Creating a Global Community!

This past week I have spent a lot of time exploring the ePals website. One aspect of this website that I really like is the effort to build a global community. The website allows teachers to create a profile and state their classroom goals. They can then collaborate and connect with another classroom from around the world to meet these goals. This is a great way for students to have direct contact with not only other cultures around the United States but also cultures around the world. This is perfect for foreign language classrooms such as French or Spanish. The teacher can connect his/her class with a class from France or Spain and use this connection to send emails, Skype, and learn from one another. For ESOL classrooms, the teacher can use this site to connect with other English speaking nations such as England or Australia in addition to other areas of the United States so students can learn about all the different cultures within this country.

Another aspect of this site that I really like is the link to the teacher resources page. This page provides downloads for many different instructional resources including PDF, video, and audio. My favorite part of the teacher resources page is the Common Core Implementation Center. This page provides ready-to-use, collaborative CCSS ELA projects through ePals. I think this is great because it provides a way for teachers to align the Common Core with the use of ePals in the classroom.

Another very useful aspect of this site is in the Tools for School page. This section provides a great amount of teacher resources and even has a list of classroom-tested and teacher approved resources. The only downfall to this section is that some of the resources cost money. However, there is a good amount of resources that are free for teachers to try before purchasing others. These resources can be browsed via content area, grade, price, and language.

Overall, I really enjoyed the various aspects of this website and definitely plan to use it with my future students. Not only are the resources endless, but there are also numerous classrooms around the world to collaborate with and learn from. I love this site, especially the idea of involving my classroom in a global community!