Mentoring Children through ePal Program

In2Books is a curriculum based eMentoring program for ePals. The program has been in existence for 10 years and is growing each year. Their goal is to "make a difference in lives of children across the country."

In the program 3rd to 5th grade students are connected with carefully screened adult pen pals. The student and the adult read 5 different books during the year and exchange letters about the books.

Last year was my first year in the program and I read the books and exchanged 6 different letters with my ePal. In2Books makes it really easy to exchange the letters, setting up templates for you to use (or you can use your own) and providing a method to exchange the letters that protects both your privacy and the privacy of the student.

In2Books pen pals are role models for their ePals. They help to show them the importance of reading and writing in everyday life and model adult thinking and experiences. As an adult pen pal you can encourage the student to work harder and to think about the concepts in the books.

Please join me this year in making a difference in the life of a child! Sign up by clicking on the purple banner ..Become a Pen Pal..at the In2Books website.

Information for this lens was gathered from my personal experience and from the In2Books website at In2Books

Here is my journal showing my interactions with ePal during the 2009-2010 school year. I thought I would share with you what I'm doing with ePal this year.

September 11th- I wrote my introduction letter to my pen pal and I listened to a 13 minute tutorial telling how In2Books will work and giving advise on writing the letters.
I understand the epals will be matched up with students around the end of September. I'm really looking forward to getting my new epal.

October 29 I received my first letter from my pen pal today. Her name is Sara and she likes to read fantasy books and mysteries. She also likes basketball and soccer. She has 3 dogs and a cat and think she would like to own a pet store when she grows up. She asked me what I wanted to be when I was younger.

In a note from Sara's teacher, I found out we will start our first book in November and it will be on fiction. Here is the schedule for the first book.
November 5, 2009 My class starts Fiction
November 5, 2009 Select topic and books
November 9, 2009 Approve and order books
November 10, 2009 Teach Fiction
November 13, 2009 Get and read the book
November 27, 2009 Read and discuss book in class
December 8, 2009 Penpal Write Letter
December 14, 2009 Student Write Letter
December 15, 2009 End Fiction, Progress to Social Studies/p

November 6 I received the following letter from my pen pals teacher today. She seems really organized. I'm excited to be part of her class.
Welcome to our fifth grade class! We are very excited to have you as pen pals and to discuss our books with you!

I have been a teacher for 24 years and have not seen students this enthusiastic about reading in a long time! Thank you for that! We will be charting where our pen pals live on a map and keeping track of your careers and interests.

Our school is a very small school in rural North Carolina. We have only one class per grade level in our school. Many of our students do not have internet access at home so they are very excited about using the e-pal program at school.

We will be starting our fiction unit on Bullies next week and will choose our books Monday.

Again, thank you for being willing to work with our kids!

November 12 Sara has picked out the fiction book to read. I just received a notice from IN2Books that Sara has chosen Dork on the Run by Carol Gorman for the first book we will read. My choices now are to order the book from In2Books or another source or to check it out at the library. IN2Books gives me a nice discount and I have a 6 year old granddaughter I can pass the book on to, so I decided to order the book. I should receive it in 3-4 days.

Stay tuned for future updates