E-Pals

=E-Pals= toc

Background Information
[|E-Pals] is a global community of collaborative learners and teachers from over 200 countires in the world. [|E-Pals] provides a safe and protected connection between students, teachers, and classrooms from around the world. This year, our school will be participating in the [|E-Pals]community of learners. Each North Side student and teacher will receive their own email address for communicating with pen pals from around the school and around the world. Classroom teachers in grades 1-5 will be supplied with a list of their students' email addresses. I would suggest you keep these handy when working on an [|E-Pals project]. Please feel free to contact me if you misplace your list. Also, if you find you are missing a student or you receive a new student at some point during the year, please let me know so that I can get him/her registered.

Through E-Pals our North Side community will be able to work on essential reading, writing, communication, and global awareness standards. E-Pals has a variety of options for participation. I would recommend getting together as a grade level team to determine what level of participation you are comfortable with participating in this year.

E-Mail with E-Pals
There are a variety of levels of filtering provided by E-Pals. Using the E-Pals email address, students may email anyone in the school or anyone within the E-Pals community. In addition, as the classroom teacher, you are given the responsibility of monitoring the email of your class. Currently, all student emails must be approved before being sent out. This means that whenever your students send an email you will receive a copy in your E-Pals account to approve before it is sent to the intended recipient. As we grow with the program, we can determine whether or not this high level of filtering is necessary or if we can bump down to the next level. Please provide me with feedback regarding the program as the school year progresses.

[|E-Pals Projects]
E-Pals has already created lesson plans that will fit in with your grade level curriculum. Topics include map skills, animal habitats, people and culture, and global warming to name a few. Most of the projects require a minimum of 5 emails and explicit directions are given as to what type of information your students should be asking in each communication. In addition, projects can be completed in a variety of ways: all students writing to their own 'pen pal'; groups of students writing to groups of students; or one letter created by the class sent to the teacher of another classroom around the world. Thus, it can be tailored to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners and age levels. Click on the heading above, to see more detailed information about the E-Pals Projects.

This will be a learning experience for all of us this year. Please keep me informed on any problems or concerns along the way.