Freedom Writers Notes

Freedom Writers Notes

Characters: Erin Gruwell, Scott Casey, Eva, Margaret Campbell, Jamal, Marcus, Gloria, Andre, Ben, Sindy, Miep Giles

Themes: Racism: Some of the white people in the movie believe that the minorities aren’t as smart and shouldn’t be given all the basic needs of school. Also the school is separated by race. Gangs: Their high school and area has gangs and gang violence in it and most kids have lost someone to a gang. They defy the rules of the gangs and be good people. Anger: Some kids feel anger towards cops or school for ruining their lives but they come to find out that they are some of the best things in their lives. Importance of education: All the kids find out that education is some of the most important things in their lives because of where it could take them. Miss Gruwell shows them that school can do that and they should keep in it and be different.

Plot: Woodrow Wilson High school is in Long Beach, California and it is separated by race and the area is riddled with gangs. A new teacher, Erin Gruwell, comes to the school to teach the “unteachable” kids. She gains their trust through their freshman year, trying to get more books for the kids. Sophomore year they read The Diary of Anne Frank and it changes their lives forever. Miss Gruwell makes them turn their diaries into a book, calling it the Freedom Writers Diary. She fights to continue with them to Junior and Senior years and finally is able. They are the first in their families to graduate high school and go on to college. Miss Gruwell successfully taught the unteachable kids.

Connections: This movie connects to me in the same way that Miss Gruwell gets those students to like school and being an awesome teacher because I’ve had teachers like her in the past. Other than that it doesn’t really relate to me because my school is not at all like Woodrow Wilson High School

Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case Notes

Characters: Emmett Till, Mose Wright, J.W. Milam, Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant, Mamie Till Bradley, Curtis Jones, Sheriff H.C. Strider, Charles C. Diggs Jr., Judge Curtis M. Swango, Attorney Gerald Chatham, Robert B. Smith

Themes: Racial Prejudice: Black people at the time were not treated the same and were looked down upon and needed to know their place below people. If they did not know their place they were beaten. Civil Rights Movements: Emmett’s death started a whole movement because those white men got away with murder. Also integration had just started after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case. North vs. South: At the time the north and the south had very different views on integration and ways of life and they argued over which way was better. Getting Away with Murder: Those two white men got away with blatant murder and even said they didn’t afterwards knowing they couldn’t be retried for the crime.

Plot: It’s 1955 and a 14 year old black boy named, Emmett Till is visiting his cousins in Money, Mississippi from a small suburb in Chicago during the beginning of integration He is not used to the southern way of life and the Jim Crow Taboo. He crosses a Jim Crow line by hitting on a white girl, Carolyn Bryant, and “wolf whistling” at her. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, found out about this and immediately wanted to do something about this because to them he had a place and he stepped out of line. They picked him up, drove him around, beat and tortured him, and then killed him and dropped him in the river. The NAACP got involved in the case because it was a white supremacist killing. The trial started with an all-white jury and they all believed in the southern ways. The body was so badly disfigured and nobody could put them with Emmett at his death, it was an easy decision for the court. It was unanimously vote for non-guilty on murder. They posted bail on kidnapping and live their lives normally after that. J.W. Milam told reporters a less than a year later how and why he killed Emmett Till. They got away with the murder of a 14 year old boy just because he was black and did something harmless.

Connections: Emmett and I are around the same age so it would be very scary to be in his situation at that time. Also his cousins pushed him to do something not very smart and he succumbed to peer pressure and I have been in the same situation before. There isn’t very much racism in this time era at my age so for me it seems not very smart that a white man would kill a black boy for no apparent reason other than that he did something dumb.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens Notes

Habit 1: Be Proactive – Victimitis holds a person back because they think the world owes them something and in reality it doesn’t and they feel they shouldn’t work for it when they need to. The language you choose can affect your actions and moods because if you have reactive language it makes you feel that it’s never your fault but with proactive language it makes you feel you can get better and strive to be better. If I were a change agent in my family I would start getting everybody in a set routine to keep everybody from having a bad day. I would stop going to bed at unreasonable times and be smarter with time management. Willpower is my strongest human endowment because I always find a way to continue. My weakest is imagination because I’m not very good at creating new things.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind – Mission statements and the roots of a tree are similar in the fact that they both hold the tree or the human down and start at the utmost beginning and they must start there and follow it up to grow. The first three words for me are keep on pushing. A written goal is more powerful because you can see it visualize it and read it to have the will to keep following it and becoming a better person.

Habit 3: Put First Things First – If I spent more time in quadrant 2 I would be able to accomplish more assignments without feeling stressed, lose weight, and become a better person. Planning provides freedom by making you able to do things according to schedule and it will be a lot easy to do what you want because you know when other things need to be done. “It’s not the mountain we conquer, it’s ourselves” means you can only do things if you conquer yourself and push yourself to do things. Belonging is important because it gives you a sense of importance and makes you meet new people and not feel alone.