ePals' "Classroom Match"

ePals has so many cool features that seem easy to use in the classroom.

I would use the Classroom Match. It's great how you can search and see the profiles of all the different classrooms that want to connect. It gives you their location, their language, and an age group that you would be working with. I also love that you can search for specific areas of interest!

As a Spanish teacher, I would find a classroom with students of similar ages to my students (13-16) who are native speakers of Spanish learning English. Hopefully they would be at a similar level to my students (beginner) and we could exchange emails on a biweekly basis. It would be great to be able to coordinate with their classroom teacher to cover similar vocabulary topics as we go. For example, when we first learn how to introduce ourselves our first couple of exchanges would cover things like name, origin, age, interests, etc.

I think it's a great way to hit home what I teach. I think a lot of my students don't really see themselves travelling and therefore think they will never have to use Spanish. However with ePals it proves to them that you don't have to travel to communicate with other cultures. They can become 21st century learners and can pick up on cultural nuances, slang, and learn about the lives of people their age in other parts of the world!