Remember having penfriends when you were teenagers?
Would you like to have your pupils correspond with children from all over the world?
The benefits are innumerable. To mention some, for the students:

• authentic context for real communication,  
• meaningful use of foreign languages, 
• boosting of students' confidence in using the target language,
• raising cultural awareness, 
• development of social skills

and for the teachers:

• interaction with teachers from other countries 
• exchange of knowledge on educational issues
• as well as ideas and practical tips

The best part though is writing actual letters, sending little gifts and stickers, anticipating the envelope
with our friends' letters, learning about how children live in the USA.
The school we are corresponding with is Decorah Middle School, in Iowa.
If you want to find partners to launch an international project you can visit and register
on one of these sites:

http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/
http://www.epals.com/
http://www.elanguages.org/
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-connecting-classrooms.htm  (only UK schools can sign in)

Mind maps

Brainstorming: a technique designed to generate a large number of ideas.
Cmaps: A useful tool to put these ideas on a diagram and share it with colleagues and pupils.
While attending the session Reflection and Practice on Virtual Education of the Electronic Village Online, a professional development project and virtual extension of the TESOL Convention, I have created this cmap about the roles of the teacher and learner in Blended Learning.
The Cmap tool was used to design this concept map. You can download Cmap Tools for free from http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/

Blended learning

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