Freedom Writers is a Movement

The Freedom Writers Diary

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Another main conflict of this book “The Freedom Writers Diary” is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at. But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing. Don’t ever judge someone without knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them. The Freedom Writers formed a family that knows no color lines and only sees what lies deep within the heart. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

This is one of the fragments from the book Freedom Writers Diary that really got my attention. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." This was what the boy that wrote about his brother’s murder trial wrote on another diary entry. After the attorney sentence fifteen years to life in prison to his brother he get back to what he used to do (you know what I mean, illegal stuff). Mrs. Gruwell gave to her students the assignment to do a self-evaluation, he gave himself and F, and he automatically failed himself. Then Mrs. Gruwell asked him “What’s this? Do you know what this means?” then she added “FUCK YOU! That’s what this is! It’s a fuck you, and a fuck me, and fuck everyone who’s ever cared about you!” This was a pep talk that he never thought he would have with his teacher. Also this "pep talk", teacher to student,  in somehow inspires me to not give up on things,  to fix what it has to be fix and to learn from my own mistakes, as the phrase says "A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." I'm going to find my mistakes, learn from them and correct them. These words, the way they use writing to express their thoughts, their feelings, their stories to the world around them makes me get excited and reflect on their stories to change communities like their, where everything was gang violence, even one of the Freedom Writers wrote that every night were guns shooting at the hood that he get used to it, it became his lullaby. 

Freedom, being able to make choices. Performing an action of your own choosing without limitations. “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."(Malcolm x) The Freedom Writers Diary is an inspirational, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. The Freedom Writers is a movement. 

Conflict in the Freedom Writers

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war.

I think that the main conflict of this movie is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at... But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing... Don’t ever judge someone with out knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them.

      The conflict of the movie freedom writers is to create change to many students that is having trouble in there life also it is for people to think positive and not negative. what this means is the teacher MS.G became the teacher and found out what was each student struggle and changed them and made each student unite and relate to each other. this action called freedom writer helped gain and start off a new society furthermore, the students who perceived school as they don't need it realized they did need it and it is important. this movie also changed the racism act and made African Americans and white people relate and connect with each other. what this whole paragraph demonstrates is there was a lot of changing occurring. RACISM & GANG VIOLENCE.

Like they said: “ Don’t judge a book by its cover”

Senior Project Update #3

  

My research paper will be on how to become a ranch owner, the steps that a person takes in order to become a ranch owner (rancher/farmer). Some of the ideas that I have are working at a ranch to get experience, live what a rancher lives, and do what ranchers do; how to manage a ranch, what it takes to build a ranch. The ranch where I am going to work is either at a ranch in Michoacán, Mexico or at a ranch here in California. I am looking forward to work the lands of my beautiful Mexico but if its impossible for me to travel during the next five months I might do my hours here at California or Texas. The resources I hope to use would be a ranch, obviously, the ranch owner to give like an idea of what is like to be a rancher, effort and time.

First I want to say that everything in my senior project has changed, or at least for the part of completing the 20 hours of service. So, last week while my family and I were celebrating Thanksgiving someone called our house and on the TV screen appeared a private number, I was like “who the hell calls on private number during Thanksgiving, “at the time the phone was ringing we were in the middle of eating pozole, because we; Mexicans, or at least not us eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, we eat everything but turkey, well the point is that the phone rang and we were eating and for Mexicans when we are eating is like our holy time, we cannot get up of the table until everybody is done eating, so we let the phone ring and ring, until it stops ringing. Twenty minutes later the phone rings again, lucky for the person who was calling we were finish with dinner but not with desert, but we made an exception. It was someone from México saying that we have to go to México, right now (Family Emergency). I don’t know if that call changed my project for good or for bad, but what I certainly know is that I am living to México next week.

Fortunately, I think 80%-90% I’m done with my research paper. I told my sister if she could help me correcting my research paper or if she knew someone that could read my paper and correct it. Lucky for me she has a teacher or counselor that helped me with my research paper and I am done with it. I just need to turn it in on time and wait for what the people that checks all the research papers will say about my paper. I hope all the hours that I spent writing it is worth at the time they check my paper. For my senior project, the actual project, like I said on my last senior project update I am planning to do a model to scale of what includes a basic ranch. What I’m doing right now is drawing some sketches of how my scale model will look like, where the things that I recently bought are going to be located; technically the sketches are like the planes so to say. And now that I know that I’m going to México, my brother told me that the best base for building a scale model is like a board made of a pretty hard material called plywood. Plywood is a very good material not just for building furniture but also for doing models to scale, like in this case is my ranch model to scale. I already told my brother if he can obtain plywood for my project and some little things that my model-to-scale will have. Well, I think that's all for now.

Sentence Fixes

Mrs. Guerdard here is the Sentence Fixes document that I had to do for my conference on Thursday November 29.

"Diarios De Las Calles" - Su Historia, Sus Palabras, Su Futuro

 “Diariosde las Calles”- The Freedom Writers Diary with Erin Gruwell. I read the first pages and I was like “Damnnn!!” There are no words in my vocabulary that can describe my thoughts so far about this book, it’s a pretty amazing book that can change someone’s way to think, someone’s perspective of life, and even someone’s life. You have to pay really close attention to the words these teenagers used on their writings, the way they write on their diaries is like if they are narrating you their story, the way they live, and specially the war they face day by day and that they hope one day that war will end.

 The book is about how a 23-years-old English teacher uses the techniques of reading and writing to change 150 teens and the world around them. Ms. Gruwell was a student teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.  Long Beach was dubbed the “gangsta-rap capital” by MTV due to its depiction if guns and graffiti. Ms. Gruwell was given the group of the “un-teachable” students as the others teachers refer to them. This group was form of Latinos, Asians, Blacks and one white boy. They lived in the projects, the so called “hood”

The book takes place in Long Beach City "gangsta-rap capital" or L B C as the rappers refer to it, at Woodrow Wilson High School located in a safe neighborhood. Its location and reputation make it desirable. So much that a lot of students that live in the hood take two or three buses to get to school. Students come from every area of Long Beach; rich kids from the shore sit next to poor kids from the projects. There's every race, religion and culture within the confines of the quad. But since the Rodney King riots, racial tension has spilled over into the school. Over 120 murders in Long Beach in the months following the Rodney King riots. Gang violence and racial tension reach an all time high. The cultural influences of the Freedom Writers Diary are that in Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are separate by sections; "Beverly Hills" or "Disneyland" where all of the rich white kids hang out, there's "China Town" where the Asians hang, the Hispanic sections is referred to as either "Tijuana Town" or "Run to the Border", then there's the Black section known as "Da Gueto".  We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Those were the words a Mexican girl said. 

       "I always thought that "odd" was a three-letter word; but today I found out it has seven, and they spell G-r-u-w-e-l-l." (Freedom Writers)

Who Would You Blame?

Who would you blame?  
Red Code, the United States has been declare a State of Emergency, childhood obesity has going beyond the limits. Like Uncle Sam would say "I want you, parent of family to take charge of your children's health!" Parents need to develop a routine of exercise and a balanced diet  for themselves and especially for their children, they are the future of our nation.

Making Progress

So far for my senior project is going pretty good. I have almost finished my research paper. Right now, I am just checking for grammar error on my paper and I had ask my counselor, Sandra, to help me on reducing paragraphs or sentence that are unnecessary on my research paper because the document is too long, is about ten pages long, including the work cited page, I looked up on the Napa High web, where are all the Senior stuff and it says that the research paper has to be 5-6 pages long including work cited page, so I just need to fix it and make it fit all in 5 or 6 pages.

On my senior Project what I am planning to do is to build a ranch model to scale. I already bought some of the equipment that are in a ranch, and have some supplies to build it. I found this big ass red agricultural tractor that when I saw it, literally I fell in love with it haha and I bought it. Then I bought a seeder, two little John Deere tractors, two cargo trucks, some animals and three trucks. I just need a barn, a warehouse, make some stockyards for the livestock (bovine, porcine, ovine, and poultry) and also make some stables for the equine livestock. What I am still thinking is how I am going to put the crops in the model, I do not know if I will draw them or make like in 3-D.

For my hours, I had contact some ranchers I am going to be volunteering at a ranch in Mexico. I am planning to go to Mexico on January so I can do my hours over there. From what I know that I am going to be doing at the ranch in Mexico is shadowing the ranch owner and the workers at the fields, watch and pay close attention to the duties they are going to be performing at the crops, pulling fertilizer, harvesting, all duties they do, and I may be able to drive the vehicles they use, like the tractors, the seeder, the thresher and hopefully the cargo trucks. But first I have to learn how to drive, I remember I drove like two three times on the fields but that was when I was like seven or eight; it is been so long, almost ten years, I think I already forgot what I learned L. That is for the part of Agriculture, and for the other part is the livestock.  The duties that I am going to be doing in the ranch with the livestock will be: feed the animals, clean the stockyards and throw their excrement, milking the cows, among other duties.

And that's all what I had been doing so far.