Exploring ePals

Checking out ePals, a global community online where students and teachers can collaborate with one another, I found a lot of useful features that I see myself using.  One such feature were the teacher forums.  Here, teachers can find and create a thread for discussion based on various topics the classroom-related activities.  What makes this feature of ePals appealing, is the fact that other teachers from all over the world can read whatever you have posted, and then comment on it.  This is where the whole idea of collaboration comes into play.  For example, I saw one post in the forum where a TESOL teacher was looking for ePals for her students, so that they would be able to become pen pals with one another... what an easy way of doing so.  Furthermore, this expands your availability of resources.  What's even more exciting is that there are also student forums that your learners could use, as well, to collaborate on projects, receive feedback, etc...

Another great feature that I found were the ePal Projects for Classroom Collaboration.  Here one can find a variety of projects, which include: a project description, topic, essential questions, opportunity to connect with other classrooms, objectives, and so much more.  What I found even more interesting was the fact that some of these projects are "en Español" (in Spanish), which would be a good fit for my own classroom.  One project I found in particular was entitled "The Way We Are", and it is designed for students to find an ePal from a Spanish-speaking country and learn about his/her own way of living.  Great way to teach culture and cultural awareness! 

One last feature that I found really useful for teachers were the number of resources that were available to teachers to use within this site.  Resources include: Smithsonian on ePals, Cyberbulling, Common Sense Media, Skillbuilders Library, Training, and many others.  The Smithsonian one was particularly interesting because you could check out various "explorations" that the museum provides.  For example, there was an exploration called "The Natural World" that provided an array of classroom activities, pictures, video, and samples of student work.