Happy 2015!

Dear Penfriend,

We want to help you get the most out of Cambridge English Penfriends. 2015 is a huge year for us as we have many activities lined up to help you get the very best out of Penfriends.

Thinking about 2015, have you updated the calendar on your Penfriends profile yet? The calendar function is a feature we introduced last year so that schools will know when each other will be on your holiday. We hope that this will make it easier to find matches and avoid confusion if you don't hear from a partner school.

To update your calendar, follow these four simple steps:
1. Log on to your Penfriends account and click on the ‘Complete your profile’ button
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Add holiday’ button
3. Add a name to your holiday (Summer Holidays, for example) and then select the start and end date
4. Remember to click on the ‘Save’ button when you are finished!

You can add as many holidays as you think would be useful to other teachers.

Log-in and update your calendar now

Monthly theme – 2015 Resolutions

This is a great time to start thinking about any goals your students may have for the coming year. Do they have any English language learning achievements in sight? Maybe they are taking one of our Young Learners exams this year? Are they learning to play an instrument or joining a sports team?

Our New Year resolutions theme was the very first one on Cambridge English Penfriends. It would be great to see what the students’ resolutions are this year!

We have listened to your feedback and you asked for more theme ideas. We plan to launch a new theme every month in 2015. Each new theme will only be a suggestion so if your students would rather write about something else they can!

Log-in and start swapping cards now

Country of the month – China

In 2014 we saw a lot of teachers in China register their schools on Penfriends.The 19th of February is Chinese New Year – the year of the Goat. One of the best-suited careers for people born in the year of the goat is teacher!

If you are partnered with a school in China, maybe you can ask them how their students will celebrate the New Year? If you are partnered with a non-Chinese school or currently don’t have a partner school, you can still ask your students to find out interesting things about Chinese New Year traditions: what is their Chinese zodiac animal for example?

Teacher support

Here is some advice from the current Cambridge English Teacher Support newsletter.

Giving students short, medium and long-term goals can help with motivation. You can encourage stronger students to choose goals that will really stretch them, and help weaker students to set goals they can achieve.

You can use this lesson plan to help your students plan their English language learning goals, and to give them ideas for resources they can use to help them achieve these goals.

Sign-up to the Cambridge English Teacher Support newsletter

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We look forward to seeing more fantastic cards from your students and wish you the very best for 2015!

Kind Regards,

The Penfriends Team