Despite the long months’ wait for the letter’s arrival, what started with just a simple social media post would turn into an international bond linking Morgan’s freshman to students in Oslo, Norway.

The program was in cooperation with the students in Norway of similar ages, around 14-16, our Morgan freshman and former Morgan student, now school teacher at Tranby skole, Kelli Carlsen, formerly Redes.

“The teacher in Norway is a former Morgan student who moved to Norway and got married, and is now raising a family. I saw one of her social media posts asking about the importance of connecting with each other, so I reached out to her with the possibility of creating an old-fashioned pen pal program with my freshman. My goal here was to strengthen my students’ authentic writing while also creating an environment for cultural curiosity. I do think I accomplished both of these goals,” said Mr. Bergman, English teacher and organizer of the pen pal exchange.

Bergman says the program was very successful and engaging for the students involved; students frequently showed excitement and curiosity for the letters’ arrival. “I had no issues keeping the students engaged in fact, they were very excited and would often come in with the question, ‘ Have the letters arrived yet. The logistics were quite difficult; however, as the time it would take to get these letters to the other country. At this point, our last mailing on May 11 has yet to arrive in Oslo, which, as you might suspect, was very discouraging,” Mr. Bergman said

The program showed some similarities between students here at Morgan and students all the way in Oslo, Norway; however, the full extent of these similarities was unable to be seen completely due to time constraints. “I’m not sure we got to that point where we explored some of the more profound cultural differences. I was most surprised, however, at how similar students are in Western countries and some of the same cultural references in movies and music,” Mr. Bergman said.

“I think the Pen Pal program opened up new perspectives for me. Before writing to my partner, I didn’t have a single clue what Norway was like. I was shocked to find out some of the things they did there, as it was completely different from America. I think the program helped my writing ability and question-asking. I had so many questions to write in my letter, and I learned how to ask deeper questions with descriptive answers. I think the pen pal program was a good experience and should be continued in the future,” said Grayson Meder

“Much like journalism class, I wish for the students to see the importance of language in conveying a message to an audience other than a teacher solely, so I do believe this type of writing activity is very important, and I will do my best to continue it if not domestically next school year,” Mr. Bergman said.