My penpal and I conversed for many years. I got the neatest Christmas cards. When I was in college I met a Japanese-American girl who planned on doing an internship in Tokyo. I told her about my pen pal. To make a long story short, my college friend found my pen pal in Tokyo. A year later, the two of them visited me in the United States.
Although my penpal relationship has now progressed to the key pal stage (we've moved on to email), I still keep in contact with her after more than a decade! My penpal experience has been one of growth and cultural understanding. An experience I'm certainly glad I've had.
BENEFITS OF PENPALS (KEYPALS)
Penpals are an excellent way to encourage students to write while enabling them to experience another culture. Just the contact with email and the Internet alone, when writing to a keypal, enables students to access the communication system of the present and future (it's fast, economical, and global). Teachers can exchange lesson plans; students can work on a project with other students thousands of miles away.
But before going through the work of obtaining penpals or keypals the information contained in Observations on Educational Electronic Networking should be read, http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/Guidelines/LRWS.h... It points out the drawbacks of having classroom penpals, and yes, unfortunately, there are some. I had whole groups of students who had absolutely no motivation. Who wants a penpal that won't write? Also look at the Report on a PenPal Project and Tips for PenPal Project Success, http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Techniqu... to better your penpal classroom experience.
HOW DO I GET A PENPAL (KEYPAL)? So, how does one become a part of a pen pal exchange? Well, not surprisingly, email has made having a keypal very easy! There are still some people who prefer the good old-fashioned letter writing (I hope that continues) and even many schools in the world that don't have email access.
I have compiled a list of web sites that should prove useful to anyone interested in obtaining a penpal. There are many wonderful people to meet!
Access eMail Classroom Exchange provides students with an opportunity to converse with students around the world!
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