Using National Geographic’s

By Allyson Gately

ABOUT E-PALS• E-Pals is a useful wiki that allows teachers, students and

parents all around the world, to write, discuss and collaborate on matters of similar interest to each other and to share their culture.

• LINK to EPALS HOME PAGE

E-PALS Teacher Collaboration• It allows teachers to share and collaborate on project, see

page below• LINK TO EPALS TEACHER PROJECTS

E-PALS SAFETY• It creates a safe environment for students to write and chat

with other students from around the country or around the world. It is an educational forum created by National Geographic to be used by students, teachers and parents. See terms of use below.

• LINK TO AGE REQUIREMENTS• TERMS OF USE

E-PALS and FAMILIES• It allows families and communities to share and view student

projects, join forums with families within and outside of their community

• Home-schooling link available to families. The link below shows the Home School forum in the Families page.

• Link to FAMILIES page

PERMISSION SLIPS!!!

• URGENT: • Teachers, it is very important to get written permission from

your students’ parents to allow them to join. I made up a permission slip with a link to the website and encouraged the parents to explore it carefully before signing and returning. I did not begin this program until I received permission from all parents.

• Make sure students are aware that you will be reading their emails for grading purposes and security purposes, and tell them to inform you if something seems inappropriate.

• All emails must be monitored and approved by the teacher in order to be sent.

Getting started on E-Pals• Simply go to the website www.epals.com and click on JOIN

NOW.• Enter your email address (I use my school email normally). • After you have done that, you will be welcomed and will

receive an email. You must respond to this email in order to join. See link: WELCOME EMAIL

• After you have completed registering, you will have a user name, password, and you have agreed to the terms of use, you will see this page to choose how you wish to use e-pals:

• CREATING A PROFILE

ONCE YOU ARE REGISTERED:• When creating your profile, choose TEACHER, then CONTINUE.

This allows you to create a base user name (that is basically you, or your school) and list the names of your students who will be using e-pals. This step gives each student an e-pals email address.

• For extra security, I give my students the name of my school district followed by a number, for example, Hanover26, Hanover 27, etc., and check the box that you have received parental consent from each student. Example below:

• CREATING YOUR “BASE”

MONITORED ACCOUNTS• The students are given a secure user name that keeps their

last name confidential. This becomes their e-pals email address.

• The next page asks for their birthdates, and although you may feel unsure about doing it, the program is verifying that all students are over 13.

• Enter all info and click APPROVE• You will immediately receive an email with each students,

name, e-pals email address and user name. Print this and keep it. It comes in handy when students forget the information.

YOUR BASE PROFILE• When you now go back into the epals home page to browse

around, you should complete the status of your “base’s” profile. Under the “Teacher” tab, find the link to “Update my Profile”. Fill out the info about your classes (i.e., class sizes, age ranges, etc.). The 10 word description at the bottom is a very brief blurb describing your class, (kind of similar to a personal ad) that will appear when you search for a matching classroom on the site. See below:

• BASE PROFILE

• Click CONTINUE when done• Verify the information on the next page and SUBMIT PROFILE

CHECK YOUR INBOX• From now on, when you log in to E-PALS with your user name,

you have a new email address for the base. This will serve several purposes:

• A) You are able to receive emails from interested teachers that want to collaborate or write with your class

• B) You can see the “Monitored Mail”, which is a list of all the incoming and outgoing emails your students have written and received. It is monitored, so you can read them. More on this soon.

• C) You will receive emails from the E-Pals database if any inappropriate words or subjects have been picked up.

• D) You can write and respond to other teachers or to your students through this. See Link : TEACHER INBOX

LOOK FOR A “MATCH”• Once you sign in, start browsing around the home page..• Scrolling on the right-hand side, is an ever-updating listing of

“Todays New Classrooms”. Each class listed shows the flag of its country. If you see one you’d like to view, click “View Profile”.

On the next page is an example of a profile from a school in Spain

PROFILE EXAMPLE:

Click on the map to select by locationChoose any of the categories below to connect to another classroom:Click on the map to select by locationChoose any of the categories below to connect to another classroom:Click on the map to select by locationChoose any of the categories below to connect to another classroom:Click on the map to select by locationChoose any of the categories below to connect to another classroom:

You can also find the picture of the map and select a country anywhere in the world that you would like to work with:

JUST CLICK AND CONNECT!• When I clicked on Libya, here is an example of a match that

was displayed:• Alea E. - Libya• From: Yethreb School | Posted on: July 25, 2005• My students are all learning English. Most of the students

speak Arabic as their first language, but some speak Russian, Korean, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Tagalog. We want to collaborate with others who are also interested in learning Englis...

• More | Contact• Click the CONTACT link and you can write to the teacher!

BROWSE AND ENJOY!• There are so many different links and forums for teachers and

students on this site, I could not begin to know which you will enjoy most, but getting logged in and started is the most important part. The rest is what you make of it!

NOTES• The E-Pals Home page is different than the MY HOME choice

at the top of the Home Page. MY HOME will give you your email and looks a little different, but at the bottom, has lists of E-Pallers looking for matches. MY HOME only appears if you are logged in.

• Remember that until you approve all of your monitored mail, it will not be sent to its intended recipient.

• You will receive daily emails on your school or personal email account informing you of any new messages sitting in your E-Pals inbox.

• Enoy the Global Community!