1. Creating a Classroom Profile In this tutorial, we will: Show you how to create your classroom profile in the ePals Global Community Update your profile Tutorial # 5

2. Goals of this Tutorial This tutorial shows how to: Create a profile Update your profile Write a great profile Learning Objective: Create and update your profile on ePals

3. Sign in to create your profile

4. Create Your Classroom Profile Sign into ePals From the homepage, click the My Profile Tab Notice this profile is flagged INCOMPLETE Click the Complete link to finish filling in your classroom information Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile

5. My Profile: Contact Information Fill out the contact info boxes ePals asks for your school street address and phone number, but that information is NOT published Drop-down boxes are used for some information When you have finished filling in this information, scroll down the page to write your profile Creating Your Profile Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile

6. My Profile: Class Description Write an appealing profile of your classroom. The more details, the better! What’s different in or near your town? Look at some profiles to see what appeals to you. What makes others interesting? ePals offers instant language translation to 58 languages. Use standard English to translate easily! Describe your class Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile Start with a “hook” -- because the first 40 words show up when others are searching profiles! (see above)

7. Sample Profile Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile

8. A Successful Profile includes: Class age-range Languages your students speak Your classroom location Desired partner class location How you want to collaborate (email, postal mail, blogs, video conferences, etc.) Length and frequency of desired collaboration (school year, semester or certain months) Topic of desired collaboration Key words from your curriculum (“water quality” or “environment”) Learning Objective: What to include in your profile

9. Profile Approval and Publication After you submit your profile, an ePals moderator reviews it within 48 hours This helps keep inappropriate profiles out of ePals and helps you get a better profile To see whether your profile has been approved: Sign in to your SchoolMail homepage and return to My Profile See whether your profile was approved or if ePals requests you to make changes. Any requested changes will be highlighted in red. Classroom Profile Approval Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile

10. Profile Approval and Publication After you are approved, you can begin contacting other classrooms within the ePals global community Your profile will be featured on www.epals.com after approval for 12-24 hours! www.epals.com Classroom Profile Approval Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile

11. Update personal Information Update your profile at least yearly You can update your personal information at any time Plan to update at least once a year, as you may change grade levels, schools or have new topics of study Click on the My Profile tab and rewrite your information You can use SchoolMail while waiting for approval of your update Learning Objective: Update your classroom profile regularly

12. Review This tutorial suggested ways for you to: Create a profile Update personal information Recommended Next Step: How to access your webmail and tools within it Learning Objective: Create a classroom profile