e-Pals

It is very important to expose our students to people from different parts of the world to gain a better cultural understanding and a broader view of the world. One website that allows this connection to be possible is ePals.

This website aims to create a network of Global Citizens and Digital Citizens. This website serves grades pre-k-12. Schools from all over the world participate in this website. The website provides schools with e-mails, classroom matches to find partners to work with through the website, media galleris and forums for teachers students and their families. Teachers have the ability to monitor their students to ensure safety on the internet. Classrooms can participate in projects where they collobrate with partners from somewhere else in the world. This allows students to gain perspectives from other cultures while engaging in educational experiences as well as cultural diversity.

The website offers many motivating components for students to participate in activies such as Games, In2Books Clubhouse (only for US citizens), Smithsonia ePals and much more! Cricket is a component of the website that teachers can subscribe to for their classrooms. Cricket is a chidlren's magizine thats mission is to "inspire children to a lifelong love of reading and writing". Cricket contains a "variety of books, crafts, toys, and gifts" that make the learning process fun for children.   There are also rescourses for teachers such as a focus on the common core which is significant for all teachers in the United States.

This website provides an authentic way to incorporate educational topics with a fusion of cultural diversity. It is not possible for all students in our classroom to have the resources to meet those from another culture. It is our job as teachers to encourage this bridge to those around the world and provide them with the resources to do so. It is important to encourage our students to be not only citizens of the United States but global citizens.