[TIPS] epals and askherepa

I thought I would pass along a couple websites that some teachers gave to me this week at the Classrooms for the Future bootcamp.

 

The first is http://epals.com. In this day when we're trying to make global connections with our classes, here's one way to get that done.

"Our Global Community™ is the largest online community of K-12 learners, enabling more than 325,000 educators and 126,000 classrooms in over 200 countries and territories to safely connect, exchange ideas, and learn together. Our award winning SchoolBlog™ and SchoolMail™ products are widely used and trusted by schools around the world."

Did you catch that? SchoolBlog and SchoolMail. If you've been looking for a way to get safe blogs and email accounts for your students, perhaps this is a way that you'll like. But, even if you don't, this looks like an interesting site to help you make those global connections. I DO encourage you to try it. I think YOU will find it to be an invigorating experience, and one that can spark a LOT of different kinds of lessons as you study their geography, their culture, their political system, their history... ALL sorts of ideas come to mind, don't they?

 

If you DO use this service, I'd LOVE to know your experience.

 

Second is askherepa.org (http://askherepa.org)

"Ask Here PA is Pennsylvania's new statewide live chat reference service and is a free service to all residents of Pennsylvania, offering live chat reference 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

There's even one that will connect you to college librarians to help with those research projects. Is that amazing, or what? A 24/7 service where you can ask a librarian your questions and get an answer within minutes. Note that it's for PA residents only.

 

Many thanks to the ladies who shared these ideas with me over the past couple of days.