Last
night I sat down and Freedom Writers happened to
be on television. I wasn't planning on watching it because I had a million
other things to do. Needless to say, I watched the whole movie without moving.
I am sure most of the class has seen the movie, but if you haven't I recommend
you watch it sometime soon. And if you have seen it, you should watch it again!
It is raw but enlightening. I love how the main
character and teacher, Erin Gruwell, is passionate and determined. Instead of just giving
up on her students, she fights for each and every one of them. She is
innovative and creative. She knows that what other teachers have been doing for
these students just is not working. She knows she needs to reach them in
another way. This movie is great because it is an English content, but I
believe any teacher could learn from watching this movie. I am inspired in one
way or another every time I watch this movie. Erin Gruwell always has her
students in mind when she is teaching. As I am working on my unit plan, I
realize I need to keep my students in mind for each aspect of the unit plan.
Just my thoughts... :)
If you enjoy the movie you must read The Freedom Writer's Diary. It contains the real entries of her students that you see being created and published in the movie!
ReplyDeleteAnd the subsequent book, Teaching Hope which is similar to the Diary, but it's from the Freedom Writers teachers, those who followed Erin's example and joined her to learn techniques from the Freedom Writers and herself. Mrs. Schober gave me a copy at the end of placement- her story is included. I've only read about halfway through it because the emotional content is too much to read quickly but it really is amazing. I haven't seen the movie start to finish yet, just clips here, there, and everywhere, but when Erin came to speak at LCHS it was something special. There are things lost in translation with the movie, in person it's far more evident that she's just one of us- and in spite of the popularity of the diary and the movie and all the other things, she's still very much about the students. I'm really looking forward to her next endeavor, she spoke about working on a documentary on the Freedom Writers that will hopefully be out sometime in the next year or two.
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