If you have not been fortunate enough to have beloved Monica Fryc-Gabrys as a teacher yourself, you may have seen her in her element, walking around the hallways as one of Woodland’s brilliant math teachers. You need not to spend more than 10 minutes in her presence to realize how truly smart and passionate about math she is; where did her love for math come from?
You will notice along with her intelligent knowledge, comes a charming Polish accent, hinting to where she started her math background. Fryc was born and raised in Poland, where her love for math started all the way back in preschool
“Since I was in preschool, very early, I liked solving riddles, doing competitions, and playing number games,” said Fryc.
She remembers her math beginnings dating back very early, always having more interest in numerical problems, however her love for math and problem solving really developed when Fryc entered fourth grade.
“My fourth grade math teacher is the one who inspired me to pursue math as a profession,” said Fryc.
She recalls learning more in her fourth grade class than any other math course she took throughout grade school.
“He was very advanced. He was showing us stuff I did not see again until college. He was really able to show us the passion for math,” Fryc recollects.
She owes it to this man to be her inspiration and show her how to really be passionate about a subject. He helped them apply math to real life situations, which even today is Fryc’s favorite part of teaching.
“I love projects with application of what we learn in class. I wish we could do projects on every topic because that work involves students’ engagement in learning,” said Fryc.
She has also found a way to pursue teaching math in real-life situations through the Math team here at woodland. Fryc is the team’s advisor, where a group of math enthusiast students meet every Thursday to work on problems and learn new things in order to broaden their understanding. They practice and prepare for the three competitions that take place throughout the year.
“We participate in three different competitions, AMC 1012, the Greater New Haven Math League, and M3 Mathworks Mega Challenge that is only for juniors and seniors,” she describes.
The Mega Challenge is Fryc’s favorite, as it is a 14 hour competition where the students solve one real life problem using all the math knowledge they have and applying it.
Prior to Fryc starting at Woodland, her math background was quite a journey. Literally. Fryc chose the math and physics pathway when she entered high school and started to take more advanced classes. Up to that point everyone was in the same classes no matter the students abilities.
“We did not have lower, middle, or advanced classes. If you were in the same grade you were in the same class. In high school is when we decided which pathway we would like to take,” said Fryc.
Once Fryc graduated high school, she proceeded to pursue her math career at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She studied here for five years then went on to get her masters degree and taught mathematics for eight years. Ironically throughout all her years in schooling, she does not remember dealing with any actual numbers.
“I can assure you that I did not see any numbers for those five years, only letters, proofs, definitions, theorems,” she said.
Fryc finally moved to America in 2005 to continue her profession. When she transferred all her papers and credits, she was still required to take a few more math classes, psychology, and U.S. history before getting a teaching job. Fryc knew from the beginning she wanted to teach in high school due to the knowledge the students would already have.
“I always wanted to teach in high school because of how many concepts and how many skills you already have when you reach high school, yet you will still learn much more,” Fryc stated.
Now with over 20 years of teaching experience, Fryc continues to spread her love for math throughout Woodland, inspiring students everyday to apply what they learn, give their work their best efforts, and use math in real life situations.
