Why Not Send Pen Pal Letters to International American Schools?

[Chef Dave]

As a former teacher of the international American schools, (8 years in Saudi Arabia and Beirut, Lebanon), I would like to suggest the possibility of corresponding with American students living abroad.

Wherever you find a group of Americans, (business people, state department and military personnel, missionaries etc.), you will generally find an international American school.

Not only do we have American schools in the foothills of the Himalayas but we also have schools in Aberdeen, Scotland and London, England. There are schools dotted throughout Europe, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

The international American schools are not to be confused with the DoDD schools, Dept. of Defense Schools for the dependents of U.S. military personnel.

International schools have multinational student bodies and often employ multinational faculty. DoDD schools only educate Americans i.e. U.S. military dependents.

If you're interested in the possibility of corresponding with American students living abroad, choose a foreign country and google search for the name of an American school and its address.

As an alternative, you can buy a directory of international schools from the ISS, International Schools Service. Their website may be found at: http://www.iss.edu/

If you're interested in the possibility of teaching overseas, the ISS hosts 3-4 annual job fairs for international American schools. The recruiting season for the overseas schools starts early. The first job fair is typically held in January or February with additional fairs being held in April and June.

[mopar]

We are looking at joining the Great American Mall Race. We will look at including some foreign American schools in this. It is a great idea and a way to tie it to geography.

[Chef Dave]

If you decide to contact an overseas school, google search for a school in a given country. Find their website and send them an introductory e-mail.

Depending upon where they are located, some schools have access to excellent postal systems. Schools in countries with horrible postal systems (like Lebanon), have a stateside mail box that is then express mailed through a private carrier directly to the school.

DoDD schools have the advantage of APO or FPO address i.e. Army post office or Fleet post office. Mail sent to this address will be processed by the military postal system.

If you wind up contacting an international school with a good host country postal system, please be aware that our first class stamp may not be used to send mail overseas. To send mail overseas, you'll need an international airmail stamp. If you don't send the letter via e-mail, it'll go by surface shipment ... which could take 3 months or more to arrive.

[mopar]

Wow! That's good to know. I will have the students use my email account to send their letters then. I think that they would enjoy communicating with schools over seas. Thank you.

[Chef Dave]

Although it would be convenient to send letters by e-mail, I'd encourage you to send them by mail.

Why?

If you send post cards instead of letters you could very well get post cards in exchange. Wouldn't it be neat to see pictures of a foreign country?

It's also neat for kids to receive letters addressed to them especially if it comes in a sealed envelope that can be opened. I think an experience like this makes the entire pen pal exchange more personal.

[mopar]

Postcards are a great idea! We are thinking of communicating with more than one place. So, states within the US and countries outside the US. This would be great.