TWYH - pg.228-265

Abstract:
After the loss of Erin's campaign, she was put into serious debt. The voice recording alone cost her $20,000 and Erin wasn't making much money at this point. At this same time one of the Freedom Writers, Tony, was beaten badly and left for dead. He was doing well in life and because of this he lost his job, his car, and had to drop out of school. Tony didn't let any of this phase him, he just moved on with his life the best he could. Tony helped Erin move on with her campaign loss, and she started to speak at different locations about the Freedom Writers. She started speaking to get out of debt, but Erin enjoyed telling people about their story. She started speaking all around the United States and even spoke after Rudy Giuliani. A successful businessman with lots of money, Ric Kayne, asked Erin if she could replicate her success with the Freedom Writers at a national level. Erin didn't think she could do this without her students' help, so she asked Mr. Kayne to provide scholarships to them so they could replicate Room 203 together.

Around this time, Erin was asked about turning the story about the Freedom Writers into a movie. She met with the screenwriter who wrote Erin Brockovich and he started writing the script. Before he could finish writing the script to the movie, something very tragic happened to Erin. Her father, who was her biggest supporter throughout this whole book, had a heart attack and died. Erin got the news right before she left to make a speak somewhere on the border of Canada. She stayed on the plane and continued with her plans because that's what her dad would have wanted her to do. Her father passed away before the Freedom Writers movie came out, so when it finally came out Erin and the Freedom Writers went back to the same movie theater that Erin and her dad brought them to before. Instead of people giving them weird looks and clutching their purses, everyone embraced the students. It was a touching moment for everyone who was involved.

Reflection:
I feel like for the first time in this book, Erin finally had things in her life under control. She was spreading the Freedom Writers' story all over the United States, but she didn't seem to be as much of a workaholic as before. She was asked to run for Congress again and she actually turned down the offer. I feel like Erin has grown throughout this book, and the old Erin wouldn't have been able to say no, but the new Erin could. She finally decided that she couldn't do everything, and decided to focus on the movie that was being released and making more speeches about the Freedom Writers. I think the movie being released made Erin feel like she finally made a difference. Not only did many of her students improve their lives by getting an education, but now everyone knew their story and what they went through to achieve that success.

Erin's story is an amazing story of how one teacher made a difference in the lives of 150 students. But I definitely don't want to do what Erin did. She lost so much because of her devotion to her students, and I don't feel that it was worth it. Teachers need to think of themselves and their own families before their students. It's a difficult thing to do, but not all of us can be like Erin. Once the year is done with your students, you just need to let them go and not hang on to them forever. This book gave me another perspective of teaching and what happens when you become a workaholic and over attached to your students.

TWYH - pg. 177-227

Abstract:
This section of the book starts out during the later half of the students' senior year. Tensions were rising with the students because among the Freedom Writers, certain students were being singled out and getting more attention. During this same time, they won the Spirit of Anne Frank Award where only 45 students could go to New York City to accept the award. This also caused more tension between Erin and the other teachers, because yet again she was going across the country with her students and being recognized. Erin also had a Primetime Live segment on her and her class air on TV, which got a lot of attention outside the school.

After graduation, Erin decided to take a job at California State University. She still continued to see her students and decided to take about 50 of them on a trip to Europe. They weren't able to raise all the money, so Erin again went to John Tu for financial help. And yet again he gave her money, this time it was $250,000. These aren't even her students anymore, and she's still spending so much time with them and doing things for them. After the trip, Erin was still promoting the book and was on different shows like Rosie O'Donnell and Oprah. And apparently she didn't think she was busy enough, because she decided to run for Congress. This caught me completely off guard, I had no idea she was even interested in politics. The Freedom Writers helped her campaign, but in actuality they might have lost it for her. Erin was juggling both her campaign and her students, and her students were her top priority.

Reflection:
I was kind of disappointed in Erin for leaving Wilson High. I felt like she did it because of her students, they weren't going to be there next year and she didn't want to start a school year without them. She said in the book that she wanted them to "spread their wings and leave the coop" and I thought for a moment that she was going to let them go on their own, but nope. Erin thinks of her students as family at this point. I mean she organized a 19 day trip to Europe for 50 students! It cost over $250,000! And then when she decided to run for Congress I thought she was trying to do something else besides hanging out with her students. Even though I was surprised she decided to run for Congress, at least it didn't have to do with her students or teaching. It's hard for Erin to relax and not do anything because she's been a workaholic for like 5 years now. But she didn't give up her students, instead she encouraged them to help her in her campaign. While I was reading, it didn't seem to me that Erin even wanted to campaign and she was unhappy doing it. She didn't want to help raise money because she didn't want to ask people for money, which made no sense to me because she asked for money all the time when she was a teacher. And she didn't want to put people down, but she used to put down all the other teachers that she worked with. I'm glad that she lost the election because it didn't seem that she was passionate about it. She's obviously passionate about her students, she just needs to be passionate about teaching her current college students.

TWYH - pg. 141-176

Abstract:
This section of the book starts out with Erin getting a divorce from her husband. They hadn't been getting along for awhile now, and he didn't even want to go on vacation to Europe with her. He left at the beginning of Erin's students junior year, so it was pretty touch on Erin. One thing that I didn't expect was that Erin's husband was seeing another woman. I don't believe this happened in the movie. Another part of the book that surprised me was that Erin's students found out that her husband was seeing another woman. A couple of her students actually worked at her husband's office with John Tu and saw him kissing the other woman. Her students responded by wanting to either beat him up or trash his car. Because of this, Erin had to come clean with her students that she was getting a divorce.

Another big part of this section of the book was that Erin organized a trip for all of her students, and she has 150, to go to Washington DC on a field trip. They wanted to go give their book to the Secretary of Education. For a lot of Erin's students, this was the first time they left California, stayed in a hotel, and rode on an airplane. It cost a lot of money to send that many people across the country on a field trip, and I'm still not really sure how Erin pulled it off.

Reflection:
"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." After I read this, I just wanted to scream "Why hadn't you thought of this earlier?!" I'm not saying that she had to be the perfect wife, but if she put a quarter of the time she spent on her students into her marriage, they might still be together. I couldn't imagine letting my profession ruin a marriage. But I feel that Erin and her husband getting a divorce is just going to make Erin even more of a workaholic. She's not going to have anyone to go home to, so she's just going to spend even more time with her kids or doing stuff for them. Especially since in this section, we were told that Erin was allowed to teach the same kids for another year, their senior year. I think it's both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Her kids will learn a lot in her class, but it's also doesn't seem healthy to me.

I can't believe that Erin organized a trip for almost 200 people to travel across the United States to take a field trip to Washington DC. That's crazy! It must have taken so much time to organize everything, and Erin pretty much did it all herself. I mean they had to reserve a whole airplane just for their group. And their hotel bill must have been ridiculous. Erin's students did a lot of fundraising, but John Tu helped out Erin and her kids the most. He also gave them 36 computers for Erin's classroom, which was generous by itself. Erin's students had a blast in Washington DC, and I'm sure it was just as fun watching them in the nation's capitol. It was a once in a lifetime experience for them, and they all knew it.

TWYH - pg. 104-140

Abstract:
This section of the book starts off with Erin buying them books about the Holocaust because she feels like her students can relate with the death and hard times that Holocaust victims went through. Her students got really into The Diary of Anne Frank, and one of her students, Maria, thought of herself as Anne. I remembered this part from the movie Freedom Writers, when Maria through her book across the room because she was so mad that Anne ended up dying at the end of the book. Maria thought that if Anne died in the book, that she was going to end up dying in the streets. It was a hard moment for Erin, who didn't really have any experience dealing with stuff like this. After finishing the book, another student Darrius found out that Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne and the rest of her family, was still alive today. He wanted to fly her out to California so that everyone could meet her. One part that they didn't show in the book was that in actuality, Miep was already planning on visiting Long Beach, and the only thing Erin had to do was get her to come meet her students when she was already there. It was an exciting thing for them, so when they started reading their next book, Zlata's Diary, her students again wanted Zlata to come and visit them. This visit was a lot harder to plan and pay for, since Zlata was only fifteen years old and wanted her parents and best friend to come. It took Erin a lot of hard work, but she pulled it off once again and Zlata's trip went perfectly. Her students had a blast and were able to bring some of their family members with them.

Reflection:
My main thought after reading this section was I couldn't believe all the things that Erin does for her students. I feel like I'm a good person and would do a lot for my students, but I don't think I would jeopardize relationships with others and work such long hours for them. Erin's relationship with her husband is getting increasingly worse during the book, and she's working so many hours because she bought 4 different books for her students. That is unheard of! She wonders why the other teachers don't like her, but if I had an Erin teaching across the hall from me I probably wouldn't like her either. She's a workaholic and it's going to catch up with her. I know she's doing amazing things with her students, but I feel like she could still do these things without working so much and jeopardizing everything else in her life. With every profession, there has to be a balance between work and play, and Erin doesn't have that balance.

TWYH - pg. 62-103

Abstract:
This section of Teach with Your Heart starts out with Erin's class going to see Spielberg. She tricked them into writing letters to him about their own personal journeys in life. She was very surprised when her students got into the assignment and wrote amazing letters. Even the students who rarely turned in assignments wrote letters to Spielberg. The field trip to Universal Studios went well and Erin's students had a blast. But by this time in the book it was the end of the school year, and she had to say goodbye to her students. They would be seniors next year, and there was no way that the English Department would allow Erin to teach seniors. It seemed tough for everyone, but there was nothing that could be done. Erin continued to see some of her students over the summer, and in the fall she was assigned a brand new bunch of freshmen. This group was more difficult for Erin then her past students, but at least she had their support, especially Manny and Sharaud, in helping her connect with them. Erin tried to do sort of the same thing with her new class as with her old class. She was able to get funds to take them on a field trip, but she wanted her students to earn it. She wanted them to write essays about a person who's overcome adversity. All of her students completed the assignment, and all of them wanted to go on the field trip except Maria - she never passed in her permission slip. At the end of this section in the book, another school year has gone by but Erin has been asked if she wanted to teach sophomores instead of freshmen next year. And all of her current students requested to be in her class.

Reflection:
I felt really bad for Erin during this section of the book. She had been so successful with her first class of students and couldn't continue with them to their senior year. If that's not hard enough, she was given a brand new class of freshmen who were very hard to connect to. I knew Erin wouldn't give up on these students, but it definitely helped her a lot to have some of her past students there giving her advice on ways to connect with her students. I did recognize this new group of students as the students she had in the movie Freedom Writers. I also knew from the movie that this she was allowed to teach this group of students next year as well, which would be their sophomore year. Erin must have been so relieved that all of her students wanted her to be their teacher next year, and that she had a whole other year to help make a difference in their lives. My favorite part of this section in the book is when Manny is accepted to go to the University of California in Berkeley. Erin must have felt so good that she helped one of her students get into a great college. Even though she had the problem with Manny's mother, I'm sure it was worth it to get yelled at because it gave him a chance to get a great education.

TWYH - pg. 36-61

Abstract:
This section of the book starts out with Erin wanting to take her students to go see Schindler's List because there was recent controversy about the movie. In a nearby town, some students laughed at a part of the movie when there were Holocaust survivors in the audience. Erin had a discussion about it with her students and when she saw it was playing in her town, she thought she'd bring her students to go see it. She finally got the money to bring them, but the trip wasn't how Erin had pictured it. People at the theater and restaurant they went to after the movie stared at her students, some clutched their purses and jewelry, and some students got their pockets checked after buying candy. Because of how Erin's students were treated, an article in the local paper was written and Erin got death threats from people in the community. This section of TWYH ends with Erin getting to meet Steven Spielburg because he wants to make a movie about her and her students.

Reflection:
I could not imagine going through what Erin went through in this section of the book. I felt so bad for her, she just wanted her students to be able to watch a movie that was about the Holocaust, a lesson that they just went over in class. The movie also related to recent news, so it definitely made sense that she would want her students to see it. I would have done the same thing if I were her. Erin had good intentions, but it backfired on her. Fortunately, her students were used to being stared at and treated differently, so there weren't any major problems. I could feel Erin's pain because she brought her students into her community. It was her idea. But her students had enough respect for her that they behaved and didn't say anything back, when they had the right to be upset.

One of my favorite parts was when Erin's students forced her to tell them what kind of threats she received at home. I thought it was cute how they wanted to know exactly what was said and how they wanted to stand up for her. I could tell when I was reading it that it made Erin feel good about her class and that she made the right decision about becoming a teacher. All teachers have the moments where they think "Why did I choose this profession?" and all teachers have the moments when they know exactly why they decided to become a teacher.

TWYH - pg. 1-35

Abstract:
Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell starts out by Erin explaining her first day of teaching at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. I automatically noticed a difference between this book and the movie "Freedom Writers" because in the movie she was a regular teacher and in real life she was only a student teacher. It makes a lot more sense that she had to work two other jobs while teaching because student teachers don't get paid, they actually have to pay to student teach. It was great reading what thoughts were going through her head while she was trying to find ways to relate to her students. She tried the sports approach and that gained her a little bit of respect but the thing that helped Erin the most with her students was bringing them on a field trip when usually students like hers weren't allowed to go on field trips because of behavioral reasons. Erin had faith in her students, and she was probably the only teacher of those students to do that, so they gave her their respect and full attention.

Reflection:
One of my favorite parts of these 35 pages is when Erin talks about all the things that didn't work with her students. She said that her students refused to read anything she assigned so she'd read it to them in class. So for 55 minutes or however long the class period was, her students would just sit there and listen to her read, or pretend to listen because I don't even think I could listen to someone read for that long. Or Erin would try to make them write an essay or story all period long. It's nice to know that even if you aren't a perfect teacher at the beginning of the school year, there is always a chance to turn things around and that you haven't lost your students' interest for good. You just have to keep trying different things until you find what works with that class. And what works with one class probably won't work with another, so you have to do the whole process over again every year. Teaching is about putting in the effort to find what works in order for your students to succeed.