For my leader analysis paper I have chosen the famous Erin Gruwell, she is an American teacher who is specifically known for her unique teaching methods. Erin Gruwell was born in Glendora, California to Stephen Douglass Gruwell. She decided to change her profession to a teacher because she believed educating students could make more of a difference. Her style of teaching led to the publication of “The Freedoms Writers Diary”. In 1998, after teaching for only four years, Gruwell left Wilson High School and became a Distinguished Teacher in Residence at California State University, Long Beach.
For Mrs. Gruwell, she seems as if she is mostly a leader rather than a manager. She was assigned low-performing students in the school at Long beach.
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Gruwell demonstrated leadership skills through personalization and building on one's background experiences helped her and the students discover a sense of purpose in their lives. From that sense of purpose, came an increased desire for students to learn and, more importantly, stimulated their thought process. She combines all of her strengths and skills to be able to effectively demonstrate how a leader acts, thinks, and believes.
Some examples of her strengths are that she is optimistic, forbearing, and empathetic, and her motivation in teaching at Wodrow Wilson school because she was committed to conveying anti-racism. She constantly pushes herself to use these attributes to be able to better herself, her students, and leadership abilities. Erin Gruwell has managed to change the lives of her students and their futures. In her early years, Gruwell aspired to promote human rights and change the world.
Erin’s vision was for these kids to succeed in life and she pushed them to do it. All 150 of Gruwell’s students graduated from high school, became published writers and catalysts for change, and over half graduated from college. Many remain active with the foundation Gruwell formed to teach the Freedom Writers philosophy and methods to schools around the country. So, I believe that she has succeeded in her vision to push/ help these
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Gruwell promoted an educational philosophy that values and promotes diversity, ultimately transforming her students lives. She encouraged her at-risk students to re-think rigid beliefs about themselves and others, reconsider daily decisions, and ultimately re-chart their futures. So, Erin embraces that there are issues in the outside world right now, but she acknowledges that and wants to make it better.
From reading about Erin and the tools she uses, I believe she is very inclusive in her work. as I talked about in the previous paragraph, she was huge about equality and inclusion. So I think if she was presented with an issue with an out-group member, her main priority would be to make that person feel welcome. We know that she prioritizes teamwork, and you can't succeed with group work with out-group members.
Gruwell faced some problems such as racial and social discrimination, mockery actions, negative stereotyping inside the class, history of gangs, and loyalty that had an effect inside the class. So dealing with these problems definitely was challenging for her. But for her, she is always gonna prioritize everyone's