Grosse Pointe North senior Alexa Mazzola has come full circle. When she was a kindergarten student at Monteith, Diane Richards was her teacher.
This semester, Alexa is helping out in Mrs. Richards’ kindergarten class during sixth and seventh hour as part of the childcare services class offered at North. The class is taught by Andrea Gruenwald, who also teaches life skills at Parcells Middle School. Students spend Tuesday through Friday with the host teacher, while Mondays are time to reflect on the experience and grow as an educator through journal writing and projects, according to Mrs. Gruenwald.
Alexa spent the fall semester at Barnes Early Childhood Center, working with 3- and 4-year-olds in Dorothy Heitjan’s preschool class.
Alexa enjoyed the experience, but is excited to have the opportunity to work with the kindergarteners in Mrs. Richards’ classroom.
“It’s very interesting to see every kid’s personality and how to help them individually,” she said. “I think it’s interesting how teachers have to be a teacher for the whole class, but also for individual students as well.”
Mrs. Richards — who has spent 18 of her 21 years of teaching with kindergarteners at Monteith — remembers Alexa well, and even kept the notes she wrote for her 12 years ago. She is happy to have an extra person to help in the classroom and to offer some one-on-one attention. She encourages Alexa to learn about each student — “what makes them tick or what makes them take off or what makes them happy … and then look at the dynamics of how they work together.”
Her advice to anyone pursuing education or early childhood is to get as much experience as possible to help with classroom management.
“They give you all the book work and all the academics, but the thing they don’t teach you in school is the behavior of all these kids at one time,” she said.
Brooke Hoover is gaining that experience by helping in Natalie Bruveris’s kindergarten class at Monteith.
“I think it’s really fun to see how excited they get about everything and how easy it is to make them happy,” the North senior said. “Just at the door today they came running to hug me and hang off my legs. They’re super excited to have somebody new in the classroom and they want to tell me everything about themselves.”
Brooke comes from a long line of teachers, including her grandparents, parents, and aunts and uncles. She is still unsure if she wants to go into education or business, but either way she sees it as good preparation, in addition to a nice break from sitting at a desk all day.
“I would recommend it to my friends or kids from the grade below,” she said. “It’s cool to see and experience it all, even if it’s not something you want to do in the future. I think it helps develop you as a person with patience.”
Lauryn Davis, who is a junior at North, enrolled in the childcare services class initially because of who the teacher was. She is currently helping in Theresa Comilla’s kindergarten class at Monteith.
“I had Mrs. Gruenwald when I was in middle school, so when she told me she was offering a class, it was a no-brainer for me,” she said. “I love kids. I’m thinking of going into doing something with kids, whether it’s a pediatrician or a teacher or a speech pathologist.”
Barnes ECP teacher Lisa Thomas had particular praise for Lauryn last semester.
“I really appreciated the extra help in my room and the kids loved her,” she said. “She caught on quickly what we do here and what the goals for my kids were. She would come in and immediately get involved. I let her know that the two most important things to do were to play with the kids and get them to talk. Lauryn was great with my students and had a great rapport with them.
“I think just having the hour to play with them helped her out as well,” she added. “With this being such a tough few years of school, sometimes all we need is to be a kid again and I think my students gave her a little bit of that.”
The teachers at both Monteith and Barnes agree that the program offers multiple benefits.
“I have always been so happy to be able to host/mentor a student from the childcare services class,” said Mrs. Heitjan, known to the preschoolers as Miss Dorothy. “All of the students who have been part of my classroom have had opportunities to learn about preschoolers with special needs, to share their unique talents and to gain valuable experience working in a classroom setting. I know that my colleagues here at Barnes feel the same way as every year all of us request a student. I feel so fortunate that we have this program here in the Grosse Pointe Public School System.”
“The childcare services class is a great opportunity for high school students to experience a work environment,” Mrs. Bruveris said. “It is especially beneficial if they have interest in pursuing a future career working with young children. I always look forward to having a student from the course assist me in the classroom, as having an extra set of hands is very much appreciated. My kindergarten students always look forward to their time with us.”
Early childhood teacher Karen Krausman points out that high school students have helped with students in the preschool programs and students with special needs at Barnes in the past. Many of those students went on to pursue education, early childhood education and special education in college.
“Sharing your passion with the high school students and watching them develop skills in working with young children is very gratifying,” she said. “This year with the start of the childcare services class, we have once again benefited from having a student in our classroom. I would encourage any high school student to take the childcare services class and check out the amazing things we do at Barnes.”
“The childcare services classes have been a wonderful connection between the district’s youngest and oldest learners,” Director of Preschool Services Sara Meier pointed out. “Our staff have enjoyed mentoring and getting to know the students. My hope is that they have enjoyed their time working and observing and one day may even return to work for the program. Early childhood education is so important, and high school programs like this are a great way for young people to be exposed to such an important field. I hope the childcare service class continues to grow for years to come.”
Keith Howell, director of pre-K-elementary instruction, emphasized the importance of growing the program.
“Teaching is challenging, but it can be the most rewarding career people can choose,” he said. “We need to continue to encourage great people who are passionate about educating children to pursue their dreams and join this great profession. Our children and future depend on it.”
Senior swimmer celebration
Grosse Pointe North and Grosse Pointe South seniors shared a celebration at the South vs. North swim and dive meet on Tuesday, Jan. 26. Many of the boys have swum together and against each other since they were in elementary school.
Students take lead in helping others
The Defer Student Leadership Team is looking for help with their service project. According to their team advisers, physical education teacher Courtney Kliman and third grade teacher Mary O’Meara, they are collecting brand new hats, scarves, gloves and coats for the homeless.
These items will be delivered to the Eimer’s Foundation, a non-profit organization started by a young man named Robert Eimers when he was 9 years old.
“He is now 19 years old and is still donating items to his friends with his sister, Emma,” Courtney said. “Our students realized how cold it is and know there are people outside in the cold without warm clothes. They are very passionate about this cause and are excited to see how many items we receive to donate.”
Donations will be collected through Friday, Feb. 18. The Eimer’s Foundation will add these items to kits they put together for people without homes, which they deliver along with snacks and hygiene supplies.
Alumni Through the Decades
Our 100th anniversary series on GPPSS alumni continues
Tom Fitzgibbon
Grosse Pointe North High School
Class of 1972
Grosse Pointe North alumnus Tom Fitzgibbon is a member of what he and his 1972 classmates call “the premiere class.” It earned this moniker as the first class to attend all four years at North.
“We started in 1968 when the school opened,” Tom said. “I was there the first day the school opened.”
After graduating from North, Tom attended Hillsdale College, where he majored in public and community relations. He then did a stint at Harvard University in a non-profit leadership certification program.
For the next 40 years, he worked for the Boy Scouts of America. He and his wife, Mimi Fitzgibbon, spent 10 years in Detroit before moving around to Iowa, followed by New York, Colorado, Arizona and, finally, Texas. In that time, Tom was the market manager or chief executive officer for the Boy Scouts markets in New York, Iowa and Colorado before “the boss brought me in to manage 65 of our markets west of the Mississippi,” Tom said.
Finally, Tom served as assistant CEO nationally in the Boy Scouts of America home office in Irving, Texas, near Dallas.
Tom retired seven years ago, although he remains active in what he refers to as “more of an avocation vocation than a 40-hour job” as the chief agriculture engineer and CEO for Fitzgibbon Farms. The company has two properties in northern Michigan and is in partnership with the United States Agricultural Department in improving habitat and timber on those properties.
What he did for love
It was 10 years after he graduated from North that Tom met his future wife at the wedding of a friend who graduated from Grosse Pointe South. When he decided to propose to her, he wanted to come up with some grand gesture. He was living in Grosse Pointe Woods at the time and landed on the idea of creating a parade-like environment, complete with a marching band and balloons. He began by speaking with North’s band director, Nate Judson.
“He brought it up to the kids and they thought it was a great idea,” Tom recalled.
The pomp and circumstance of the proposal was reported on the news wire service and got picked up by TV stations, the Detroit News and USA Today. According to the Nov. 9, 1983 Detroit News article, it took Gail Marie “Mimi” Malloy about 10 minutes to collect her thoughts and say “yes” after the 70-member Grosse Pointe North band showed up at Tom’s house playing What I Did for Love.
USA Today reported, “Band director Nathan Judson said Fitzgibbon asked if the band could serenade while he popped the question. ‘The kids thought it was romantic,’ Judson said. ‘Their first reaction was, Aw, isn’t that sweet?’ So the band played and, as Fitzgibbon placed a diamond ring on Malloy’s finger, a truckful of helium balloons was released into the air.”
Married in 1983, the couple currently lives in Trophy Club, Texas in the winter and Harbor Springs in the summer. Both are golfing communities, but it is Mimi who is the golfer in the family, according to Tom. In fact, she recently won the championship at the Birchwood Golf and Country Club in Harbor Springs.
Tom and Mimi have four children. The oldest, Kate, is married to a Navy Corpsman serving in the Carolinas who has been deployed several times. Their second, Kim, lives in Boston and just delivered their first grandchild, Alexander Fitzgibbon Metcalf, last week. Their son, Dan, and youngest child, Christine, both live in the Dallas, Fort Worth area.
The couple also enjoys traveling, in particular to spots where they can fly fish, including Montana, Key West, Florida and, of course, Michigan.
Tom is on the 50th reunion planning committee for the Class of 1972, to be held on Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, with events planned from Friday through Sunday. For more information, contact reunion chairwoman Cindy Gohlke at (586) 703-3027, or Tom at (480) 296-6282 or thfitz@outlook.com.
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.