TWYH Junior Year

As summer comes to an end, and Gruwell is preparing for the upcoming school year, she finds that her marriage is not as successful as her student’s progress in the classroom. The relationship she has with her husband has slowly been detariating since she has become an educator. They eventually decide to get a divorce, and Gruwell merges herself in more school work to help heal her pain. In the classroom, Gruwell’s students are getting more opportunities than ever before. As an assignment, Gruwell has the students write their own diaries, similar to that of Mieps and Zlata. Gruwell wants to give her students an opportunity to type up their work, because of the lack of computers the school has to offer, Gruwell goes to John Tu and asks if she could borrow a few for her students, Tu decides it would be better if he bought thirty five new computers for her class. Since the students have an opportunity to type their diaries, they go a step further and take a trip to Washington D.C. to present their diaries to the Secretary of Education. The trip is a great success, the students come together with their families and with the help of John Tu, raise enough money to go. The trip eventually leads to a write up in the L.A. Times. The article caught attention everywhere. It was a well written piece that brought out the best in the class. People and organizations were sending in donations from all over to the class. Several calls from big time news stations wanted to do a story on the class. With careful consideration, Gruwell decides that an interview with Connie Chung of Primetime is the best option for her students. It eventually turns into a long process that wears on the students and creates a lot of tension with the class and the reporting crew, as long as with each other.
While reading, I originally thought that Gruwell gets extremely lucky with a lot of the opportunities that come about for her students. I still believe that a little luck is involved, but, I now believe it is more hard work and attitude than anything else. Everything her and the class do have some affect on another thing. All the events that occurred during the students junior year was because of her idea to have them create a diary. Though I wish that other classes at the school could have Gruwell as a teacher, I will admit that for a three year plan, she has done a good job of creating a base with the students and continuing to build on it. I feel that this is great for the students. Most of them have never built on something before and got to see positive results. Their getting a better education with Gruwell, they also see the results of what a positive attitude and hard work can do. The students are also making good role-models and seeing how their work can affect others.
It’s sometimes hard for me to remember that Gruwell is only in her third full year as a teacher. The way she handles every situation you would think that she’s not only a teacher, but a business woman, a mom, and a world leader. I did think it was a little sad and discouraging that she could not handle her marriage as well, but I feel that she might have been a little to young to handle it all right away and that they truly were not meant to be. I hate to say it, cause I hope that I can have as much of an impact on my students as Gruwell, but I do not think I could do as much as her. I would encourage my students to write letters and go places, but I feel that I would be too involved with athletic programs and my family to take the time and money to travel across the country and bring in guests from other countries. I realize that Gruwell is the ultimate teacher, but that’s what I strive for, and I feel that it might be too much considering everything that I plan to be part of.