LOS ANGELES, CA: 126 educators from across the United States and Canada will come together this Thursday for the first annual Freedom Writer Teachers Summit, a culminating event for participants of a national training program launched in 2007---the Freedom Writers Institute. This training program continues to follow the success of Paramount Pictures’ “Freedom Writers,” starring Hilary Swank, based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary, by Erin Gruwell and her students launched by the Freedom Writers Foundation, the Institute is a five-day seminar led by Ms. Gruwell with some of the original Freedom Writers which focuses on how to engage, enlighten, and empower students. The Institute encourages the use of innovative techniques, a teacher support network, and connections between teachers and local businesses and community leaders.
“This will be a powerful and unifying event for the Foundation, our teachers, their schools, and—most importantly—their students. The spring summit is an opportunity for all Freedom Writer Teachers to build on all the strategies we have taught them,” said Ms. Gruwell.
Thanks to sponsors such as Southwest Airlines and the Annenberg Foundation, at least one teacher from every state receives a scholarship for the program, which allows them to travel to Los Angeles for the Freedom Writers Teachers Summit to address educational issues that prevent students from graduating high school. Workshops with diverse speakers such as Dr. Terrence Roberts, an original member of the Little Rock Nine; Andrew Carroll, New York Times’ best-selling author of War Letters; and Peter Thum, co-founder of Ethos Water, will cover topics including segregation in schools, the power of writing, and how to engage sponsors for their classrooms.
Zac Chase, a teacher at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, and a Freedom Writer Teacher, is most looking forward to “the chance to re-connect, renew and rejuvenate all the best parts of why I show up to school every day.”
Established in 1997, the mission of the Freedom Writers Foundation (FWF) is to positively impact communities by decreasing high school dropout rates. FWF carries out its work through the replication and enhancement of the Freedom Writers Method, a pedagogical framework founded on the belief that children can learn if provided with relevant curriculum coupled with a supportive environment.
