The Freedom Writers Foundation brought together 150 teachers from across the United States and Canada to jointly compose their new book Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writers Teachers (Broadway Books, August 2009) with the help of donated tools and support from HP and Microsoft. Today, in her keynote presentation at the National Educational Computing Conference, Erin Gruwell, founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation, will share the supporting, yet critical role, that technology played in easing the teacher/author collaboration and relationship building.
The Freedom Writer Teachers came together last summer as part of the Foundation’s teacher-training program, spurred on by the success of Paramount Pictures’ Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank, based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary, by Gruwell and her students. The teachers received the donated tools and training as they commenced writing their personal classroom stories featured in the new book.
Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writers Teachers will be available for sale on August 18, 2009 wherever books are sold. Teaching Hope unites the voices of these Freedom Writer Teachers, who share uplifting, devastating, and poignant stories that provide insight into the struggles and triumphs of education. Mirroring an academic year, these dispatches from the front lines of education take us from the anticipation of the first day to the disillusionment, challenges, and triumphs of the school year. These are the voices of teachers who persevere in the face of intolerance, rigid administration, and countless other challenges, and continue to reach out and teach those who are deemed unteachable.
About The Freedom Writers Foundation
The Freedom Writers Foundation provides educators with transformative methods to engage, enlighten and empower vulnerable, at-risk students to reach their full potential. For more information, please visit www.freedomwritersfoundation.org.
