Postcard to the future

Future self - goals - positive feedback - class activity

By writing a postcard/letter to their future selves, students become aware of why they are studying and realize how studies can help in achieving their life goals. The goal is to motivate students to plan their future and to achieve their goals in school.

The participants get to choose a postcard from a collection with different motives and colours. You instruct the participants to write a postcard to themselves in the future. There's also the option of having your students send an e-mail to themselves.

For more instructions: download the 'instructions for teachers' below.

'We used this tool often and mainly in the beginning of the studies. There are several ways to use the tool; e-mail, postcard, letter etc. Students find it fun and a little bit challenging to write to themselves but are excited that they will get their own letters back someday in the future.

The tool is used to improve student’s ability to look forward and achieve goals. The reward comes when they get their own text back, and have a possibility to reflect on their own learning process."

Henriette Eriksson - Finland

• Instructions for teachers

• Example of instructions for students

If you are interested in this tool, you could also be interested in Dreamjob vs. never-in-my-life-job.