nn

Dude, don't do it.

Unless you know for a fact that you'll get replies.

My husband worked like a fiend to get people to commit to send responses (from the States). Some were friends, some he found online, but all committed to sending at least one reply.

My husband did all kinds of work for it, sent out all the letters to a kajillion different schools (he had 360 ish kids, so he had to split them up to different places), and he got a grand total of 20 letters in response. He'd only asked for one reply.

His school didn't understand that it wasn't his fault and that he had no control over what teachers in the States did. His students were upset and disappointed. All in all, it was a massive failure.

I'm sorry to sound so negative, but I just want to save you from crashing and burning like my poor husband. If you have solid contacts that you're certain will respond at least once, go for it.

Good luck, whatever you decide!  :)

Hi Gunpo_Erin,

I agree that it can be a bit of a hassle but if you have everything organized and somewhat under control then it can be a wonderful project!  A friend of mine did it and I did it as well and both times were overall a success. 

I agree with what was previously mentioned in that you should make sure you have reliable contacts being that you don't have control over the letters.  How often will you see your class and require a response?  I had my extra class 2x a week and since I wanted to allow for a lot of time for them to respond/receive emails, I had them read their letters the first time and start a rough draft, then complete their drafts the second time.  So, in other words, they only received one letter each week and sent off one letter each week. 

I knew 2 teachers back home that were able to help but it was a bit difficult making sure they responded in time with holidays and different school year schedules.  But if you get it all planned out in advance you can make it work!

Since you can't just make students write magically, I gave them an overall layout including topics to discuss and how to begin/end a letter, ask questions, etc.  This helped to get them started and quicken things up since I only had 45 minutes per class (35 of actual teaching since they were always late) and there were 25 students to attend to. 

Also, to make it fun, I printed out each letter that was sent, addressed it to each student and put a US postage stamp on it!  If you can find stamps, the kids will really enjoy them =)  Um... oh, but the only problem with that was that they thought I was typing out all the letters.... I thought, "Seriously, do you really think I have the time to write you a bunch of letters?  I think not" =P  So to fix that, I got the teachers to take pictures of their students to send and I did the same.

Once again, it's a wonderful idea and can be a success if properly planned. 

Hope this helps! ;)

Awesome!  I appreciate the advice!  I go home on vacation tomorrow and I am meeting with the local elementary school to see if they are up for it.  If not, then I keep scoping it out!   :D

I used epals.com and it worked well.

If anyone wants some Finnish pen pals, I have a few too many letters to match all of the participating students in my school.  I can send you a PDF of the Finnish students' letters and tell you which children haven't been spoken for.  I have mostly grade 5 girls and grade 4 boys still waiting to find Korean friends.

Hey Gunpo Erin,

Since I have little time, I wasn't able to read over this thread, so you may have been helped already. I just wanted to send a message your way because I have done a pen pal class and it was really successful.


How I got started was through my aunt who is a 4th grade teacher in WI. She had her students send letters to me here in Korea and then I gave each letter to one of  my 4th grade students.

-Don't worry about age/grade level. My 4th graders as ESL students wrote longer, stronger, more grammatically correct letters than the 4th grade students who speak English fluently.
-They are SO EXCITED to get a penpal from another country.
-Try to get/give pictures of the students so they can see their faces.
-I gave my students a sheet labeled "About Me" which included spaces for them to fill out their favorite things. This REALLY helped them write their letters and move along smoothly.

I have no idea if this helped. :) Good luck!

Having pen pals sounds like a great idea but I've been mulling around with the idea of setting up "video" pals. 

I would record videos of my students (student introductions, questions, responses, etc.), upload them to youtube, and have a teacher from America do the same in response to my videos.  It would be a lot easier than having to coordinate letters, addresses, and everything else that comes along with pen pals.

any thoughts?

Check out www.classting.com

It's a social networking site created by a Korean teacher for students and teachers and classes to use. You can create individual classes as a teacher and your students can make accounts and join your class. You can post messages, photos, etc. similar to facebook.

I've been using this to send pen pal letters back and forth this year in my after school class. The students at my school already have accounts for their regular classes. They type and post their letters on our classroom wall. Then the teacher at the other school prints them and gives them to the students. She types her student's letters and replies to each post.

Alternatively the other school's students could also make accounts and reply directly to the posts.

I prefer this to individual emails, since as the teacher you can monitor everything. Also it's fun and simple to use. It has limited English support, but enough to make it work.

I usually have my students write their letters by hand one class. Then type and post their letters the next class after I've made some edits.