Over 1,000 subscribers strong!
INNOVATIVE
TEACHING
presented by
Walter McKenzie - Creative Classroom Consulting
http://www.interserf.net/mcken/consult.htm
Innovative staff development:
Technology Applications, Multiple Intelligences,
Curriculum Integration and Creative Education.
Let's see what we can do for your staff!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 26, 1999

This week's topic was suggested by Miss Amy Kidd at Riverview Elementary
School here in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Amy and I work as instructors at
Mary Washington College, and when last we met she offered, "Hey, how
about an issue on keypals?" You could have knocked me over with a
feather. What a great idea! And so, here we have it. Many varied
opportunities for virtual penpals from around the country and around the
world. Thanks Amy!

Classroom Connect - http://www.classroom.com/
Send a mail to info@... and make "send keypals" your message
and they will send you an assortment of teachers/classes currently
looking for keypals - fast and fresh (it took me three minutes to get a
reply when I tried Tuesday night to make sure it was still up and
running) and current

"Communication Is the Key for Languages Other than English (LOTE)
Students" - http://www.gsn.org/wce/archives/cooke.htm
Thoughtful article on the hows and whys of using email with students, in
this case to promote fluency in learning a foreign language - worthwhile
for all teachers considering using keypals

Dave's ESL Email Connection -
http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/student.html
Part of Dave's ESL Cafe, this site offers the opportunity to find
keypals with students around the world for your ESL children; simply
type in the required info and post, or browse through the listings
already up (as recent as February 23rd) to see who's out there that
might suit your needs

Email and Project Ideas -
http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/publications/pinkbook/sec02.html
This site is a text-heavy tutorial on the ins and outs of having keypals
as well as some neat ideas on activities to do with your keypals once
you have the relationship substantiated; by no means definitive, this
site nonethless gives the novice a place to begin

ePals - http://www.epals.com/
"Over 850,000 students and teachers from 11,237 self-registered schools
and classrooms, in 96 countries, speaking 93 languages are now
participating. Each month, up to 1,000 or more new classrooms register
with ePALS and begin corresponding with others schools" - truly
impressive

ETNI - http://www.boker.org.il/eng/etni/annkey.htm
The Israeli English Teacher's Network with very current postings of
classes looking for others to correspond with; announcements from
Kindergarten classes through High Schools as of February 7th

Global Heinemann -
http://www.reedbooks.com.au/heinemann/global/global1.html
A little tighter and more thorough than it's counterpart's Rigby's site,
the idea is basically the same; Heinemann also gets into other kinds of
online projects and other activities you can experience online with your
class - I like the way Heinemann splits up their database into age
groups, too

Global Rigby -
http://www.reedbooks.com.au/rigby/global/keypal.html#keypal
From down under, Rigby is a first class name and they live up to it with
this site: lists of teachers and students to peruse for your
consideration, "Kidsphere" where teachers can interact to plan a keypal
experience, and "Kidlink" where you can get a master list of teachers
around the world who are teaching with telecommunications

Houghton Mifflin's Keypals and Correspondents Exchange -
http://www.eduplace.com/projects/keypals.html
I guess here in the states there aren't too many companies more familiar
to teachers than textbook publishers, so if you're looking for an old
reliable as your base of operations you may very well feel comfortable
here among the nearly 50 different links that are offered for keypal
activities

How to Find Penpals - http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/online/coll1a.htm
Loogootee West's step by step suggestions on how to go about finding a
keypal or keypals online and nurturing a safe, constructive
relationship; very basic and to the point - be sure to view "Safety
Tips" and "Suggested Topics and Activities"

"Ideas for Collaborative E-mail and WWW Language Learning" -
http://www.gsn.org/wce/archives/davies.htm
Lawrence B. Davies shares a variety of ways to look at keypals so that
you can consider the most effective design for your classroom; less real
life and more theory based, this may be worth your while if you want to
have a solid model to work from as you plan your first experience (or if
you'd like to revisit your approach since your last keypal project)

IECC - http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/
Intercultural Email Classroom Connections (I just call them St. Olaf's
because it's run out of St. Olaf's College) is a group of listservs
which address different online collaborative projects for teachers and
students; for penpals subscribe to IECC (for K-12) by sending an email
to IECC-REQUEST@... with "subscribe" as the message - you'll be
hearing from fresh faces from all over the world looking for keypal
relationships

Internet Foreign Language Partners - http://138.87.135.33/fl/main.htm
Yup, keypals for foreign language students, and this site is unique in
that you can search for interested classes by language, level of
proficiency and particular interests; it's also nicely double blinded so
that even if someone wants to get in touch with you, you get to see
their profile and decide whether or not you want them to receive your
name and email address - very well thought out

"Internet Keypals" - http://www.4teachers.org/kidspeak/aberdeen/
Reflective article on 8 girls from New Jersey who had keypals, their ups
and downs, pleasures and pitfalls expressed here for the benefit of the
rest of us as we begin to dabble in this fascinating yet unfamiliar
forum - a must read

IT'S Magazine - http://its-online.com/meet.html
Offbeat magazine for teachers of English offers the opportunity for both
students and teachers to look for keypals, register as a prospective
keypal and even look for traditional postal penpals

Keypal Finder - http://www.ziplink.net/users/tlipcon/keypals/
This site actually asks for some very rudimentary information and then
helps find a pen pal for you based on the info you provide; open to "all
ages," so you might want to be a little more careful with children
toying with this one, but a nice, neat way to go about finding a cyber
pal

Keypals Club - http://www.mightymedia.com/keypals/
Mighty Media hosts this site which emphasizes safety for teachers and
students while enjoying a keypals experience; they require parental
permission, screen the email, and provide complete privacy for all
participants in their program - nice interface makes the process easy
and functional

Keypals Club International - http://www.worldkids.net/clubs/kci/
Created by a twelve year old and her friends, this site is definitely
set up for pre-teens with lots of opinion polls, digital post cards and
homepages for each of its 12,000+ members; password protected with an
emphasis on net safety and netiquette - very slick looking format!

Kidlink Network - http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/overview.html
Here's a dynamic site that offers interactive projects, conferencing,
listservs, online art exhibits, a private IRC chat room and a MUSH
(virtual environment) all for kids aged 10-15 to express themselves and
experience others from more than 125 different countries around the
world; languages seem to be no problem as they have a number of major
tongues provided for on their site - too cool

Kidpub Keypals - http://www.kidpub.org/kidpub/keypals/keypal-search.html

A searchable database of kids looking for correspondents both in the US
(state by state) or around the world; simply type in your specs and then
have them return a list of suitable matches for your consideration - one
on one matches

Kidworld - http://www.bconnex.net/~kidworld/keypals4.htm
Kids post their name and interests individually; simple click on their
name and a form appears to send email to them - nice format if you have
only 1-5 kids who you want to get involved with electronic
correspondence or if you don't have a mail client on your school
computers but you still want to try keypals

Student Letter Exchange - http://www.pen-pal.com/
Use Internet technology to find a traditional penpal for snailmail
correspondence; register for free (to ensure security) and wait to hear
from your mystery pen pal (it's a surprise) - not a bad way to get your
class involved one on one while catering to all their different needs
and interests.....and this company's been in business since the 1930s,
so you know they're reputable

Surf-E-Mates - http://www.ozkidz.gil.com.au/rm/student/surfe.html
It's Australian, so don't let the title fool you, this is a moderated
site to ensure its safety for children; covering the U.S., Australia,
Greece and Canada, these listings are for one on one correspondence -
ideal for those one or two students who are ready for some enrichment
beyond your four walls

"Technology Has Opened My Classroom Doors to the World" -
http://www.gsn.org/wce/archives/bodner.htm
Another excellent GSN piece on a third grade teacher and the impact
keypals had on her entire curriculum; interesting in that the author was
not a proponent of technology in the classroom to begin with.....also
shares some of her student's real world experiences first-hand

WeNet Keypals - http://www2.waikato.ac.nz/education/WeNET/key/khome.html

Lists of interested parties by grade levels looking for keypals, the
most current postings are first; maintained by David Blackwell as part
of the WeNet Projects site - not a lot of listings but certainly some
worthwhile queries


Next week's topic: "Women's History"

Please send in URL's of high quality sites which may be
of interest to our readers to mrmck@...!
Also, I'm always looking for new topic ideas and input!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visit The Innovative Teaching Website:
http://www.interserf.net/mcken/teacher.htm

This newsletter may be forwarded or copied as long as the
header and signature information remain intact. Show a
colleague about what you have found in Innovative Teaching! =D
-©1999 Walter McKenzie

------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/innovative-teaching
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com

Over 1,000 subscribers strong! INNOVATIVE TEACHING presented by Walter McKenzie - Creative Classroom Consulting http://www.interserf.net/mcken/consult.htm Innovative staff development: Technology Applications, Multiple Intelligences, Curriculum Integration and Creative Education. Let's see what we can do for your staff!    

---

February 26, 1999

This week's topic was suggested by Miss Amy Kidd at Riverview Elementary School here in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Amy and I work as instructors at Mary Washington College, and when last we met she offered, "Hey, how about an issue on keypals?" You could have knocked me over with a feather. What a great idea! And so, here we have it. Many varied opportunities for virtual penpals from around the country and around the world. Thanks Amy!

Classroom Connect - http://www.classroom.com/
Send a mail to info@... and make "send keypals" your message and they will send you an assortment of teachers/classes currently looking for keypals - fast and fresh (it took me three minutes to get a reply when I tried Tuesday night to make sure it was still up and running) and current

"Communication Is the Key for Languages Other than English (LOTE) Students" - http://www.gsn.org/wce/archives/cooke.htm
Thoughtful article on the hows and whys of using email with students, in this case to promote fluency in learning a foreign language - worthwhile for all teachers considering using keypals

Dave's ESL Email Connection - http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/student.html
Part of Dave's ESL Cafe, this site offers the opportunity to find keypals with students around the world for your ESL children; simply type in the required info and post, or browse through the listings already up (as recent as February 23rd) to see who's out there that might suit your needs

Email and Project Ideas - http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/publications/pinkbook/sec02.html
This site is a text-heavy tutorial on the ins and outs of having keypals as well as some neat ideas on activities to do with your keypals once you have the relationship substantiated; by no means definitive, this site nonethless gives the novice a place to begin

ePals - http://www.epals.com/
"Over 850,000 students and teachers from 11,237 self-registered schools and classrooms, in 96 countries, speaking 93 languages are now participating. Each month, up to 1,000 or more new classrooms register with ePALS and begin corresponding with others schools" - truly impressive

ETNI - http://www.boker.org.il/eng/etni/annkey.htm
The Israeli English Teacher's Network with very current postings of classes looking for others to correspond with; announcements from Kindergarten classes through High Schools as of February 7th

Global Heinemann - http://www.reedbooks.com.au/heinemann/global/global1.html
A little tighter and more thorough than it's counterpart's Rigby's site, the idea is basically the same; Heinemann also gets into other kinds of online projects and other activities you can experience online with your class - I like the way Heinemann splits up their database into age groups, too

Global Rigby - http://www.reedbooks.com.au/rigby/global/keypal.html#keypal
From down under, Rigby is a first class name and they live up to it with this site: lists of teachers and students to peruse for your consideration, "Kidsphere" where teachers can interact to plan a keypal experience, and "Kidlink" where you can get a master list of teachers around the world who are teaching with telecommunications

Houghton Mifflin's Keypals and Correspondents Exchange - http://www.eduplace.com/projects/keypals.html
I guess here in the states there aren't too many companies more familiar to teachers than textbook publishers, so if you're looking for an old reliable as your base of operations you may very well feel comfortable here among the nearly 50 different links that are offered for keypal activities

How to Find Penpals - http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/online/coll1a.htm
Loogootee West's step by step suggestions on how to go about finding a keypal or keypals online and nurturing a safe, constructive relationship; very basic and to the point - be sure to view "Safety Tips" and "Suggested Topics and Activities"

"Ideas for Collaborative E-mail and WWW Language Learning" - http://www.gsn.org/wce/archives/davies.htm
Lawrence B. Davies shares a variety of ways to look at keypals so that you can consider the most effective design for your classroom; less real life and more theory based, this may be worth your while if you want to have a solid model to work from as you plan your first experience (or if you'd like to revisit your approach since your last keypal project)

IECC - http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/
Intercultural Email Classroom Connections (I just call them St. Olaf's because it's run out of St. Olaf's College) is a group of listservs which address different online collaborative projects for teachers and students; for penpals subscribe to IECC (for K-12) by sending an email to IECC-REQUEST@... with "subscribe" as the message - you'll be hearing from fresh faces from all over the world looking for keypal relationships

Internet Foreign Language Partners - http://138.87.135.33/fl/main.htm
Yup, keypals for foreign language students, and this site is unique in that you can search for interested classes by language, level of proficiency and particular interests; it's also nicely double blinded so that even if someone wants to get in touch with you, you get to see their profile and decide whether or not you want them to receive your name and email address - very well thought out

"Internet Keypals" - http://www.4teachers.org/kidspeak/aberdeen/
Reflective article on 8 girls from New Jersey who had keypals, their ups and downs, pleasures and pitfalls expressed here for the benefit of the rest of us as we begin to dabble in this fascinating yet unfamiliar forum - a must read

IT'S Magazine - http://its-online.com/meet.html
Offbeat magazine for teachers of English offers the opportunity for both students and teachers to look for keypals, register as a prospective keypal and even look for traditional postal penpals

Keypal Finder - http://www.ziplink.net/users/tlipcon/keypals/
This site actually asks for some very rudimentary information and then helps find a pen pal for you based on the info you provide; open to "all ages," so you might want to be a little more careful with children toying with this one, but a nice, neat way to go about finding a cyber pal

Keypals Club - http://www.mightymedia.com/keypals/
Mighty Media hosts this site which emphasizes safety for teachers and students while enjoying a keypals experience; they require parental permission, screen the email, and provide complete privacy for all participants in their program - nice interface makes the process easy and functional

Keypals Club International - http://www.worldkids.net/clubs/kci/
Created by a twelve year old and her friends, this site is definitely set up for pre-teens with lots of opinion polls, digital post cards and homepages for each of its 12,000+ members; password protected with an emphasis on net safety and netiquette - very slick looking format!

Kidlink Network - http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/overview.html
Here's a dynamic site that offers interactive projects, conferencing, listservs, online art exhibits, a private IRC chat room and a MUSH (virtual environment) all for kids aged 10-15 to express themselves and experience others from more than 125 different countries around the world; languages seem to be no problem as they have a number of major tongues provided for on their site - too cool

Kidpub Keypals - http://www.kidpub.org/kidpub/keypals/keypal-search.html
A searchable database of kids looking for correspondents both in the US (state by state) or around the world; simply type in your specs and then have them return a list of suitable matches for your consideration - one on one matches

Kidworld - http://www.bconnex.net/~kidworld/keypals4.htm
Kids post their name and interests individually; simple click on their name and a form appears to send email to them - nice format if you have only 1-5 kids who you want to get involved with electronic correspondence or if you don't have a mail client on your school computers but you still want to try keypals
 
Student Letter Exchange - http://www.pen-pal.com/
Use Internet technology to find a traditional penpal for snailmail correspondence; register for free (to ensure security) and wait to hear from your mystery pen pal (it's a surprise) - not a bad way to get your class involved one on one while catering to all their different needs and interests.....and this company's been in business since the 1930s, so you know they're reputable

Surf-E-Mates - http://www.ozkidz.gil.com.au/rm/student/surfe.html
It's Australian, so don't let the title fool you, this is a moderated site to ensure its safety for children; covering the U.S., Australia, Greece and Canada, these listings are for one on one correspondence - ideal for those one or two  students who are ready for some enrichment beyond your four walls

"Technology Has Opened My Classroom Doors to the World" - http://www.gsn.org/wce/archives/bodner.htm
Another excellent GSN piece on a third grade teacher and the impact keypals had on her entire curriculum; interesting in that the author was not a proponent of technology in the classroom to begin with.....also shares some of her student's real world experiences first-hand

WeNet Keypals - http://www2.waikato.ac.nz/education/WeNET/key/khome.html
Lists of interested parties by grade levels looking for keypals, the most current postings are first; maintained by David Blackwell as part of the WeNet Projects site - not a lot of listings but certainly some worthwhile queries
 

Next week's topic: "Women's History"

Please send in URL's of high quality sites which may be
of interest to our readers to mrmck@...!
Also, I'm always looking for new topic ideas and input!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visit  The Innovative Teaching Website:
http://www.interserf.net/mcken/teacher.htm

This newsletter may be forwarded or copied as long as the
header and signature information remain intact. Show a
colleague about what you have found in Innovative Teaching!  =D
                                                  -©1999 Walter McKenzie
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

---

eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/innovative-teaching
Free Web-based e-mail groups by www.eGroups.com