Keypals

This is the best site I discovered for creating keypals or email pals with students around the world.

Pen Pals: http://www.epals.com

I like this site for the following reasons:

1. The format and instructions are very easy to understand.

2. There is a filter program to check on any incoming or outgoing mail sent by students.

3. The program makes it very easy to establish email accounts for your students. Just enter the names of your students and the web site creates an account for each student. The students do not have to enter in any personal information.

Words of advice:

1. Look for schools to establish keypals at least a month before you want the students to begin emailing. You are competing with other schools for keypals, so many will already be taken, or it takes a while before a school responds.

2. I usually seek to establish keypals with 10 schools at a time. At least one will respond and want to exchange keypals.

3. I seek keypals with at least 3 schools. Some schools will rarely send email; some will have a different school calendar and be on vacation when we are in session.

4. I seek keypals from schools from the eastern hemisphere and the western hemisphere. I like my students to compare cultures.

5. As a class we establish questions to ask...

What is it like to be a teenager in your culture?
What is school like?
What is your family like?
What is your country like?
Can you share a recipe?
How much do things cost in your country?
How do you say.....? (learning another language)

6. Students will write a reflection paper on what they learned so I can assess what they experienced.