Yorktown graduate turned-teacher Ryan Zito spends his days reading, hiking and playing Pokémon. His true passion, however, can be found in the classroom, where he teaches both regular and Advanced Placement (AP) Government classes. A history fanatic from a young age, Zito always knew that teaching was the job for him.
“I knew from ninth or tenth grade that I wanted to major in history… obviously teaching is a really viable and good career path with a history degree. The second thing that influenced me [to teach] was just having loved a lot of my history classes in middle and high school. Also having worked as a camp counselor in the summer which is kind of related to teaching. Teaching is something that I thought I could both enjoy and hopefully be good at as well,” Zito said.
Zito earned his teaching credentials at the College of William and Mary, and participated in a dual enrollment program with St. Andrews University in Scotland. However, he soon discovered that Edinburgh was not the right place for him. “The idea was that you would spend two years at both and then get a cool dual endorsement degree. After a year in Scotland I realized did not like it there. It is a fantastic country, but the education just was not what I was looking for. It was much more impersonal, and you are kind of self guided, and I need a lot of structure….I went back to William and Mary and enrolled full time there after my sophomore year, and I ended up getting my degree in history with a minor in religion. After I graduated undergrad, I spent another year at William and Mary getting my masters,” Zito said.
Zito says he enjoys teaching government; however, he hopes to be able to teach history at some point in his career as well.
“I was offered a full time position teaching Government and AP Government, and when you get a full time job offer at a great school that is in the place where you want to be, you accept it. At the end of the day, as a history major, I would love to teach history, but I also really enjoy teaching government. I think right now in particular we are seeing a lot of crazy stuff going on, both domestically and internationally, and given that AP in particular focuses both on the U.S. and other countries, I think it is a really vibrant field of study that has been really rewarding to teach this year,” Zito said.
Another factor in his desire to return to North Arlington was his family’s history with the school. His uncle, Michael Zito, was a biology and environmental science teacher for almost three decades before retiring at the end of last school year.
“My uncle taught here for his entire career, which was close to 30 years. My cousin attended Yorktown right before I got here, and when I graduated my brother got here, so there has been a long standing inside joke in my family that there is a Zito dynasty at Yorktown… so that plus the fact that I did keep in touch with a lot of my former teachers who knew that I was pursuing a career in teaching…. Overall it has been a surreal year to be back here,” Zito said.
As a result of the ever-increasing student population of the school, teachers like Zito do not have their own classrooms. Instead, these so called “cart-teachers” spend their planning periods with other teachers in small planning rooms in a cubicle like environment.
“I usually get here around 7:30 in the morning and I go up to my little workspace office and get ready for the day. I print out and make copies of any materials that I need, figure out any announcements I need to make. Then I go to my first period, teach that, come back to my office for my second, where I get everything ready for my third. I go and teach my third and fourth. Thankfully I have fifth and sixth off so it is like a super long relaxation lunch break. Then I finish my day with seventh and eighth… teaching is a very busy job especially in the first few years as you’re still getting used to the grind,” Zito said.
The school is not the same as it was when Zito graduated, but he believes that the changes he has noticed are for the better. The introduction of laptops, a new building and other technology has created a better learning environment for students, and he admits that it has also made his job as a teacher easier.
“When I was a student smart phones were just starting to learn, they were not really that smart. Back in those days of course we did not have laptops, so seeing that and being able to integrate those computers that you all have as student and all that tech into my classroom has been very interesting because I have no experience as a learner with that,” Zito said.
Although he admits that he is still learning the ropes, Zito has approached his first teaching job with a positive attitude. He believes that he has improved his skills as an educator over the course of the school year, and looks forward to the rest of career.
“I have learned a lot about how to keep myself organized and how to manage my times best, to both get things done in a reasonable amount of time and also preserve my sanity,” Zito said.
Popular among his students, the AP Government teacher is a knowledgeable person to have around and a great new addition to our school’s staff. As our school grows and changes over time, we can always count on a Zito directing the class at the board.
