Letters are coming in!

Hi - I just received some exciting news....our epals from New Zealand are starting to respond!  Each letter is coming directly into my epals account and I will be printing the letters for the students.  Our students are not able to have their own epal account. 

The letters are great!  I think my students are going to be thrilled to receive them.  So far the six students from New Zealand that have responded already have talked about living on farms with 3,000 sheep and going to the farmer's market to sell eggs and crops on Sundays.  Because I have only received six letters, I am going to wait a few days to see if more letters come in and then I will distribute to the students.

Also, I have plans with Kathy to come into my classroom to work with the students on google earth.  They will be able to see the small town in New Zealand where the students attend school.  She has showed it to me and it is so neat.  We are able to see the small fire house, post office, their beach, etc.  I am looking forward to my students seeing this. 

Project Update

Hi....last Friday, my students sent the first email to their epals from New Zealand.  Thank you so much to Kathy who came in to my classroom to help the students accomplish this task.  It was a little crazy, but thank goodness for Kathy!  We have not heard any responses back yet.  I did speak with my contact teacher in New Zealand.  She explained to me that they only have three computers so it may take them a little while to get back to us.  The students are very excited to be epals with students from another country and they are eager to get responses back.  In the meantime, we have been doing some research on New Zealand.

In class this week, Kim and I have been working on creating rubrics for our epals project as well as creating a survey for the students to fill out.  We will be working on the lesson plan and adding the common core standards soon. 

Project Update

Hi....My students are very excited to be E-Pals with students from New Zealand!  We are in the process of writing introductory letters.  Our plan is to send them tomorrow!  So far, the kids have come up with some great letters and they are looking forward to hearing back from their E-Pal.  This first letter consists of the students introducing themselves.....they give their name, age, where they live, family life, pets, etc.  They also talk about what their hobbies are and what they like to do.  As we get more involved with the project we are going to expand the conversation to talk about our school and our community.  As we wait to hear back from our E-Pals, the students are going to do some research on New Zealand and we are going to generate some questions to ask our E-Pals. 

Project Update for the week of March 1

Hi....my project is underway.  My email contact from New Zealand gave me her class list this week.  My next step is to have my students write an email through epals introducing themselves to her students.  I do want to go over a few things with my students before we send emails to her students.  I plan on giving my students some background information on New Zealand and I also want to review the letter writing format with them.  With my students I would also like to generate a list of questions that they think or feel will be important to ask their epal.  I will keep you posted on how things are going...

Before I got to this point, my contact from New Zealand and I had written several emails back and forth just trying to figuring how this was all going to work out.  I felt a little strange about it because we jumped right into speaking of the project - I didn't know anything about who she was - I had no background information on her.  So...I wrote to her explaining and introducing myself.  I talked about what I do and about my family.  She responded and told me about herself.  Now I feel more comfortable because I feel like I "know" her a bit. 

So far, this has been a great experience.  I am really excited for my students.  I think they are really going to like this project.