Is Ms. Erin Gruwell a good teacher?

    After viewing the first half of the film freedom writers, I felt Erin Gruwell was a good teacher. It first became apparent to me after a couple of her students got into a fight in class. Although she was unnerved, she did not give up. Most teachers would have likely high tailed it out the door and never looked back, and I would not blame them, instead she came back the next day only to be greeted with another fight, it was then that she started to observe the actions of these students and I think she realized that no one seemed to care what they were doing, or learning for that matter. You could see the emotion that she was feeling as she came to realize this, anger, sadness, and disappointment. I think it was then that she decided she needed to find a way to get through to the kids because no one else would. She first used the incident with the picture that a student had drawn and passed around the class, making fun of another student. She challenged the students true knowledge of what it meant to be in a gang, and used the opportunity to sneak in a little history lesson. This lesson caught one students attention and he wanted to learn more. Soon her job would consume her life as she started to spend more time focusing on the kids and less time at home. She took on a second job to purchase materials that the school would not supply, which showed her determination to teach these kids. She came up with a way to show the kids their similarities and get them to relate to one another, which showed her dedication. She eventually raised money so she and her dad could take the students on a trip to learn about the holocaust.
     These are just a few examples of what I felt made her a good teacher. It seemed that she would go to great lengths to stand up for these kids and their education, including breaking a few school policies.