Any Teachers Available for a Classroom Video Penpal?
 

Hey there, guy!

I'm a new teacher in China's Yunnan Province with some very energetic and excited 2nd to 6th grade kids under my tutelage. I've been enjoying the forums and activities here, and I wanted to see if there was any other teacher who would be willing to do a video penpal exchange program with me. My kids are just starting out, so they are far too shy to do anything real-time for now. However, I figure that if I can get their interest going in interacting with real kids on the other side of the world, then they wouldn't mind recording a video message to send along. That way, not only would they get the chance to speak with some real friends, but I would be able to introduce them to a bit of Western culture as well.

Ideally, I would like to have your kids be about the same age as my kids, meaning elementary school ages. I'm particularly looking for a teacher outside of southeast Asia since these kids are already familiar with the countries bordering China. If anyone's interested, please let me know and we can work out the details as we go along.

Re: Any Teachers Available for a Classroom Video Penpal?
 

I love this idea.
Just wish your students were older.

Re: Any Teachers Available for a Classroom Video Penpal?
 

Actually, since the time that I posted this message, I have been redirected to ePals Global Community with very good results, so I've been able to hook up with a couple of other teachers there and started sending videos back and forth. It's hard on the kids to listen to talk to someone in their non-native language, but it's also very exciting as well.

I highly recommend epals.com to anyone else who had the same idea as I did. I didn't even have to bother going through any forums or a long list of search results. I just finished filling in my profile, logged in the next day, and there was a message from a fellow teacher waiting for me. It's marvelous to be able to share languages and culture across the world.