Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Totti]

I'm teaching at a High School and one of the topics for the new class term is making E-pal. Has anyone used a social networking site like http://www.englishbaby.com/ for their class before? If so how has it worked out? I think it would be cool for students to have pen-friends, but want to make sure they're using a legit website before telling them to sign up.

[ddeubel]

Totti,

I have a lot of experience with English Baby. It has some great content and chat. However, as a teacher, I'd be reticent to use it with students or recommend. It doesn't met any "safety" threshold and there are alot of potential dangers.

Find a site by connecting with a fellow teacher. That's the right way. Make the connection, tight and personal. Monitor and cheerlead. Lots of sites out there like epals or EFL classroom where you can meet teachers, hook up students and get student's connected. My rule of thumb is oversight --

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[.38 Special]

I tried doing the e-pal thing once. It lasted a week before I got a stalker.

I told him off. About two years later I get a telephone call at a family member's house from a rather psychotic sounding man. Surprise! Your e-pal is back!

And that's the story of how .38 Special got his first .38 Special revolver and the license to carry it.

FYI, I'm not joking. I was 20 years-old at the time and a man. This should say something about the variety of sickoes out there. Use e-pal services with great caution. You would be well advised to keep your students away from freely accessed internet services that can compromise their safety.

[crossmr]

One of the best ways to to do this? Contact your old school of the appropriate grade back home. Tell them you're an old grad, you're teaching here, and you'd like to set them up with a penpal/email pal program with the students there. They'd probably jump at it.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[Totti]

Cheers for the feedback everyone. I've contacted a few language schools around Europe who seem quite interested at first, but then seem to lose interest in the idea.

I definitely check out EFL.Classroom and I'll try to contact my old school and see what they say!

[.38 Special]

[ddeubel]