Freedom Writers

When she realizes that her students are living in their own personal wars, she takes the Diary of Anne Frank, Romeo and Juliet (another gangster story) to read in class. She notices that her school is segregated by race and color. So, she divides her class with a colored tape taped to the middle of the floor, and she says, “ were going to play a game, o.k.?” This activity helps them realize that they are all fighting the same battles, and are living their lives very much in common.
“You’re going to have fun I promise.” Look you can work on those workbooks til the bell rings or you can play a game.” This is called the line game, I’m going to ask you a question, if that question applies to you, you step on to the line then step back away for the next question. Easy right?
First q How many of you have the new Snoop Dog album? Everyone steps up to the line.
How many of you have seen Boys in the Hood? Again everyone steps up to the line.
How many of you live in the projects? Most of them go up to the line.
How many of you know someone, a friend or relative, who was or is in juvenile hall or jail? Everyone steps up to the line.
How many of you have been in juvenile hall or jail for any length of time?
How many of you know where to get drugs right now?
How many of you know someone in a gang? All of them step up to the line.
How many of you are gang members? Noone goes up to the line, but their lying.
Stand on the line if you’ve lost a friend to gang violence.
The entire class goes and stands on the line.
The students begin to realize that they are all the same…. They aren’t different at all, they’ve all had similar hurts and pains..and they begin to feel empathy for (empathize) one another.
Stay on the line if you’ve lost more than one friend, three, four or more, o.k. I’d like us to pay our respects to those people now, wherever you are just speak their names. Thank you all very much.
Now, I have something for each of you,…Everyone has their own story and it’s important for you to tell your own story even to yourself..so, what we’re going to do is were going to write everyday in these journals. You can write about whatever you want: the past, the present, the future. You can write it like a diary or you can write songs, poems, any good thing, bad thing, anything, but you have to write everyday.
They won’t be graded – just write the truth – Truth cant be graded. And I will not read them unless you give me permission. If you want me to read it I have a cabinet over here that has a lock on it, I will leave it open during class, but I will lock this cabinet at the end of every class. Come up and take your own journal. Whenever you’re ready.
On Parent night she didn’t have any parents show up, but all their journals were in the cabinet.
She gives them a book, My Life on Durango Street, they haven’t had the opportunity trips, community leaders to present in class, to expand their expand their thinking about what’s out there for them. Purely on a reward system, they won’t get anything if they don’t do their work and raise their grades. What do you believe in? Do you believe in love, respect, honor, hard work, kindness, giving, sharing…?
She gets permission for a trip for her students for the weekend and pays for it herself. She took them to a holocaust museum called the Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Plaza, where they had to learn about one person in the holocaust.
At the beginning of the tour, they give a picture with a child’s picture on it, you can find out who they were, and what camp they were sent to, and at the end of the tour you could find out whether they survived. They got to see the actual newspapers with the mocking drawings of Jewish people. The gas chambers, concentration camps, films about the holocaust, afterwards, she had a beautiful dinner arranged at the hotel where she worked her extra job. She invited real holocaust survivors so they could meet the students there. Gave them an unforgettable experience of a lifetime. They couldn’t believe she had done all that for them. She valued them greatly and they understood that she valued them greatly!

TOAST FOR CHANGE
She has cider bottles
Bags have the 4 books they’re going to read their sophomore year. I want you to take one of these glasses to make a toast… I want each one of you to make a toast for change, and what that means is, from this moment on, every voice, that told you…you can’t is silenced. Every reason that tells you, things will never change,,disappears. And the person you were before this moment… that person’s turn is over…now it’s your turn.
Mrs. Gruwell is the only person who made me think of hope. The homeless kid wrote…I walk into my class and my problems aren’t as important anymore because I’m home. Reading novels, Zlata’s Diary that understand their situation, writing journals and in a diary, poetry, grammar.

Students write a letter telling the lady who hid Anne Frank how they felt about the book, tell her about your own experiences, but I want the letters to be perfect so be prepared to do more than one draft. Then the students begin to think on their own and plan the project, raise the money, put ads in the paper, T-shirt unite people, School shirts show school pride. Reporters report it in the newspaper,
I did what I had to do because …it was the right thing to do. But even an ordinary person can within their own small way can turn on a small light in a dark room. You are the heroes, you are heroes everyday. Your faces are engraved in my heart.
HAVE THE COURAGE AND STRENGTH TO CHANGE AND HAVE THE COURAGE AND STRENGTH TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT YOURSELF…

THEN THEY LEARNED ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT….
I help these kids make sense of their lives and then my life makes sense.
Everybody’s cool with everybody, Everybody knows everybody, this is the only place we can be ourselves,

Yeah it’s just a job, but is the job finished..What you’ve done with those kids is …you’re an amazing teacher, special, you have been blessed with a burden..and I admire you.
You can’t teach them …you don’t even like them.
What about the evaluation assignment…You had to grade yourself on the work that you are doing…you gave yourself and F, --that’s what I feel I deserve…This is a fuck you to me and everyone in this class, I don’t want excuses, I know what you’re up against, we’re all of us up against something…So you better make up your mind because do you have the balls to look me straight in the eye and tell me this is all you deserve,…I am not letting you fail. –even if that means going to your house every day until you finish the work..I see who you are..Do you understand me? I can see you and you are not failing. So, take a minute, pull yourself together and come inside I want a new evaluation. Don’t use _____ as another excuse for why you can’t make it , you made it to your junior year, think about how you did that!!
Everyone in this room has a chance to graduate, ( CHANCE, OPPORTUNITY, CHOICE, YOU CAN CHOOSE!!)
For some you will be the first in your family, the first with a choice to go to college, some may move faster than others and you did that not me.
One final project in mind…they all typed up their stories in one book just like Anne Frank she got this business man to donate 30 computers so they could work…she told them they had something to say to people..they weren’t just kids in a class anymore, they were writers with their own voices..their own stories, and even if no one else read it…the book was something they could leave behind and say WE WERE HERE!! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED! WE MATTERED! EVEN IF IT WAS JUST TO EACH OTHER, SHE ASKED THEM TO COME UP WITH A TITLE SOMETHING TO CALL OURSELVES…THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY. They’ve become a family to each other their reading and writing scores have improved…
She left Wilson to teach at California State University, Long Beach.
The Freedom Writers Diary was published in 1999.
The Freedom Writers Foundation.

The poorest countries pay people only $2 a day if you’re lucky. Where two worlds meet courage and compassion. Very few medical facilities, the lack of development and the poverty mean that 1 out of 10 children die before the age of 5. Facial tumors on their faces are believed to be cursed, and people tell them they are worthless and their society shuns them.

Don’t see them as others see them or the way they see themselves, see them as persons who have greatness in them! Look them in their eyes and tell them, showcase their work, let them showcase their work and have gallery walkthrough of their creative projects and invite people from the community to see their achievements. 60 minutes the African Mercy

Shine Bright Like A Diamond by Rianna