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Title: Teach With Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from The Freedom Writers
ISBN: 0767915844
Author:
Erin Gruwell
Publicate Date: 2008-01-15
Publish: 2008-01-15
List Price: $13.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.19
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.19
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.16
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Heart, dedication and affluence equal results
A remarkable woman listens to the reality in her students and finds ways to reach the real person in each of them. Her affluent background and connections allows her to make the most of unique connections. The experiences of the Freedom Writers is inspiring and a clear statement that difficult students can have a richness to be realized. There is that of God in everyone and she sought it out.
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2: Amazing story - amazing teacher - amazing students!!
Erin Gruwell is an amazing person. She was able to reach her tough students and make connections with them that "the system" had written off. Much as people would like to deny it, there is racism in our schools. If given a chance, I think that all kids can succeed. It's the stereotypes and told that you're stupid that brings a lot of these kids down. Poverty and their domestic situations don't help in the least either. Erin saw through everything and at such a young age! I believe it's people like her that truly change the world for the better.
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3: loved it!
Such an inspiring story for future educators. A must read for anyone thinking about the teaching profession!
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4: Touching story, but what was NOT said?
I was assigned this memoir for a graduate Teaching in America course. Although I found the story touching and inspiring to a degree, I also found things missing from the book. The setting was in the 1990s (before No Child Left Behind), but were there others California standards? What happened to the rest of her students (other than those that have done appearances with Gruwell)? In any book such as this, you must not only pay attention to what is being said but what is not being said.
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5: Inspiring story
Many others have written detailed reviews. This is merely an attempt to throw mine in the ring. I will begin by saying that I do not believe this book was ever intended to be a "How To" manual, but rather it is Erin telling us her story. One reviewer's title stated it was "Difficult to Replicate." I would take that one further and state that it is IMPOSSIBLE to replicate (it is HER story!) and we would miss the point if we tried.
Her ability to take these kids to screenings, and meet screenwriters, and dine at the Marriott, and meet Miep Gies, and attend the Holocaust Museum was due in part to their geographical location. Granted, all of these resources were available to other teachers in the area -- but my understanding is that no one was taking "those kids." So her willingness to take these students to these places was a large part of what changed their lives. However, depending on where you live, some of these things just are not an option!
The bigger lesson is not to replicate (we would all try & fail!) -- but rather to figure out what is it that I can do, where I am, with the resources I have in front of me. Otherwise, we could excuse our inaction for lack of resources. For me this book served as a means of self-evaluation -- and I came away deciding that someone raised the bar, and it's time to step-up.
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