Coldwater teachers get back-to-school encouragement
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School starts on Monday in Branch County so teachers are headed back to the halls of learning this week to prepare for students.
For staff at Coldwater Community Schools, the year opened Wednesday with guest speaker Erin Gruwell. Creator of "Freedom Writers," Gruwell is nationally known for her impact on the lives of racially diverse high school students in Long Beach, Calif.
Nearly from her first day on the job in 1994, Gruwell helped students believe they could become more than they ever expected. As the next few years unfolded, so did the advent of the Freedom Writer project.
The success story became a movie in 2007, “Freedom Writers.”
Reminding Coldwater teachers that some students will come into their classrooms with very challenging lives, Gruwell gave examples of her own students. She shared their stories and showed video clips of several students, now successful adults, who shared turning points in their lives.
Gruwell also shared clips from the movie, representing what she created in the classroom to reach the students, helping change the trajectory of their lives.
One was a young teen girl who decided she wouldn’t get pregnant at 15 like her mother or go to prison like her father.
Another read verbatim from a diary of an original Freedom Writer whose many experiences did not include a home. He wrote that in her classroom he was "home.”
Gruwell urged local teachers to see each student and to provide a safe place for all.
On Monday, 3,000 students will return to class in Coldwater, she reminded the staff. She called on them to provide a culture of compassion.
Superintendent Terry Whelan provided a copy of “Dear Freedom Writer” for each staff member.
It is filled with stories of youth who shared their painful stories. Original Freedom Writers who have walked a similar path responded.
The letters raise awareness that what students might face before they enter the classroom. A teacher who works to understand can change everything, she said.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Reporter: Back to school encouragement provided to Coldwater teachers
