extremely interesting to them and took photos of them. It was also an additional motivation for them to work.

The students tried to remember the last time a postcard arrived at their home and who had sent it. It was almost two years ago, and they got the postcard from the students from the class. Personally, the last postcard I received was the one that I sent to myself as part of my work in the Erasmus + structural course. It was also over two years ago, with my thoughts on what I had learned at the time. The organizers of the course sent postcards about a month after the end of the course, enough for everyone to be happy because in the meantime we forgot that we wrote postcards.

For the implementation itself, the students had two school hours of 45 minutes at their disposal. At first, they shortly explored the history of postage stamps and postcards. Then the students made postcards in Canva. I encouraged them to use free materials from Europeana for stamps and postcards. They didn’t find the platform difficult to explore. During the work in pairs, students were able to write texts in one of the languages ​​they study at school – English, German or French. They translated their own names and addresses mostly in English, but they also translated some in Hungarian, Czech, Greek…. The small print you can see on the text part of the postcard is an attribution for materials downloaded from the Europeana platform.

After the implementation of the learning scenario, the students filled out a short survey in which they answered the questions in Google Forms:

1. How I felt while working on this script?
2. How much i like my postcard?
3. I want to say…

Most of the students felt great while making the postcards, one student felt a bit lost at first, but happy in the end. They mostly liked the final results. They loved to research pictures and write text on postcards. Also, it was a lot of fun for them to translate their names and addresses, and it was fun for me too. Watching them enjoy themselves made me smile. They added that they liked the class and that they would like to have even more activities like this. They would also like to express their creativity like this in other subjects too.

Europeana Resources

• Landscape
• European landscapes and landmarks
• Postage stamps

Other resources