Hey Everyone,
Since I decided that you had to blog about your reading, I figured I might as well be the first to post on my book. I have just started reading through Freedom Writers. Basically I decided to read the book after I saw the movie as I didn’t know it existed prior to that. I suppose the fact that it was based on a true story inspired me to pick it up. The enitre book is written in numerical journals and they are quick and easy to read. It is definitely not one of those books you need to set 2 hours aside for, as each journal is only a few pages. I really like this format as I don’t seem to have a whole lot of reading time anymore as Ashlyn keeps me busy =)
I think it is pretty amazing that a teacher decided to have her students write about their lives and there was enough in the journals to create a book, movie and essentially a whole movement. I can’t help but think of the possibilities when I look around Crossley as each student has such different experiences and it would be really neat to see how each unfolds. Anyways, books that have an educational purpose or just deal with education always seem to interest me as I guess it is my passion. It is funny how as a teacher each and every book I read dealing with education effects my teaching in some manner…for instance our own journaling!
Yes I will stop rambling and get back to the book…so each student in Mrs. Gruwell’s class was asked to write a journal and write about their lives (the teacher also wrote daily about her experiences at this new school). It is a very different culture than we are used to as these students are dealing with a lot of race issues as well as gang violence, drugs, shootings, etc. It is pretty scary to think if we lived a few hours away we too could be experiencing a different world where these things were a part of our everyday life. The stories that her students talk about throughout the book are terrifying and yet amazing! I just finished reading the first entries from a group of students that talked about their first impressions of this “new, well to do” teacher in the hood and how they felt that she was incapable of teaching them. I read a lot about student’s friends being shot and in trouble or other family issues. To think these students have been able to overcome so many obstacles in their lives and yet function enough to go to school and get their degrees is unbelievable.
Anyways that is all for today Ashlyn needs to go to bed and I have marking to do :S
