Top of her class Waverly teacher wins Presidential Award for Excellence
Published: July 5, 2009
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Butch Comegys / Staff photographer Ruth Fried relaxes at her home in South Abington Twp. The Waverly Elementary teacher was shocked when she learned tha she had won a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
When Ruth Fried first received word that she'd been nominated for a prestigious national teaching award, she brushed it aside with a laugh.
"I thought it was a joke," said the South Abington Twp. resident.
But the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is serious stuff, an honor handed out by none other than the president of the United States.
In the end, she was glad she applied for it.
Of all the Pennsylvania teachers who were nominated for a PAEMST, Mrs. Fried, a first-grade teacher at Waverly Elementary School in the Abington Heights School District, was the only one who made it to the national level of the competition.
One teacher from each state is presented with the award, so Mrs. Fried is all but assured a trip to the White House later this year, assuming she passes the mandatory FBI background check, she cracked. If so, she'll not only get to meet President Barack Obama, but also will receive a $10,000 grant that she can put toward her classroom.
Mrs. Fried was nominated for the award by Jason Petula, Abington Heights' director of math and science.
Totally surprised
"I was very surprised. Actually, I was shocked. It was probably the biggest compliment I've ever received," said Mrs. Fried, who, as part of the application process, had to write an in-depth explanation of her teaching philosophy and submit an hour-long DVD of herself in the classroom.
Throughout the process, she's maintained a self-effacing attitude about the whole thing.
"I have very supportive parents. I work with the best faculty. I'm just very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful circumstances," said Mrs. Fried, who also received the district's Kuiper Award in 2008.
Mrs. Fried, 42, has been in the district for the past 20 years, first at South Abington Elementary, then Waverly. She's taught third-grade and kindergarten, but first grade is her favorite.
"I like first grade because you see such changes in them," she said. "By the end of the year, they're reading and writing. The change is incredible."
It's also a crucial period in the development of their critical thinking, problem solving and processing skills, and math and science play a large role in those areas in Mrs. Fried's class.
"I read a lot, and I love to try anything new or different in the classroom," she said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
This past school year, for instance, she taught her students how to gauge temperature by having them monitor the month of March to see if it "came in like a lion and went out like a lamb." And she had them plant cabbage in three types of soil to see how it would respond to each.
"They had to interpret the data and present what they found," she said.
On top of that, she volunteered to implement the district's new math curriculum a year early. The program calls on teachers to get their kids to understand the subject in a more conceptual fashion. For Mrs. Fried, that meant having her students take on assignments like tracking the class' lunch orders and learning about area by counting the number of tiles on top of their desks.
"You'd be amazed by what they can do," said Mrs. Fried, who also teaches Sunday school at St. Gregory's Church, serves on the public relations committee of Abington Heights Education Association and oversees the science fairs for the Parent-Teacher associations at Waverly Elementary and Abington Heights Middle School.
A lifelong Abingtons resident, Mrs. Fried grew up in Clarks Summit in a large Irish Catholic family, the fifth of Richard and Helen Mulcahey's seven children.
"My mother had to run the house like an army camp," she said with a chuckle.
From an early age, Mrs. Fried knew she wanted to work with kids, especially after spending her teenage years baby-sitting and overseeing the birthday parties at her job at McDonald's.
After graduating from Abington Heights High School, she enrolled at Marywood University, where she received both a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in reading. She did her student teaching at her alma mater, then got a job in the district that fall.
Exhausting job
For how rewarding it is, teaching first grade can also be "exhausting," Mrs. Fried admitted. Last year's class was a particularly rambunctious crew, she said.
"Because they're active, as they should be," she said. "It's not a dull day."
There's nothing else she'd rather do, however.
"I'm pretty lucky, because some of my friends are still trying to figure out what they want to do," she said.
"I have a ball. I laugh every single day."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com
TO NOMINATE A NORTHEAST WOMAN, please submit requests via e-mail to lifestyles @timesshamrock.com or mail them to Northeast Woman Nominations, The Sunday Times, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. Please include the woman's name, address and the reason the reader feels the woman is deserving. Those submitting need to include their name and a daytime phone number. Meet Ruth Fried
At home: Resides in South Abington Twp. with her husband, Alex, and her two sons, Alex, 13, and Richard, 7. She is a daughter of Richard and Helen Mulcahey, and has three brothers, Richard, Bill and John, and three sisters, Mary Jane, Kathy and Sharon.
At work: First-grade teacher at Waverly Elementary School in the Abington Heights School District
Inspiration: "My parents. They're hardworking people," she said. "Their life has always been about friends and family."
Aspiration: To continue making a positive difference for young children
Diversions: Gardening, reading
Aversion: "People who don't stand by their convictions and beliefs."
Quote: "I was very surprised. Actually, I was shocked. It was probably the biggest compliment I've ever received," she said in regard to being nominated for a prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
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