The first step to using epals is to create your own account as a teacher or parent at http://www.epals.com/index.tpl. You will create a profile of grade levels, ways you would like to communicate, countries and languages you’d prefer, etc. Epals will verify that you are who you say you are and you will get an approval email a few days later. Then you are free to search the profiles and forums to find your way around the site.

Last year I began using epals.com with one 3rd grade class whose teacher came to the computer lab with the kids. Between her insisting that all emails began with “Dear Thomas, (return) How are you? I am fine, thank you.” etc and me not realizing how much needed to be taught ahead of time, the project was a disaster. The simplest thing, like the ‘@’ symbol, would throw some of the kids into next week. Eventually, I got the hang of things and we limped along until the end of the year. One good thing was I had chosen a class from England so there was no language barrier.

This year, I decided to use epals with 4th and 5th grade. I sent home permission slips and received all but one back. It was very easy to create epal accounts. You have a choice of using a name that they will create your accounts from, or you can let them make the name. I chose to use the classroom teacher’s name, which in hindsight means I have to change that next year. I need to rethink what I will do, but it will probably be along the lines of their first names combined with numbers.

I searched through many many schools and countries to find the ones I wanted the kids to correspond with. I chose criteria that the students must speak English, or at least try, and about the same age level. We have emailed Turkey, Spain, Guadalupe, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, and many others.

When you find a school that you would like to email, there is a contact person, much like yourself, with whom you will correspond. This was key! The better established you are with your foreign counterpart, the more successful your kids’ experience will be. Let me explain…

Some of the places that I was trying to have the kids connect with had very little buy-in. It seems that the teachers had heard of epals and decided to give it a whirl, not thinking how much their epals were counting on those return emails. Many was the week or month that no email was returned from our overseas epals. Hence, the reason that all those other countries I had to contact to try to keep the original enthusiasm alive.

My most successful epal experience was with a class in Sweden. The reason we are doing as well as we are is that the classroom teacher and I became friends! It happened in an odd way; while we were setting up our kids and their epals, one of us messed up and assigned some of them incorrectly. Well, the other teacher and I ended up comparing notes about how screwy things can get, and we are now in daily communication on our own private message board. We also talk on IM all the time…so when her students owe mine some email, it’s very easy to say, “Can you get on Henrik to send Ann an email, please? She’s been waiting a long time!” and she passes along the message. I am afraid that many of the teachers, once they set up their students’ accounts, stop checking their email. This is not a good thing…

Every single email that comes into my school or goes out to the other school has to be read by the teacher. It has to be approved before it is sent on. This is VERY time consuming. I happen to enjoy sitting at my computer all night long so for me it is not such a problem, but for people with busy lives, I can see why every week might even be difficult to keep up with.

Finally, if there are inappropriate things in the emails, that needs to also be dealt with. If students move away, epals need to be reassigned, which can be sort of sad for both parties.

Will I do this again next year? Absolutely. But I will try to find out what kind of commitment the other teacher is willing to make. Also, if you choose a country without modern infrastructure, remember that dial up, slow modems, stolen equipment, etc. all combine to make some some very long stretches of time between emails.

One more thing: Other countries have very different vacation schedules than we do. They may have two weeks off when we have one. Many factors will affect the timeliness of your epal relationships.

I would suggest starting off by allowing your students to email each other. Then branch out to other classes in your school or a school nearby . Make sure the kids know their user names and passwords, although a printout of that info is easily obtained.

I’d be happy to try to answer any questions regarding epals. And if you have a 4th or 5th grade class next year that you’d like to have email Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the US, please give me a tweet or a ping!

We have been using some of the fine math websites out there. Grade 3 is a good age to do this with. Today, we spent quite a bit of time on this page: http://tinyurl.com/l2r7z. After a good half hour, one girl figured it out. It even took me a little while to remember how to do it!

Chad Lehman and I did our state conference this AM. Our kids were so excited and tad rambunctious but we got the job done! His two girls, very well composed, asked our 18 or so kids a variety of questions, like what do we like about living in New Hampshire, what is the biggest city, did we have any famous citizens, etc. Mr. Lehman is having a Skype conference with one class in every state. What a great way to learn about our great country!

Wow!

http://www.tweetwheel.com/georgygrrl

I need some help. My district is reconsidering the need for keyboard instruction. I need input from other teachers as to what works, what doesn’t, how long it should be taught, and by which method.
I have started a wiki that anyone should be able to click “Edit” and post comments. After you have typed in your response, please just click “Save” and we should be all set. The wiki is here: http://teachtouchtyping.wetpaint.com/
Thank you very much for any assistance.

It’s a tough time to be a computer teacher. New software is very expensive. I have tried a lot free programs, like Celestia and Stellarium (seems to freeze up), cool stuff like Google Sketch up and Google Earth, but we are always having to update and then, the programs freeze up and quit.

The other problem that is happening more frequently is the bandwidth issue. Since I can’t use the free software, I try the web. I am thwarted there due to bandwidth, or the lack thereof.

I have to really think ahead to all the possibilities of what could happen to mess up my lessons. Whoever thinks being a computer teacher is a piece of cake should try it for a week. Yes, it’s the best job in the world, and yes, I do love it, but just because I make it look easy doesn’t mean it is!!

If you are looking for my previous lessons and reflections, I accidentally erased them all last night.
Yeah, not so smart of me, was it?

http://commentchallenge.wikispaces.com/31+Day+Comment+Challenge

Day 6: Engage another Commenter in Discussion

I know I can do this easily. I think I will do better with this homework!
I finally completed this task. It also took me way longer than expected. I think that the organizers of these tasks should say You have 30 minutes to find and post. Otherwise, I am taking two, three hours of browsing, searching, pondering. I must waste a ton of time! How on earth do these other people do it? Their blogs are always up to date, they comment intelligently on Twitter, they respond politely to their blog comments.
It’s astounding!

Now onto the next lesson, which is:

Day 7: Reflect on What You’ve Learned so Far

Hmmm.. three lessons that I’ve learned thus far… Well, I found out that I am pretty agreeable! It’s very hard to find a lot to disagree with!

I also found out that I feel uncomfortable with a lot of fuss over my posts. I am not sure that I need to post more than I do. I like posting on my two blogs when the mood strikes me. I also read other ed tech type blogs all the time. I try not to post too often because they are often of the “Oh I love what you said! I agree!” variety, which is a no no. So I tend to only post when I really need to, otherwise I just read and move on.

And lastly, I mostly use my blog to remind me of stuff that I want to remember or use in the future. I like to highlight information that I really think may get away from me. That happens to me all the time, regardless of how hard I try to copy and paste the URLs or the info!

Day 8: Comment on a blog outside of your niche

Is Twitter going to ruin my brain for deeper, headier learning?

It seems that many can’t just enjoy Twitter for the little communications program that it is. Instead we have to dissect it, scrutinize the people who use it, whether you be followERS or followEES. If you don’t follow those who follow you, are you a bum? If you respond in an insipid way, certain twitterers will twit, in a very circular fashion, how some people waste their time.

Frankly, I think that all of these discussions are a waste of time. I hate to be a negative kind of gal, but what’s wrong with just enjoying whatever we each reap from it? I love the links, the sharing of info on educational technology. I enjoy the few friends that I have “made” (in a virtual sorta way) and I look forward to seeing what they are up to each day.

One day, I decided to let some classes use comics to experiment with. I twitted for links and was sent enough comic links to keep me busy for the rest of the year. Within minutes, my class had links to have some fun.

I have to admit to some uneasiness with Twitter etiquette. I know that others are, too. If you are being followed, must you also follow that person? My gut reaction would be, no. I don’t follow certain people because I want them to follow ME. I have, at this point, very little to offer. After all, the people whom I follow are top notch in their field. Why on earth would they follow ME? I am honored that I can be a casual observer and grab a link or two, or a nugget or two of their wisdom. I am in this for learning…not popularity.

So if you see me anywhere, say Hi. I won’t be mad if you don’t follow me, as long as I can continue to eavesdrop and hijack your links and share your lesson plans. I am grateful for being able to do so!