Pen Pals in Grade 11 and 12 Classes.

I have finished up the final arrangements for the last two blocks in my semester 2 Communications 12 classes. With Pen Pals in West Borneo, Senegal and now Poland, I am feeling quite proud of myself as certainty of success seeps.

I went out on a line and reached out to a teacher who put a Pen Pals add on Edmodo. I came across the idea in the past with other teachers but they either gave up before we started or wanted to keep it electric and unsupervised.

I have secured two colleagues whoa re serious and like minded in the Pen Pal activity that we have developed. The system is simple really, the first correspondence is written communication, a tangible letter. This is the part that people do not car for because of the time and effort it takes to get a package of letters put together and mailed out. I have sitting next to me at this time the package with letters. I will be adding some "Chinese Xiao Chi" to it as well (small very small sweets and other snacks that are loved here). The letters were sealed in envelopes I had been collecting from all the different places I have been to around China which I think may make it interesting for the students who are receiving the letters written by my students. It was interesting for my students at the time while they were comparing the different envelopes with each other as well.

From the first exchange, students are then going to continue writing by hand but will be giving it or scanning it themselves for the teacher. The students' letters will be electronically scanned/sent to the other classroom teacher and vice versa. This process is a bit of work for the teacher, but if the students are putting in the work that they should be, this is the least the teacher could do.

The long term goal of this played over in a few different ways in my mind. The number one most interesting way, would be to actually travel to the place that the class' pen pals are from (and/or vice versa). Exchanges between countries is expensive though. Realistically, it would just be really cool if we could have a skype call from class to class and then basically have the students do different projects with the students in the other class from a distance and present via skype together.

Ideas are continually flowing, right now I am just excited to get my student's letters out there though.

All the best!