ePaLs in the Classroom

If you are a teacher who enjoys advice from other experienced teachers on curriculum, fun activities, and successful lesson plans, then the ePaLs website is for you. ePaLs is a great tool to use when looking for a book to read in class, interactive lesson plans, engaging activities, the list goes on and on. Personally, although I try and make all of my lessons creative and engaging, I do not have that internal creativity that just comes to me. I look through all sorts of websites, collecting a lot of fun and educational activities that I find online. Although I like this website to help aide as a lesson plan builder, there are interactive activities for students to use as well. A great tool I found on this website is called in2books, which gives a student a pen pal to interact with on books they are currently reading in the classroom. The pen pals write back and forth, asking questions and giving opinions about every aspect of the book. ePaLs also posts questions for children to answer and post online, giving them accreditation for their thought out answers. This encourages and motivates children to take pride in their work and answers, especially because their writing will be up for others to view. Furthermore, one of the most influential aspects of this website is that teachers and students from all around the world are members of ePaLs. Sometimes children need the perspective of an outsider to help piece the puzzle together. This type of website allows both students and teacher to think outside of the box by the thoughts, comments, and perspectives of children who are the same age and grade, yet in different parts of the world. Whether you need help with creativity, curriculum, interactive activities, or motivation in the classroom, this website will be beneficial to you!