Teach with your heart 228-end

Like the last section of the book, this section was packed with changes in Erin's life. following the failed attempt to be nominated to political office, Erin was in some serious debt. I'm glad that Erin chose not to attempt another run at office. I just don't think it would have been a good move for her. Education is where her allegiance should lie. creating the non-profit, scholarship, freedom writers program sounds exactly like the kind of thing Erin should be doing with her life. I think she would be more successful in a role such as this than she would have been as a conventional english teacher. The other exciting thing that happened for her in this section was getting the movie about the freedom writers made. This must have seemed like a type of surreal extacy to Erin. Especially to have herself played by Hillary Swank. to have yourself represented by such an extraordinary person would have seemed jaw dropping I'm sure. Oh and meeting Hank Aaron! i don't even know if i could have made words talking to that man. He was just such an inspiration to a peoples and a nation. I think the greatest moment was in the end of the memoir though. For Sharuad to stand in front of the audience and speak to them like he did, For Erin to have changed the life of this young man from somebody who was bound to repeat the mistakes of the society he was born into to somebody who was changing the lives of others himself, well that's monumental. It really was too bad she couldn't have shared this success with her father. The passing of her father was hard to deal with even just in reading about it. I was a little surprised that she didn't talk more about the death of her father actually. I suppose maybe she thought it was best to honor him by sharing the story he would have cared about rather than by talking about her grief.

teach with your heart 177-227

This section of the book showed a lot happening in Erin's life. Some of the things that happened were just inevitable consequences of the life decisions that she made in the previous years (such as her moving to a new house) but some of the endeavors that Erin set out on were not a continuation of her experience with the school. The first example of this was when Erin decided to take a position teaching in a college setting. I question if she was qualified to do this, and i disliked that her answer to making the classroom a success was once again bringing in her prized freedom writers, but i was still glad to see Erin attempt to move out of the all consuming cycle she had entered into in the classroom. I also thought it was good to see her run for political office. Well, i thought it was good and bad simultaniously. I do not think that Erin would have made a good member of congress but i was impressed that she attempted to do something that was so removed from the field of education. still though, i question her inability to balance her life. running for office was such a removal from education that she was no longer involved in an aspect of her life that she saw as central to her life. I thought the trip that the freedom writers took across Europe was meaningful and engaging to read about. The part about seeing the excavation site was disturbing in a way that portrayed the honest, vile nature that is at times inherent in human nature. I was glad to see such a reaction from both Erin and her students.

TWYH pages 141-176

This sections stood out to for two reasons, both of which are tied into personal experience. The first thing that stood out to me was the profound experience of going to DC. I went to our nations capitol for the first time last spring during spring break. It was a quick trip, a spur of the moment trip. When the group of people that I went with and myself learned that a round-trip bus ticket from new york (where we were actually going on the break) to DC was only $30 we decided we should take advantage of the opportunity to see our nations capitol. I don't think i will ever forget that trip. true, the weather was miserable, but even though it was cold, rainy and windy and i didn't even have an umbrella with me the trip was awe inspiring. I have never really been somebody with a deep sense of patriotism but that trip made me realize the beautiful principals our nation was built around and stands for. I left that day thinking that even if our country wasn't perfect we did attempt to build a country as perfect and liberated as possible. I thought maybe Keith at least had a similar experience. The second thing that really stood out to me was the notion of the buttons worn for the people they knew that had died. When i was 16 i suffered the unspeakable pain of having my cousin, my best friend, take his own life. To this day i still have on my car dashboard a sticker with the number 27 (Jason's number from football),as well as a green and white ribbons pinned to the ceiling in my car (green and white are the colors of winthrop school system which is kind of like a second home to me.) . The idea of the buttons being worn in remembrance reminded me so much of my own means of holding the memory of a passed loved one that at points the section of reading was almost impossible. Also, I thought Erin was more the teacher that she should be in this chapter. I highly respected her for taking Henry aside and telling her an F was a "fuck you" and unless he could say that her she would not fail him. I respected her willingness to engage her students in a non-traditional project and trust them to produce earnest material.

TWYH pages 104-140

This section of the book honestly made me feel simultaneously optimistic and pessimistic about the impact that I will be able to have on students as an English teacher. It made me feel good to see Erin's students having such a profound reaction to the books that she has assigned for them to read. It gives me a touch of hope to see her students read these fantastic literary triumphs and walk away from them with sentiments such as having sections of the book written just for them. Reading this makes me feel like i might be able to get my students involved with reading by finding books for them to read that will be relevent to their lives. For example, i could use books that relate to the issues that all young adults face such as the catcher in the rye or newer material such as speak. At the same time, I feel like i will never be able to create as authentic an experience as Erin did for her students. I don't have any idea how i could ever create situations for my class like Erin did. In just this last year she has managed to introduce them to two incredibly inspiring individuals. I know that she more or less stumbled across these opportunities but at the same time she created incredible meetings for her students that i just don't think i could ever match. I can't help but wonder, "would these students respond to me like they have for Erin?" Sure, i could step into her classroom and understand how i can use powerful books to attempt to reach my students but would these texts translate when the inevidible truth that i could never bring the authors into the classroom surfaced? I guess that is a question that I will have to take a look at head on but to be as truthful as i can be, that question scares me. Part of me thinks i should do something else with my life first to try to gain experiences before i become a teacher with the hopes that maybe the people i meet along the way and the events that take place in my life can help me better reach my students.

TWYH 62-103

This section in the book shows Erin moving from a student teacher to a full time teacher at her school. The ending of her student teaching semester shows her bringing her students to meet Steven Speilberg. She gets her students to write a brief story of their lives and brings these letters to the director. He reads them and is moved by the stories. The following academic year, Erin returns to the school as a freshman english teacher. Though her group of students is as rough around the edges as her former students (if not more so), she begins some of the same approaches to understanding her students on a personal level and again she begins to connect.


In this section , i was proud of manny for being accepted to berkly. That was a tremendous feat and truely a feather in Erin's cap. I felt it was innapropriate for Erin to have her students over for a BBQ. Even though she shares a closeness with her students and they need someone to look to for support, i feel this blurs the lines between professional and personal at too high of a level. I also felt this section was presented in an overly cheary, non-realistic fashion. I would like to believe Erin's account, but the cynic in me remains dominant when encountering Erin's sweeping tails of student reform. I did however like Erin's use of Romeo and Juliet in relation to the lives of her students

TWYH pages 36-61

This section of reading mostly focuses around Erin taking her class of students to her neighborhood to see the movie Schindler's list. When her students enter her neighborhood they are met with blatant prejudices from the inhabitants of this community. The students take the small mindedness of these individuals in a stoic fashion claiming that they are used to it. The students watch the movie and are respectful while watching the movie and are also quite moved by its contents. This experience powder kegs when the students are interviewed for a newspaper and they report how unwelcome they felt in the presence of Erin's neighbors. Erin receives rude and even threatening responses from many of her neighbors. Positive experiences also came out of the events though as Erin is allowed to introduce her class to the author of Schindler's list and also by allowing her and introduction to Steven Spielberg

This portion of the reading was quite interesting for me. I've really only encountered racism in very few situations and i understand the sense of shock that Erin would feel by bringing her students to her neighborhood and watching as everyone gawked at these kids as though they were some abomination. But what might be more shocking is the steller performance by her students throughout the whole event. For these students, whom others consider to be inferior, to show a reaction that is offended but polite about it is truely something to note. Also, it was impressive to see how involved these students became with the rich experiences of a phenominal movie. One section that really spoke to the change that has been seen in her students was their meeting with Ron. When they understand the horrors that he saw and see that he is telling them that education and hard work is the way out of the ghetto, the students don't look at him like he is telling them lies but rather digest the knowledge that a wise and friendly man is relaying to them. It really shows that through the interaction with Erin these students have developed hope that they can be something more than the environment they live in

Teaching with your Heart

Abstract: When Erin (the memoirs main character and author) begins her time as a student teacher, she finds herself in a classroom that could only be described as every teachers greatest dread. Her class is full of students who are both alien and intimidating. They take bets on how quickly they can drive her out of the school. They segregate themselves and appear to disregard any and all of the beliefs that Erin would consider societal or educational norms. She finds a way to get these students to respond to her by investigating what these students care about and trying to show that she understand things such as football as well. By showing to her students that she cares more about the students than about just getting through her teaching experience she begins to see alterations to their willingness in class. By the end of this section, her students are even excited to go on a trip to a holocaust museum. Her students also decide to take her into their world and give her a taste of the world they come from.

Reaction: The description of the events in the first section of this book seems too picture perfect, too black and white to be accurate; however, the principals that are expressed in this section are true and proven. Students will respond to teachers who show that they care about their students. I think that for Erin to come into a classroom such as this and challenge the ideas of a school system (for example to effectively say that her students can learn material that the school believes they can not) is incredibly brave. Though i do question the authenticity of her report of how miraculous the transformation was, i do recognize this as a possible story