“How was your day?”
It’s a common question among family members at the end of a work or school day.
But that simple greeting means so much more for Middletown Elementary second-grade teacher Gay Fritz and her daughter Allison Fritz, who is in her first year of teaching science at Oakwood High School.
“How was your day?” is usually followed by “What was something good that happened?” “What could have been better?” and “What could we change?”
In this strong relationship between a parent and child, this is more than small talk. In fact, it has become a way that the parent is mentoring the child and the child is expanding the horizons of the parent.
Gay, who delayed going to college after high school, decided that she really wanted to become a teacher after working various office jobs.
“With our church involvement, I had a real passion for young kids, their well-being, making relationships with them, and helping to build their confidence and love of learning,” Gay said.
“I love kids, and I want what’s best for them. I see kids, and I see an open slate for building positive relationships and their future.”
She worked at a private preschool, subbed within the Mahomet-Seymour School District and is currently in her 18th year of impacting second-grade students.
“When it comes right down to it, I love second grade,” she said.
“I just think it’s such a great year. Their brains are so fresh, and everything is a clean slate waiting to just to be filled.
“Second grade is perfect for me, and who I am and how I get to see them work.”
Allison was not looking to follow in her mom’s footsteps as she graduated from high school. She entered college as a pre-med student.
“When she started talking about science fields, I wasn’t surprised because she’s really good at it,” Gay said. “I wasn’t encouraging her to go into education, but the closer she got to the end of her high school years I thought, I could see it, but I didn’t really say too much.
“You’ve just got to let your kids make those decisions sometimes.”
Allison began to see what her mom saw in herself while on a missions trip.
“I was interacting a lot with just kids, and I just saw that they really need to be impacted by somebody who has a loving, kind spirit,” Allison said. “Just somebody who would love them and teach them.”
Having witnessed her mom’s work in the classroom and how students responded to her outside the classroom, Allison realized that she could impact lives through the work she would do in the classroom.
“When we go to grocery stores and kids that she had 12,13, 14 years ago, still come up to her, that’s something that’s really cool and you can see her handprint everywhere she goes,” Allison said.
But it’s more than high fives and hugs at events that spark the younger Fritz’s passion.
“From a young age, my parents always taught us that academics are important, but school teaches you more than academics,” Allison said.
“It’s not always about the A, it’s not always about the C, it’s not always about the grade; school is teaching you how to be persistent, how to be diligent, how to be a hard worker,” she said. “All of these things that you don’t even see.”
Part of being a teacher is also about doing the things no one else sees.
Growing up, Allison witnessed her mom making sacrifices both at home and in the classroom in order to balance parenthood and being a professional.
Gay said there were times when she would spend hours in the classroom on the weekend because her evenings would be filled with supporting her children while they participated in their interests or when she’d go back into the classroom late at night just to finish up something for the next day.
“I remember that she would work until I got out of practice, and that was at 5:30 or 6ish,” she said.
“Now that I’m in the education field, I don’t feel like I have to zip right out of (the classroom). I think that her hard work has really opened my eyes to being a teacher is difficult, but there is also high reward to it. You have to put in the effort because how much effort you put in, that’s how much kids are going to get out of it.”
“It’s not just a job you go to at 8 and you leave and you’re done,” Gay said. “It’s just an all-consuming life.”
After Allison was hired at Oakwood, she spent the summer with her mom, preparing for the work she was excited to do.
Gay talked to Allison about building the activities and educational goals she wanted the students to accomplish before she entered the classroom.
“Once the school year starts, you will have zero time to do any of the planning other than what your day allows for functioning and survival,” Gay said.
While the mother and daughter admit they have very similar personalities, they are learning from each other as they share stories from their day and problem-solve together.
Teaching second-grade students, Gay establishes boundaries and routines with her students to make the day run smoothly for everyone. In her early 20’s, and a person who is very relationship-oriented, Allison went into the position with advice from her mom to follow through.
“She really just has taught me the importance of if you have people at the very beginning following through with it,” she said.
“I think her as a second grade teacher has helped me; even at that young age, they know how they can push the boundaries, and if you just set something and follow through with it, that means a lot.”
Allison also relies on her mom to help sort through classroom and curriculum issues.
A very hands-on teacher, Allison strives to make sure that students have activities to do while they are in her classroom. But, as a veteran teacher, Gay knows that not everything has to be an activity.
“I called her one day; I was freaking out because I didn’t have an activity,” Allison said.
“She said have them sit down and read a chapter and write down five questions.”
“She thinks of the things that should be simple for me to think of. I’m up until whatever p.m. trying to figure out an activity. She helps me with the very logical things. Since she’s been doing this for 18 years, she understands what works.”
Oakwood reminds Allison of the supportive Mahomet-Seymour community she grew up in.
“I think I had a lot of amazing high school teachers, and just teachers in general, so I think I was impacted at a young age,” she said.
“(At Oakwood) I feel supported by the superintendent to the principal, to the other teachers, to my support teacher to my other science teacher. I just feel like I could go to anybody and say what do you think about this, and they would drop everything to help me.”
Teaching a generation of students who are engaged with devices and social content can be challenging. While Allison realizes the importance of lectures, she also sees that students are more engaged in learning when they are able to experiment.
Gay said watching how her daughter engages her students has inspired her.
“I consider myself pretty old school, I just kind of do things by the books, and I’m pretty regimented,” she said.
“She inspires me to step outside my box and try more hands-on. Not that I lecture because you can’t do that in second grade. I just don’t always have to follow the book word for word, but can try to do something that’s outside.”
It is not uncommon to find the mother and daughter at the kitchen table after work sorting through the day or even looking for new ways to engage students in what they are learning.
“How fun is it to work together with your daughter?” Gay said.
“We both become better daily because of it.”
Allison is already beginning to see the impact she’s making on students eight months into her career. She has taken her mom to Oakwood football and basketball games where Gay has witnessed students acknowledging and saying hi to her.
“I don’t think that will ever get old,” Allison said.
