Three New Teachers Join Middle Gate Staff

By Tanjua Damon

Allyson Zitnay

First Grade

Allyson Zitnay had been a teacher for eight years, before joining the Newtown school district as a first grade teacher this year.

She became a teacher because of the influence of one of her teachers when she was a child.

“My second grade teacher, Mrs Fields,” Ms Zitnay said. “She was so kind, wonderful, and fair, how could I not be.”

Ms Zitnay enjoys the first grade and looks forward to working on writing with her students. “I want to dig deeper in terms of their writing.”

Newtown offers a quality of education that Ms Zitnay is impressed with and wants to be able to add to as a teacher in Newtown. She also knows that Newtown has a strong community that supports the quality of education that is offered in every school.

“Newtown has a high quality of education,” she said. “They have a high caliber of teacher. I knew I would get good parent support and conscientious students. When you have those two, you don’t need anything else.”

She has a bachelor’s in marketing and business administration from Syracuse University and a master’s in elementary education from the University of Bridgeport.

Ms Zitnay lives in Bethlehem with her two children, Jacob, 8 and Max, 4. They have a pet gerbil that lives at Middle Gate School and a cat named Simon at home.

She has taken up running recently and has been enjoying that.

“I just started running in some 5ks,” Ms Zitnay said. “I’m building up my endurance.”

She also likes to garden and read. Traveling is another favorite.

“Anytime, anywhere,” Ms Zitnay said about her love of traveling.

Kerrie Diana

Third Grade

Third graders in Kerrie Diana’s class have a teacher whose love of theater and the arts works into all their lessons.

Miss Diana has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and mild to moderate special education from Providence College in Rhode Island and her master’s degree in theater education from Emerson College in Boston.

“I like lower elementary,” she said. “I’ve always just felt it was my primary area.”

Miss Diana was ready to move to any part of the country to have a teaching job. She looked in Boston, Connecticut, and even California before Newtown offered her the third grade teaching position at Middle Gate.

“I was going to move to various parts of the country,” she said. “I really liked the things they had to say, the practices they put into place. Also it seemed like a supportive environment.”

Miss Diana feels her diverse background gives her an opportunity to teach in different ways to her students.

“I have a diverse background with elementary and special education and also my theater background, using theater to teach to multiple intelligence levels. Theater is a tool that I will use to teach other things.”

Miss Diana uses theater to have her students act out the movements of the water table, she said. She is able to assess the students’ knowledge by doing the movements of precipitation, for example.

She enjoys theater, dance, and the arts in general. Miss Diana lives in Danbury.

Tim McGuire

Third Grade

Tim McGuire is a first year teacher at Middle Gate School, where he teaches third grade.

He wanted to become an elementary school teacher because he enjoys working with younger children.

“I do enjoy working with the students,” Mr McGuire said. “They have an energy and enthusiasm I enjoy working around.”

Mr McGuire is certified in grades one through six. He has a bachelor’s degree from Western Connecticut State University in elementary education with a concentration in math. He prefers the third and fourth grades because of his past experience working in schools.

Mr McGuire wanted to work in the Newtown school system because of the reputation and quality of education found in the schools.

“Newtown has a reputation of being a top notch education,” he said. “Not just the students, but the teachers and administration. People are happy to be here. There is one reason, Dr John Reed. Newtown has a progress and positive energy a lot of other districts don’t have.”

Mr McGuire admits when he was offered the job after a vigorous interviewing process, he was excited.

“I was thrilled when they offered me the job,” he said. “I couldn’t be more happy.”

He is a native of Connecticut and currently lives in New Milford. He enjoys a variety of hobbies including water skiing, wake boarding, guitar, and he is slowly fixing a 1975 Corvette.