Postcards of the 21st Century

Salvete omnes,
I know it hasn’t been very long since we last spoke, but I’ve never had a penpal before so I hope you can forgive my overbearing enthusiasm. I’ve always really liked the idea of having a penpal, especially in a foreign language classroom, because there are so many benefits to being able to practice your second language with a native speaker.  
The most amazing, and possibly most scary, thing about technology is its ability to affect even the most ordinary aspects of our lives. Snail-mail is steadily becoming a thing of the past, soon to be reserved only for Amazon orders and unwanted bills. While I personally think that is a little sad because I love snail mail, I can acknowledge that many life skills needed in today’s world and in the foreseeable future will require computer literacy.

This brings me to a website called ePals which is an online education platform that allows teachers to connect with other educators and classrooms from all over the world. I really like the idea of penpals in a foreign language classroom, but because there aren’t any Latin native speakers alive anywhere around the world, I have often overlooked including such an activity in my lesson plans.
What I found on the ePal homepage was a directory of educators from a variety of subjects looking for potential classroom penpals. There are even filters that you can apply your search so you can dictate the discipline, grade, class size, and languages spoken. While I searched through this directory, looking solely for Latin classrooms, I was surprised to find a large assortment of Latin educators interested in finding penpals. It was amazing!
ePals also offers a selection of collaborative activities for the two classrooms to work on and complete together. Since Culture is one of the National Standards for foreign language education, I found this section to be particularly interesting.

One of the collaborative activities offered called Games We Play really caught my eye. A few weeks ago in my educational psychology course, we discussed the benefits of recess and how letting kids play is essential because it contributes to all the major aspects of their well-being and development. So not only does this activity teach students about games played by other children around the world but it is also helping with their developing minds.

Just some food for thought! I would love to hear what you think about this. I hope you are doing well and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Your pal,
Brittany

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 7, 2017 at 7:59 PM

    Hi, Brittany,
    I liked your letter and I wanted to add that I thought it was cool that they had Latin stuff on there too! I was completely shocked by that as well. I miss snail mail in a way too. I was a darn good letter writer in my day and since we read so many letters by ancient writers that provide us with such rich history (gratias ago tibi, Pliny the Younger!) I wonder how we will fare with the slow death of this medium that has been around for millennia?
    Vale,
    Kate

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BrittanyOctober 14, 2017 at 5:36 PM

      That is quite the thought-provoking question. My typical response in this case is to point out how we format an email since they follow the same layout as handwritten letter, but even those are becoming more loosely composed depending on who we are emailing.

      Delete

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