What Is Taking So Long?

Hello

I can't answer your question without more detail but it does depend on how much effort you're putting into finding suitable partners.  Many, many ePals teachers find successful partnerships within hours and days of joining and conducting their search, so here are some best practise tips to help you:

1.  Search ePals database - include as many specific criteria as possible, this will narrow down the results returned to you of possible partner classrooms.  When you see a profile that you think might be suitable, and if you're a teacher with an approved profile, click "Contact this profile", and compose an email message to that teacher.  Include as much detail as possible in this email about what it is you'd like to do and accomplish with your students. 

Don't forget, if you receive one of these requests, be courteous and reply!

When you are looking through the profiles that appear as a result of your search, keep in mind that the most active teachers appear first.  If you want to be found, log in to your account at least every day - that will keep your profile at the top of another teacher's search results page.

2.  Keep your topics broad and your goals flexible, for now.  In beginning to work with another teacher in designing your partnership, your partner teacher has his/her own curriculum goals too.  The two of you can work together to further define and narrow down what it is your students will be working on. This means that you are collaborating too!

Let's look at this example, and see which teacher you'd be interested in responding to as a result of an email request that is in your inbox:

"My grade 7 students can only email 1/week for 3 weeks and it has to be about butterflies.  Will you work with us?",   OR

"My grade 7 students are interested in emailing a partner class for a month regarding science topics. Are you available to work with us?"

Who's email would you respond to?

3.  Post an ePals Wanted ad on our Teacher Talk Forum. Hundreds of active ePals teachers visit this forum every week to see what everyone is doing!

 4.  Read through ePals' Join the Conversation blog.  Successful ePals teachers from around the world are sharing their tips, best practises and stories of how they've used ePals with their students.

Hope this helps!

Sheila

Dear Houston teacher,

I just read Sheila's answer to your question and she gave a wonderful response. If you follow her suggestions I feel you will have success in finding a good connection. I can offer a few other suggestions.

Over the years I have connected many of my students to other students in various countries. When I first began I had failures because I didn't have my epal program very well organized. I just let my students begin writing to epals and soon everything would end. I didn't really understand why until I monitored the letters and discovered how things break down.

One of the first things you must do is get to know the teacher of the class you will have your students connect to. You must discuss exactly how you will operate the exchange. You need to plan topics and rules of the program. One sign for a hopeful connection is if the teacher you are working with has the opportunity to write to you often, maybe 2 or 3 times a week, and has the time to invest in making plans with you. If the teacher has a lot of other responsiblities and can't connect with you a lot then I would suggest you find another teacher who can devote more time to the exchange. It takes an enormous amount of time to have the most rewarding success. It's like anything in life. The more you put into something the higher the reward. I have developed some life-time friends through my exchanges and some of my students have too. I'd say my students having epals has been one of my most rewarding experiences in my 30 year teaching career.

Another critical component for success is to have each connecting teacher have each student send the email through them first. I keep logs of my students emails and record when they send and receive their emails. I also make sure nothing is said, by accident, that could make someone else feel bad. It's also important to have students follow netiquette rules. For example I make sure each students ASKS QUESTIONS and ANSWERS QUESTIONS of their epals on agreed upon topics. If this is not done students don't know what to say in emails. If the team teachers don't record emails then compare notes with each other of who owes who an email then the project usually falls apart. Students get busy and forget if they have written or not, or just don't answer an email. If students don't reply to epals quickly then interest decreases and this makes for a poor connection. Another important item is that the epals usually enjoy writing to someone who is similar in age because then the level of maturity is usually the same and they can relate better to each other.

You are welcome to look at my website showing some of my connections I've had over the years. I also have handouts you can click on and print that may help you in planning your projects. For example, I always send letters home to parents explaining the project. Then I show sample email letters for students to understand how to write letters. I also have a netiquette page explaining proper behavior for connection with others. You are welcome to use anything I have.

I forgot to mention the calendar issue. Schools around the world have different times they have school. If you are interested in one particular country then you need to find out when the students are available. You need to make sure you have at least 2 to 3 months of time together to have any kind of success. More time is much better. You need this time for students to have enough exchanges to make it fun. 

There are so many other things to mention about having a project. Please look at what I have already developed. Here is the link to my website: http://henry.sandi.net/staff/cpauchni/pals0506.html

You will notice I don't have epal connections right now. I usually have my project in the spring and I plan out much of what I want to do with my curriculum first before I send out my advertisement. I am currently in the process of planning an English project with a teacher in Italy. We will have our students read the same book and do a project on what they read. 

Good luck with epal connections. I'm sure you will get wonderful connections as I have had. Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Sincerely,

Candace Pauchnick, Patrick Henry High School, San Diego, CA.