Richmond, BC - (March 24, 2009) – I was given the rare opportunity to meet a life angel in today’s world. Erin Gruwell stood in a room filled with strangers before she was to speak at our children’s high school fundraiser. It was obvious to me that this woman had a unique ability to meet each person and make each individual to be put at ease and feel like they were Erin ’s best friend. To hear Erin tell her story is inspiring to anyone but especially to any educator looking for inspiration. So there was no surprise when Hollywood chose to tell her story in the 2007 movie Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank .

Erin Gruwell (born August 15, 1969 ) is an American teacher. She is a graduate of the University of California , Irvine , where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from California State University , Long Beach , where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education .

Gruwell began teaching in 1993 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. As a student teacher, she was assigned the lowest-performing students in the school. One student, a boy she referred to as "Sharaud", seemed determined to make her life miserable. He had transferred to Wilson from a rival high school where he had allegedly threatened his teacher with a gun. However, a few months into the school year one of her other students passed a note depicting Sharaud with extremely large lips. Infuriated, Gruwell told the class that that was the type of caricature that the Nazis had used during the Holocaust. When only one of the students knew what the Holocaust was, Gruwell changed the theme of her curriculum to tolerance. Gruwell took the students to see Schindler's List, bought new books out of her own pocket and invited guest speakers.

After her year of student teaching, Gruwell returned to Wilson as a full teacher, this time with a class of freshmen. Her fall semester got off to a rocky start due to student protests of Proposition 187. But Gruwell persevered, and reached her students by asking them to make movies of their lives, keep journals, and relating the family feud in Romeo and Julie t to a gang war. She also had the students read books written by and about other teenagers in times of war, such as The Diary of a Young Girl, Zlata's Diary and Night. Writing journals became a solace for many of the students, and because the journals were shared anonymously, teenagers who once refused to speak to someone of a different race became like a family.

In the fall of 1995, Gruwell gave each of her students a bag full of new books and had them make a toast for change. After that, she saw a turnaround in them. The students whom school administrators had thought were not intelligent enough to read higher-level books and were destined to drop out went on to shock everyone. All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and many went on to attend college.

Between 1994 and 1998, the Freedom Writers garnered a great deal of media coverage, including appearances on PrimeTime Live, The View and Good Morning America

In 1998, Gruwell left Wilson High School and became a Distinguished Teacher in Residence at California State University , Long Beach . In doing so, she hoped to ensure that prospective teachers could learn from her experiences and find a way to inspire other disadvantaged students. Gruwell later went on to start the Freedom Writers Foundation, which aspires to spread the Freedom Writers method across the world.

While Erin has been credited with giving her students a “second chance,” it was perhaps she who changed the most during her tenure at Wilson High School . She decided to channel her classroom experiences toward a broader cause, and – today – her impact as a “teacher” extends well beyond Room 203.

Currently, Erin serves as president of the Freedom Writers Foundation. She raises awareness by traveling internationally to speak inside large corporations, government institutions, and community associations. But Erin ’s capacity to convert apathy to action matters most at schools and juvenile halls, where any observer can watch the expressions of troubled teens shift from guarded cynicism to unabashed hopefulness.

Here are Erin ’s thoughts of the use and benefits of games and board games in the classroom.

Q: Have you used games in the classroom?
A: Absolutely.

Q: Are uses of games as affective in elementary and high school alike?
A: Definitely. Unfortunately, as students get older the playful aspects of school, are lost in the shuffle. There is unfortunately a wave of teaching to a test rather than teaching to a kid. The idea of using games often allowed me to teach to a kid, not to a test.

Q: While you were teaching the Freedom Writers – did you use games and if so what kind were used?
A: I felt that some of my best academic activities were under the guise of games i.e. The Line Game, The Peanut Game and the Crayon Game. I chose simple objects that my students could identify with childhood frivolity and being whimsical and use them as metaphors that had real academic merit, such as teaching tolerance, breaking down stereotypes and finding their voice.

Q: How would you use games to increase the writing or communication skills of your students?
A: I used a game called Fruit Loop Bingo to help with complex vocabulary terms, because the competitive game-like aspect truly helped their retention.

Q: Do you find different types of games are more beneficial: strategy, trivia, euro style, family, interactive?
A: I preferred using games that were interactive, inclusive and ultimately involved the entire class.

Q: How does the competition of winning/loosing benefit or consequence in the classroom?
A: Competition was a great motivating factor for my students. Prior to engaging in academics, many of my students who grew up in an urban atmosphere thought that they had to either hit a ball over a fence, slam dunk a ball into a basket, or get on MTV to make it out of “the ghetto”. All three of those elements are fiercely competitive, so I used that spirit of competition in a classroom, rather than on a baseball field, on a basketball court, or on a stage to motivate my students.

Q: What are your favorite alternative learning tools?
A: I am very kitschy and love to use props, music, video clips and any kind of “realia” that can make a lesson plan leap out of a book.

Q: What inspired you to teach?
A: I’ve always wanted to be able to bring education to life because I feel that education is the greatest way to equalize an unfair playing field.

Q: What makes a good teacher?
A: A good teacher teaches to a student, and not to test. And I believe that by any means necessary, I would reach my students, and if that meant that I had to put down my textbook, or put aside my curriculum to make sure my students understood a concept, I would stop at nothing to do so. I wanted my students to remember the information long after they put down their Number 2 pencil, bubbled in a scantron, or took a test.

Q: What piece of advice would you give a new teacher?
A: Think outside the box, and be sure to color outside the lines.

Q: What suggestions can you share for teachers to stay inspired?
A: Never lose sight of those “a-ha” moments when a light bulb goes on for a kid, and you know they get it, because at the core, that is what teaching is all about – those “a-ha” moments.

Q: Is there anything you would like to see changed in the educational system?
A: I personally feel that we have become data-obsessed and kids have become a number rather than an individual. Unfortunately, many teachers have lost their passion for the profession, so my hope is that every teacher remains inspired, and every kid remains engaged in the learning process.

Q: Do you have anything else that you would like to share with the readers of Games for Educators?
A: Many of the games that I successfully used in my classroom were featured in the film “Freedom Writers”, such as the Line Game, and to help teachers reenact those games, educators from around North America and myself created a “Teachers Guide” that instructs teachers how to personalize those games in their classrooms.

For more information about the Freedom Writers Foundation check out their website at, http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org

About Griddly Games:
Griddly Games are games that get you going. The company creates award-winning party and board games that deliver innovative, engaging fun that brings people together. Founded in 2007 by Reisa Schwartzman, a mom from Vancouver, British Columbia, who took it upon herself to fill the void for products that deliver wholesome family fun that all ages could enjoy at once, Griddly Games creates games that inspire laughter and fun, while promoting an active and healthy lifestyle. As a former educator, Schwartzman instills a strict company philosophy to offer games that encourage social interaction, learning, strategy and challenges that anyone (the entire grid of people) can enjoy. To discover more about Griddly Games, visit www.griddlygames.com