A review of ePals

I realize that there is a plethora of educational resource websites online and that it is good to check them out and see what is available but I think that a lot of them are wholly unnecessary and what I can find for free is generally better than what I can find with money. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of girl so although I did browse the ePals website, I was not overwhelmed and I will explain why.

•  A lot of this site is helping you order books or handouts that are pre-created. There are worksheets for colors and small books about specific topics. Cricket and Tools for School are supremely organized, but I can't help but feel that what they are offering isn't any better than that which I could find elsewhere. I can see the value in ordering some of the magazines from Cobblestone to cover individual topics more in depth, but I cannot imagine ordering a class set of those magazines and hardly feel that I could not teach effectively without what is available on the site.
• Global Community, from what I can discern is a teacher communication website. It's a way for teachers to chat with one another and share resources. For my group presentation, I researched my own teacher websites like teachertube and I have already found and enrolled in websites that allow me to access those same things. I feel that there are probably thousands of teacher networking sites available and having already joined a few, I see no need to join still more.
• In2Books, or "common core mentoring" is a bizarre concept to me. Upon reading a little more, I see that it is a sort of online pen-pal system with adult mentors. I can see no harm in establishing this in the classroom but I think that dialogue journals might be just as effective (although much more time-consuming).

I feel that in the field of education, we are constantly bombarded with resources and told that they are better than all the rest when I think that I received a fair education that entailed the use of absolutely none of the things I'm now being told that I should use.

I can imagine myself using the magazines and books available through ePals to touch more thoroughly upon something learned in class or even to offer reading material for students either when they have completed their work or as a part of a reading hour.

However, I do not think that these resources are necessarily any more remarkable than other sites I have seen, nor do I think that they are unique. With a million teacher websites out there, it's nice to see that quality materials are being produced, but I feel that I can make my own just as well!