Wilson High School Journal Entry

In the freshman year of fall 1994, Ms. Gruwell, who is later also known by her students as Ms. G, introduced herself through her first journal entry. Throughout her entry she wrote about the description of the school and its surroundings. Wilson High School is located in a safe area, but like Ms. Gruwell, you would have noticed that students from all walks of life attended the school. As a fairly new teacher, Ms. Gruwell expresses her nervousness through her entry by formulating questions that she thinks will arise when the students see her. “Will they think I’m out of touch or too preppy? Will they think I’m too young to be taken seriously?” (Gruwell, p. 1) In Ms. Gruwell’s journal entry we learn about a young man named Sharaud. Sharaud started off as a disciplinary transfer student, who soon after a month, found himself altering into a
They went into depth when they wrote about the different situations they encountered everyday inside and outside of the school. In one entry a student explained that one of their close friends died in a drive by shooting. The student wrote about the occurrence as if it happens often. “I’ve lost many friends, friends who have died in an undeclared war. A way that has been here for years, but has never been recognized”. (Gruwell, p. 16) Throughout later entries we learn about the many different things Ms. Gruwell had going on for her students. For instance, Ms. Gruwell sets up a trip for her students at the Museum of Tolerance. The students had the opportunity to meet several panelist who spoke about their experiences in the Japanese Internment Camps. Students were not only able to relate their own lives to the stories of the panelist, but they also came to the realization that anything is possible. “By meeting these people, it made the books we’ve been reading more meaningful. It also made me realize that anything is possible!” (Gruwell, p.