Teach With Your Heart Pages 177-227

During this part of the book, Erin feels the need to shelter her students from the media attention that some of them are receiving. She also understands that some of her students may be jealous because only a handful of the students are receiving attention. Erin nominates her students for the Spirit of Anne Frank Award in order to show her appreciation for the Freedom Writer's Diary effort. While interviewing in New York for the award, she gets her foot in the door at a publishing house, interested in her students' book (this eventually ends up in a book deal). Her students end up winning the Spirit of Anne Frank Award. Erin also begins contemplating a new teaching position in another school, partly because of the frustration that she feels at Wilson. Come graduation time, many of her students started finding it difficult breaking away from the pack; it is often hard in these situations to stay connected, and I understand what Erin is talking about when she writes, "It was a challenge to stay connected while the Freedom Writers and I were dispersing to different colleges. While they were trying to find their way in college courses, I was trying to re-create my unorthodox methodology on future educators at California State University" (190). She pairs up her Freedom Writers with her new graduate students, and this benefits both sides. Her and her students travel to Warsaw, Poland to see some of the remnants of the holocaust, such as Auschwitz. Her students get very emotional during the trip; one even finds a bone.
I am astonished with the pure luck that Erin has...it almost seems surreal. On page 182, when she is trying to figure out how to get her kids to New York, she writes: " I returned to California...got an unsolicited call from GUESS? Inc., ...(and they) donated forty-five alrline tickets for a third of my class to attend the ceremony." I can related to Erin's fear of change as she thinks about the new teaching position in the other school; often change can be very scary and difficult to voluntarily do. I liked her idea about pairing up her Freedom Writers with her new graduate students. I can only hope that I get some of the same opportunities as Erin, such as her bring her students on a tour through Europe.

Teach With Your Heart pages 141-176

This section begins with Erin continuing to struggle in her personal life because of the attention that she is giving to school. She writes, "Maybe if I had poured my passion into being the perfect wife instead of the perfect teacher, we'd be admiring the Dutch canals together," (142). They separate, and Erin finds out that he has another girlfriend already. Erin also discovers that one of her students is dyslexic. She also starts the Freedom Writer's diary project, to help her students express their lives and emotion.
I understand the difficulty that Erin is feeling in her personal life; it must be really hard to learn how to properly balance everything, but her husband is not helping the situation at all and it is appalling that he already has another girlfriend. I think that Erin once again crosses the line when she grabs one of her students by the collar when she is upset with him (page 152). She probably could have gotten fired for that!

TTWY pages 104-140

This section of Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell focused on the third years of her students. She begins the school year with the "Toast for Change" into order to try to wipe the slates of her students clean. She taken back with some of the open and honest things that her students say. For example, Maria says, "I don't want to be pregnant by the time I'm fifteen like my mother," (107). Erin introducesd the Anne Frank diaries to her students, and gets mixed reactions; Erin felt that the book might be something that her students would be able to relate to. During this section, the class put the effort in to getting two guest speakers to come and visit them, Miep Gies and Zlata (a ethnic cleansing refugee from Bosnia). Erin is surprised at the enthusiasm that her students put into the visits.
One thing that stood out in this chapter was the growing and almost too-close of a relationship that Erin has with her students. On page 115, she calls a student "sweetie", a word of endearment that could make others perceive that she favors him. She even gets sick from the stress that she feels at school- I understand taking your work home with you, but you can't forget to take care of yourself for the sake of others.

Pages 62-103

In this section of Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell, she feels the struggles of being a teacher as well as an adult. She writes, "In the past, when I felt such a void, I could turn to my siblings for support. Unfortunately, in my new marriage, my husband didn't understand my feelings of emptiness or my attachment to my students. When I was teaching, my life seemed to make sense. I felt fulfilled. In the classroom I felt useful, but at home I felt inadequate." (75.) When the new school year begins again, Erin once again has a classroom full of the unwanted "B-A-D" students. She starts the school year off dealing with a lot of the same struggles that she had faced the previous year. She also helps some of her former students apply for college.
I absolutely love the part about the "ten former students crammed into two cars and made the pilgrimage to my apartment," (75.) When writing this novel, Erin has a way with words that makes you laugh. This act showed the attachment and dedication that these students had to the one teacher who gave them a chance; they appreciated everything that she did for them. I think that it was a really good idea for Erin to invite her brother to the class as a guest speaker, because the students seemed to really enjoy it and Erin finally got the response out of her new class that she was looking for. Her decision to deal with "real issues" was a good one, because she finally was able to connect to her new class in a way that she hadn't been able to before.

Teach With Your Heart pages 36-61

In this section of the book, Erin deals with the media coverage of her bringing her class to Long Beach in order to view the movie Schindler's List. The media attention toward the field trip brings negative feelings toward the new teacher, both in the community and at school. In fact, this causes problems when she tries to organize another field trip to a symposium featuring the author of Schindler's List. However, Erin faces financial difficulties in raising the money to bring her students places, because the school is not willing to fund her efforts. However, her friend Thomas Keneally helps her find the support she needs, and even contacts Steven Spielberg about her student's stories. In fact Steven Spielberg even asks her to meet her students.

I thought that this piece of reading really illustrated the struggles that Erin begins to face and the resistance that she feels from the other staff. One of her biggest struggles at this point is the finacial struggle, because she can not get any backing from her school. I think that it is scary how alone and isolated Erin feels at this point.

Teach With Your Heart pages 1-35

This first section of Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell began the introduction into her establishment into the classroom. It illustrates her shock on the first day, as well as her self-struggles with herself as a teacher and why she chose the profession. Erin was shocked with the visible segregation in the school as well as the lack of attention and labels that her students have received, and recalls her idealism in her young life. Erin starts to try to bring her subject to life to her students, such as bringing them to the Holocaust museum. However, she struggles with resistance from the administration as well as from more experienced teachers.

I thought that some of the tactics that Erin uses are very good ideas, such as moving the problem students to the front of the classroom and trying to separate the cliques. As an inexperienced teacher, I can understand her struggle on the first day of class and well as her longing to connect to her students. It is hard to read this and understand why the older and more experienced teachers act the way that they do, such as the resistance that you see in the piece about Erin trying to bring her student's to the Holocaust museum.