Reshape Lives Through Teaching

Last March 20, our PT 138 class watched a movie called Freedom Writers. It was a true to life story of Erin Gruwell, an English teacher in Woodrow Wilson High School, and her students with different racial background. It depicted the journey of learning of the students with Erin and how Erin changed their outlook in life. Their culmination project, The Freedom Writers Diary, was a compilation of the students’ journal entries and was published in 1999.

While watching the movie, I was touched by how Erin taught her students.  I admire her dedication, hard work, patience, and selflessness. She did not give up even if there were a lot of obstacles in her way. I learned that believing and trusting your students will come a long way even if your students are stubborn. I also learned that compassion is a very important value in teaching because as teachers, we have to place ourselves on our students’ shoes to be able to know what’s important to them and to better facilitate their learning. I was also amazed by how Erin changed the attitude of her students. Little by little, she made her students realize that they were all equal and capable of change. As teachers, we have to empower our learners and let them know their potential so they will initiate the change themselves.

In the future, I will be perceptive to my students. I will ask what they think about the learning activity and consider their insights when I teach them a new activity. I will find ways to motivate my students so they will readily learn the activity. I might make them write journals so they can keep track of how often they exercise and what exercises they do. They can reflect and write how the exercises affect their life.