Teacher Spotlight: Media Elementary's Tracey Fritch

Teacher Spotlight is where we will feature a local teacher who deserves recognition. Teachers give a lot to their students, schools and studies and we'd like to recognize them and say a simple, thank you, for all that they do.

This Media Elementary School reading specialist teacher has the opportunity to help all of the students in the school. She says the Media Elementary students are just awesome.

Teacher: Tracey Fritch

School: Media Elementary School

Grade/Subject: Reading Specialist for Kindergarten through 5th grades

Years in the industry: 17 years

Teaching History:

Fritch has spent most of her teaching career in the Rose Tree Media School District, starting as a second grade teacher and then a reading teacher at Glenwood Elementary. Then she became the district's literacy coach before heading to Media Elementary.

Why did you become a teacher:

I was in a career in business for about three years before I left and went back to school to become a teacher. I read a magazine article about the state of public schools and how to fix them and I was sort of intrigued by the idea and wanted to give it a try. A lot of what I did in the business world was training and staff development and so I thought if I liked it that much with adults then it would work with kids, too.

What do you like most about your job:

The best thing about this current job is being able to pinpoint the things that kids are having trouble with and then offer them things that can help them. We get to really focus in on specific things. Being able to really help someone who is having trouble and identifying exactly what it is that is giving them trouble and help them figure out how to fix it.

What do you hope your students get out of your classes:

I hope that they gain skills as readers but I hope that they also learn to love reading and show interest in it and choose it as something that they would enjoy doing as well.

If you could change anything about education, what would it be:

We focus on a lot of data and use data to plan for instruction but I think that we could do with a little less data. Maybe spend less time collecting data and more time teaching.

What do you like best about your current school:

The community, and not just the parent and child community which is great, but also the staff community. It really is a very close knit and supportive place. The staff works super well together. We work well together to find solutions for things. And the kids are awesome!