HOW DOES THE EXCHANGE WORK?
American students from the same school or sometimes the same community wishing to participate in the exchange will form a group under the leadership of a teacher or another adult approved by the educational institution willing to act as the hosting American school.
General Overview
These students will host a group of French students for about 2 weeks in their homes. Students wishing to travel to France will then travel as a group under the supervision of the American teacher/approved adult for 2 weeks. While in France, the American student will be hosted by the French child’s family that he/she hosted in the USA
While in each other’s countries, both the French and American students will attend school on some days with their exchange correspondent, go on field trips to visit the region of the country they are staying in, and participate in community activities with their host families during their stay.
How Students Get Paired
Each student in both countries must fill out an informational file (dossier) about him/herself. This file asks the student to indicate his/her interests, hobbies, and personality. Besides using age and grade of each student, students’ personalities and interests are taken into consideration when matching students. This is why it is of the utmost importance that students and their families are extremely honest when filling out the information file. The more accurate the information is on the dossier, the more accurate the match between the American and French children will be.
Matching Communities
Once each side (France and USA) forms their group, FACEP working with our partner La Ligue de l’Enseignement (a part of the French Ministry of Education) in France look at the profile of each group (number of participates, boy-girl ratio, age, grade level, possible travel dates for each school, etc.) and we then match the French and American classes (groups) as closely as possible using all this information.
Once the matches are made, each student and his/her family will receive the information file of the child he/she will be hosting. The children and families will correspond with each other using social media such as email, Snapchat, Facebook, Skype, etc.