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Classroom Uses of EmailThere are lots of great ways to use email as a tool inside your classroom, here are just a few:Email the experts.Often times journalists, authors, professors, and other experts are willing to spend sometime responding to questions from students. Instead of having students write a response to an article or book to you, their teacher, have them write something to the author. Who knows? you just might hear back! Write a letter to the editor.Publishing your opinions in a local newspaper is one of the great means of contributing to a democratic community. With the advent of email, submitting your thoughts is easier than ever. Many Language Arts classes have units devoted to persuasive writing, and it can be incredibly empowering for students to take a shot at using the media to persuade not just their classmates, but also their entire community. Letters to the editor are typically printed in response to published articles or on issues of regional importance. Papers often accept letters up to 250 words, though they will often edit them down. The best letters to the editor are snappy, concise, and direct. Drafting them so that every word counts is an excellent exercise for budding writers. Get involved with an international ePals organization.Email also provides an excellent opportunity to communicate with schools around the country and around the world. Some of the best email pen-pal exchanges might come from connections you have with friends who are teaching across the country or overseas. If you need help finding pen pals in other parts of the world, one great resource is http://www.ePals.com/. On an average day, 25 new schools join the ePals community and you can search pen pals by country. ePals connects schools across the world and can provide language translation services and content-filtering. The connecting service is free, and ePals also offers school-wide blogs and email accounts. There are a variety of other services that will connect pen pals across the world, and a Web search for “Pen Pals” will find many others.
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