Patty Garrison, Pauline McKean & Otis Douce

Video Pen Pals Around The World
by Dana Radanovic

This week, the Blue Sky Project is pleased to highlight the collective efforts of Patty Garrison, Pauline McKean, and Otis Douce for reaching halfway around the world to Istanbul, Turkey, in hopes of having a group of Seminar 9 students make a connection to a global community. 

Pauline McKean, who hails from George School, brought many travel experiences and connections to the Hun School and thus was able to have Patty Garrison “meet” Erica Hoffman, a teacher at Robert College High School in Turkey. As an English teacher, Ms. Hoffman was searching for ways to enhance her students’ writing skills, while Ms. Garrison and Mr. Douce were looking to build on the seminar curriculum theme of community. This connection was the start of a unique journey.

The students on each side of the globe were paired with one another. Because of the time difference and busy schedules of the students, using Skype was not an option. Ms. Garrison and Ms. Hoffman decided to have their students become video pen pals. Each of the Seminar 9 students created a video to introduce themselves and to inquire about their pen pal’s interests, hobbies, communities, and education. Two favorite questions the students asked were, “What were your best and worst memories from your childhood?” and “If you were a song, which one would you be?” All students have created and exchanged their videos and are waiting with great anticipation to hear back from their pen pals. This is just the beginning of a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn that they are really no different than their counterparts in Turkey, and they are all part of the same global community.

Historically, the Seminar 9 classes have studied the classic story set in South Africa, “Cry, the Beloved Country,” by Alan Paton. Ms. Garrison has found this book “rich with opportunity for students to see, feel, and make a connection to a community,” far beyond their own communities of friends, school, church, and teams. Now she and Mr. Douce have discovered that sharing stories across continents has provided distinct teaching similarities to the South African tale. 

The Project applauds the collaborative efforts involved in this cross-global correspondence!