The Third Year

The third year was when Erin got the idea for the Freedom Writer diaries which made her famous. One idea that stood out from this section was that even after we do everything in our power to change the stereotypes, they still pervade everything. The students learn this when they are chosen to air in the special on CBS: the producer specifically chooses the students who meet certain ethnic requirements (basically the two students in Black and Mexican minorities) and leaves out interviews with the rest of the students. The great thing about these diaries is that they give students a chance to reflect on their own experiences and get their stories out to the rest of the classroom and the world. Every student has a story to tell, especially these students; we often talk about multicultural education and letting a student's individual background be support or influence for their learning in school--what a great way to engage their personal experiences in school! As students are writing their diary entries they are thinking about their history and finding a way for it to become a part of their learning identity as well. As a teacher of English, Erin did a great job of connecting student identity with learning; as a math teacher I plan on finding ways to also do this so that students can get the most out of their education.

We have spent a lot of time talking in class and out about learning disabilities and challenges that teachers need to watch for and help students overcome and deal with in a multi-level classroom. So when Erin was talking to Sue Ellen about her past teachers ignoring her difficulties and making her feel insecure about her dyslexia, I was both angry and sad. As a teacher I want to make sure that students survive the classroom and learn with very little struggle; making them feel insecure or stupid does not help them learn nor does it allow them to overcome the problem and get better at anything. My teaching, and most importantly my classroom, will be teeming with opportunity for student growth and success; a student in my classroom will never feel inferior or be told they are destined for failure. There are so many ways to help students with learning disabilities: asking parents for assistance, checking the IEPs and another that Dr. Grace mentioned was asking Ed Techs for accommodations that can be made. Yet even with all those great ideas I think that the biggest asset a teacher has is the student's own experiences. I have a friend with dyslexia and dysgraphia, who was telling me that in order to offset her trouble with numbers she would translate the original problem into shapes and then do the problem with the shapes and transfer the answer back into number form for her teacher. Her teacher, seeing what she was doing actually stopped her after a while and told her to leave the answers in shape form, and then he would use a key she gave him to check her answers which would save her time and energy. I want to be a teacher like that who listens to students and their own discovered methods of learning, then does everything I can to help them succeed.

Talking about student success, I was so proud of Erin for the scene with Henry and his giving himself an 'F'. We often forget that students are the harshest critics, and in most cases think the worse of themselves even when they are doing a phenomenal job. My philosophy as a teacher includes the idea that failing a student rarely serves them any good, and least of all the teacher ultimately must have failed that student by not watching them close enough or not giving them the proper amount of attention and support that they must have needed. Thus, when a student like Henry comes to me I too would feel as if it were a cop-out for them to give themselves a grade reserved for students who do nothing on the assignment. I do not believe in giving students an 'F' unless they did no work and refused to be involved in the learning experience; and even then I will do everything in my power to ensure I have given them enough assistance in their quest for knowledge. I hope to be the teacher who is not considered the easiest nor the hardest, but is in fact considered the fairest and most effective at getting students motivated to learn. Can I achieve this goal? Yes, reading about Erin shows me that I can achieve this goal and with my passion for teaching, I will achieve that goal.