Erin Gruwell

Infobox_Person
name = Erin Gruwell


imagesize = 175px
caption = Erin Gruwell - 2006
birth_date = birth date and age|1969|8|15
birth_place = California
education = BA (University of California, Irvine)
MA (California State University, Long Beach)
occupation = Educator
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Erin Gruwell (born 15 August 1969) is an American teacher. The 2007 film "Freedom Writers" was based on her story.

Education

Erin is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from California State University, Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education. [ [http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2286935/k.AD6E/About_Erin_Gruwell.htm About Erin Gruwell - Freedom Writers Foundation ] ]

Teaching career

Gruwell was born in California. She began student teaching in 1994 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. As a student teacher, she was assigned the lowest-performing students in the school. One student, a boy she referred to as "Sharaud", seemed determined to make her life miserable. He had transferred to Wilson from a rival high school where he had allegedly threatened his teacher with a gun.cite book | last = Freedom Writers | coauthors = Erin Gruwell | title = The Freedom Writers Diary | publisher = Broadway Books | year = 1999 | location = New York | pages = 2-5 | id = ISBN 038549422X] However, a few months into the school year one of her other students passed a note depicting Sharaud (an African American) with extremely large lips. Infuriated, Gruwell told the class that that was the type of caricature that the Nazis had used during the Holocaust. When only one of the students knew what the Holocaust was, Gruwell changed the theme of her curriculum to tolerance.cite news
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title = The freedom writers: some considered her class a lost cause, but in her first year of teaching, Erin Gruwell transformed her students into a community of writers
work = Instructor
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date = November-December 2004
url = http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0STR/is_4_114/ai_n9483842
accessdate = 2007-01-08 ] Gruwell took the students to see "Schindler's List", bought new books out of her own pocket, and invited guest speakers.

After her year of student teaching, Gruwell returned to Wilson as a full teacher, this time with a class of freshmen. Her fall semester got off to a rocky start due to student protests of Proposition 187. But Gruwell persevered, and reached her students by asking them to make movies of their lives, keep journals, and relating the family feud in "Romeo and Juliet" to a gang war. She also had the students read books written by and about other teenagers in times of war, such as "The Diary of a Young Girl", "Zlata's Diary", and "Night" by Elie Wiesel. Writing journals became a solace for many of the students, and because the journals were shared anonymously, teenagers who once refused to speak to someone of a different race became like a family.

In the fall of 1995, Gruwell gave each of her students a bag full of new books and had them make a toast for change. After that, she saw a turnaround in them. The students whom school administrators had thought were not intelligent enough to read higher-level books and were destined to drop out went on to shock everyone. All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and many went on to attend college. cite web
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title = The Book
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publisher = Freedom Writers Foundation
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url = http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2260049/k.D721/The_Book.htm
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accessdate = 2007-01-08 ]

Between 1994 and 1998, the Freedom Writers garnered a great deal of media coverage, including appearances on "PrimeTime Live", "The View", and "Good Morning America".cite web
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title = About Erin Gruwell
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publisher = Freedom Writers Foundation
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url = http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2286935/k.AD6E/About_Erin_Gruwell.htm
format =
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accessdate = 2007-01-08 ]

After teaching

In 1998, Gruwell left Wilson High School and became a Distinguished Teacher in Residence at California State University, Long Beach. In doing so, she hoped to ensure that prospective teachers could learn from her experiences and find a way to inspire other disadvantaged students. Gruwell later went on to start the Freedom Writers Foundation, which aspires to spread the Freedom Writers method across the country.

The Freedom Writers Diary is a 1999 book written by Erin Gruwell. It is the basis of the 2007 movie "Freedom Writers", starring Hilary Swank.

She has written an autobiographical account of her experiences, entitled "Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers", published around the same time as the movie's release.

References

ee also

*Jaime Escalante
*"Dangerous Minds"
*Bonita High School

External links

* [http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org Freedom Writers Foundation]
* [http://www.cinematical.com/2007/01/06/interview-freedom-writers-erin-gruwell-jason-finn-and-maria-r/ interview with Gruwell, Maria Reyes, and actor Jason Finn]