Chapters 33-38

After loosing the election, Erin found herself feeling alone and in debt. She began speaking out at conferences and events to pay for some bills, but Erin soon found herself traveling all over the country speaking to everyone from businessmen to teachers about her experiences with the Freedom Writers. She never had a script, but she always found a way to connect to the audience. Before one specific event, Erin and her old student Maria met Hank Aaron, and Erin quickly called her father to tell him. Unfortunately her dad died of a heart attack while she was on her way to speak to a group of teachers. In honor of her dad, Erin decided to honor her commitment to the teachers. While all of this was going on, the Freedom Writers movie was also in the works. After searching for awhile Erin finally found someone who would do the story justice and that is exactly what he did. The book ended at the movie premiere in Newport Beach, which is where Erin took her class to see Shindler’s List many years before.

I thought it was exciting that Erin was able to recover from the election by spreading the Freedom Writers story across the country. She touched many people’s lives from all different professions. It was unfortunate that Erin lost her father so young, but at least she was able to realize that she needed the Freedom Writers “family” just as much as they need her. Also, I’m glad that Erin and the Freedom Writers actually had a say in the making of the movie because you never now if a movie will do the book justice. I would have liked to have heard more about what the students were doing, and how Erin helped them succeed.

Chapters 27-33

These chapters of Teach with Your Heart covered the senior year of the Freedom Writers, Erin’s new teaching job at the college, and the class reunion trip to Europe. The students continued on with Erin their senior year and worked on the class diary even more, which ended up being accepted by Doubleday publishing company as The Freedom Writer’s Diary. Erin nominated her classes for the Spirit of Anne Frank award, which they ended up winning and 45 students got to go to New York to accept the award. As the school year ended, Erin still wasn’t welcomed into the school community, so she decided to take a position at the local college rather than continue on at Wilson High. Many of her students went on to college as well. Erin and some of the Freedom Writers planned a trip to Europe to visit Zlata and Anne Frank’s countries. About 50 students ended up going on the trip, which was funded primarily by John Tu once again. Many of the sights were hard on the students because memories were still real for a lot of the Holocaust survivors. It was definitely a learning experience for the students as well as Erin and her family.

I am a little surprised that Erin actually took the job at the college after everything she went through at the high school. It sounds more like she gave up the fight, which is too bad because she could have helped many more students just liked she helped her senior class. It was also had to believe that she was able to pull off the trip to Europe, but after receiving even more of John Tu’s money the trip was planned. I think it was good for the students to experience the lives of others and to be able to relate to the material in the books they read.

Chapters 21-26

Erin and her class had a very busy junior year. It started off with the drifting apart of Erin and her husband. She finally saw the toll her career was taking on their relationship, and her husband moved out of their apartment and eventually filed divorce papers. Erin then turned her attention completely to her students. They began a class diary that all students contributed to, and John Tu was generous enough to donate 36 computers to Erin’s class so students could type their diary entries into a book. After watching a documentary about the Freedom Riders, the students came up with a name for themselves, the Freedom Writers. They all wanted to share the Freedom Writers Diary, so the students ambitiously started fundraising for a trip to Washington D.C. to share the story with the Secretary of Education. Once the group returned from the trip a wonderful newspaper article was written about the Freedom Writers, which made their story heard across the country.

I find it unreal that Erin was so caught up in her career that she did not see what was happening to her marriage until now. There must have been signs that she was not paying enough attention to her husband. I thought the class trip to Washington D.C. was a great idea, but like many of the other events it doesn’t seem very realistic. There were almost 200 people on that trip which is a lot to control in a big city. I also think that Erin has been extremely lucky when it comes to her teaching career. She has gotten help from a lot of different people, and now she is going to be with the same class for their senior year.

Chapters 15-20

These chapters followed the sophomore year of Erin and her classes. It started with a “Toast for Change”, which was intended for students to start fresh academically, but the students took it even further than that. They wanted to change their lives so they didn’t end up like most of their family and friends in the streets. Erin once again had to purchase books for her class which included Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. The class could relate to the story because they saw the tragedy of war everyday of their lives. They got so involved with Anne’s story that Darrius came up with the idea of inviting Miep Gies to Long Beach. Luckily Miep was already planning a trip to the area, so the students put together all of the details to have Miep come and speak to the class. The next big project of the year came after the class read Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. The class wanted to invite Zlata to the U.S., but this time they had so much more work to do and money to raise. They started by donating items to a raffle and Erin came through with getting hotel rooms and meals for Zlata and her family. In the end, everything came together and the students and their families were treated to a five course meal in the ballroom at the hotel with Zlata as the guest speaker.

It is quite upsetting that everyone else in that school has given up on these students, when they clearly have so much potential. I believe Erin has given her students a chance to succeed. In these chapters, the students are so enthusiastic about inviting Miep and Zlata to speak. Miep’s story of hiding Anne Frank and her family hit home for a lot of the students, and I especially liked it when one of the students called her a hero and Miep quickly said in response, “No!...I simply did what I had to do because it was the right thing to do!” I remember many these stories from The Freedom Writer’s Diary and the movie, especially the story about Darrius and his friend playing the “game” of Russian roulette. The only thing that Erin should be a little concerned about is her social life, especially her relationship with her husband, which has been nonexistent for the entire year.

Chapters 10-14

The next few chapters in Teach with Your Heart begin with Erin’s first official year as a teacher at Wilson High. She pleaded with the head of the English department to carry on with the juniors she had, but she was told that first year teachers could never teach senior English. So she was placed with freshmen English classes with all of the “bad” students. She once again had to find a way to connect with all of these students and luckily Manny and Sharaud would check in on her class occasionally and help her connect with the students. Her first accomplishment was finding a connection between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and her class of diverse students. After reaching out to the students, Erin had her students play the Line Game.

I can’t believe that Erin was treated so poorly from the head of the English department after all the work she did with her first class. I thought it was unfortunate that Manny’s mother was so mad that Erin helped many with his college essay, but she should have gone about it in another way. Once Manny got his acceptance letter, his mother and Erin were proud despite the whole essay thing. I remember when they played the Line Game in the Freedom Writers Diary movie. It was a very moving scene.

Chapters 6-10

The second semester of Erin Gruwell’s teaching career was extremely busy. She started off by taking her students to a showing of Schindler’s List at a theater in Newport Beach, which is a far cry from the neighborhoods where her students live. Erin planned the whole field trip by getting her family and friends to drive the students to the theater, and she even paid for the movie tickets. People in Newport Beach were looking the students up and down, worried that they had a gun in their pockets or something. The stares and assumptions became so obvious that all of the students felt uncomfortable. After the trip, a newspaper article was written about how poorly the class was treated in Newport Beach. Erin even received threatening phone class from people in her neighborhood because of it. Later in the semester the class was able to attend a symposium presentation by the author of Schindler’s List, Thomas Keneally, and after the meeting, Keneally suggested that Erin present the story of her class to Stephen Spielberg. With much deliberation Erin finally sent a letter describing her class as “a colorful box of Crayola crayons” (p. 57). Spielberg loved the class’s story so much he provided buses, tickets to Universal Studios, and a private meeting with him for all of Erin’s students.

Erin has accomplished so much with her class already and the first year isn’t even over yet. I think the students must be so excited to finally have a teacher who cares about them. I can’t believe the community in Newport Beach treated the students as horribly as they did, but I think the newspaper article was an important addition to the story of Erin’s class. I am surprised that The Freedom Writer’s Diary did not cover the part about Keneally or Spielberg. These are some important people that Erin has been able to meet early in her career.

Chapters 1-5

The first five chapters of Erin Gruwell’s Teach With Your Heart describe her experience as a student teacher in one of the most culturally diverse high schools in the country. On her first day of school, she finds herself having to teach every class because her supervising teacher has basically “checked out” for an early retirement. Erin’s first attempt at reading the syllabus and “Guidelines for Student Behavior” did not go as planned because they were far from what these apathetic students wanted to hear. After the first day, she found herself too young, too dressed up, and too white. Erin was determined to find a way to reach her students, and her first attempt was to reach the toughest students first in hopes the rest would follow their footsteps. Her first teachable moment came when a caricature in the form of a note was passed around the room, and reminded her of those from the Holocaust. When asked if anyone had ever heard about the Holocaust, Erin was surprised at what she heard. Most of the students in her class were in the middle of a war in their own backyards, which soon became evident by automatic seating arrangement and the markings on desks.

After reading the first few chapters, Erin Gruwell is already an inspirational teacher. She wasn’t the perfect teacher on the first day, but she never gave up on her students. It seems as though she had so much on her plate with working two jobs and getting married at the same time as taking classes. Woodrow Wilson High School sounds like one of the hardest places to teach in, especially if you are placed with “lower level” students like Erin was. I like how this book builds off of The Freedom Writer’s Diary, and now we get to hear more of Erin’s story.