Meet Gulf County's New Teachers

Wewahitchka Elementary School welcomed four new members of their teaching faculty this year, Aaron Richards, John Huft, Krista Welford and Kelley Gerken.

Gerken was unavailable to be interviewed at press time, and will be featured next week.

We turn now to her first-year colleagues.

Aaron Richards

A former Port St. Joe High School athlete, Richards attended Benedictine College in Atchison, Ka. on a football scholarship and earned a bachelor’s degree in history.

Fresh from college, he discovered a physical education opening at Wewahitchka Elementary, and jumped at the chance to return to his athletic roots.

Richards now teaches every child in grades K-5 for 150 minutes each week, as per state guidelines.

The school population is over 300 students, and Richards’ p.e. classes range from 25 to 53 students.

Two support workers assist Richards, aide Theresa Redd and volunteer Michael Eubanks, and he praises their daily contributions to his classroom.

“It’s hard starting out as a new teacher, but when you have such supportive people here to get you started, it’s wonderful,” said Richards.

Redd, in particular, has earned Richards’ admiration. An aide for over 20 years, Redd knows all the kids, all the games they like to play, and helps Richards plan his weekly lessons.

“She’s been through several coaches here and she’s stuck it out through thick and thin,” noted Richards. “She’s a trooper.”

Richards has begun learning his students’ names and takes any advice offered by colleagues.

“I pick up everything I can,” he said. “If somebody suggests something, I’ll give it a try to see what works. It’s a very adaptive environment.”

Richards leads his students through five to 10 minutes of calisthenics and stretching each day to warm up their muscles for the day’s activity.

In this age of rampant childhood diabetes and obesity, Richards’ goal is to improve his students’ overall health and well-being.

“The thing for me is to teach them about a healthy lifestyle and healthy living,” he said.

Richards believes physical education translates into classroom success.

After physical activity, sleepy children become more alert and over-stimulated children calm down, said Richards.

For the kids, p.e. is simply a blast, and that’s alright for Richards.

“It’s great to see the kids having so much fun doing physical activity,” he said.

Richards enjoys his job so much that he plans to return to school and earn a degree in physical education.

He also revels in his new job as Wewahitchka High School’s assistant football coach.

Richards praised head coach Todd Lanter and his group of hard-working student-athletes.

“There’s never a day when I don’t look forward to going out (on the field). It could be negative 25 degrees, and I’d look forward to going out with those kids,” he said.

John Huft

In his third-grade classroom, Huft takes his cue from Jean Piaget, one of the most influential researchers in the field of developmental psychology.

At age eight, Huft’s students are in what Piaget described as the “concrete operational stage” of cognitive development.

Children in this stage demonstrate their intelligence through the logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects.

Or in Huft’s words: “They think very concretely at that age. They can’t use abstract thought.”

Huft earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Florida State University. He is certified to teach K-12 exceptional student education and K-6 English to speakers of other languages, or ESOL.

Drawing from Piaget’s work, Huft takes a hands-on approach to teaching.

Each science lesson begins with an experiment, followed by book work, then another experiment to deepen the students’ understanding of important concepts.

Huft calls his approach: “Do it, learn it, do it again.”

During a recent unit on space, Huft’s students carried a refracting telescope onto the Gator football field, and trained the lens on the mascot’s eye.

Future science experiments will include exploding volcanoes filled with baking soda, vinegar and red food color, and one Huft has been dying to test - the Mentos volcano, which he discovered on the television show Myth Busters.

The procedure is simple: drop a roll of the minty candies into a 2-liter bottle of soda and stand back as the carbonated beverage shoots 20 feet in the air.

Huft uses the hands-on approach in all subject areas.

For a Thanksgiving unit on Christopher Columbus’ voyage to America, Huft’s students will draw out the physical dimensions of the Mayflower on the playground, using chalk provided by Coach Richards.

The sketch will help students to better visualize the ship’s cramped quarters.

Huft has also focused on developing his class’ reading and math skills using repetition and small group instruction.

Like Piaget before him, Huft believes in developing schema, which he likens to files in a mental filing cabinet.

“In the future, when they learn more, that mental file will already exist, and they can put more in it,” he said.

Krista Welford

Before becoming Wewahitchka Elementary’s new second grade teacher, Welford taught fifth grade for one year in her home state of Mississippi.

She moved to the area with her husband, Justin, a Pentecostal minister currently working at the Refuge Full Gospel Church in Panama City.

Welford earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Southern Mississippi, and believes students benefit from a hands-on approach to learning.

“I love, love cooperative learning and hands-on. I try to let the students teach each other,” said Welford, adding, “I had trouble as a child staying in my seat and keeping quiet.”

Welford’s method involves a bit of trickery - teach students age-appropriate concepts while letting them think it’s play time.

Her students learn addition and subtraction with princess and Spider Man flash cards, practice counting with fun math manipulatives and make wreaths with spelling words printed on construction paper leaves.

Welford credits the active learning approach with reducing discipline problems and eliminating student boredom.

Having so many fun activities during the day keeps Welford’s class alert and engaged.

In science, the students have demonstrated the difference between mixtures you can separate and those you can’t by making trail mix and Kool-Aid.

This week, they will craft guitars out of rubber bands and bowls and drums out of coffee cans during a unit on sound waves and vibration.

In second grade, students switch periods for reading, and Welford has the most advanced group.

This year, her reading students created their own Wewa Elementary newspaper after finishing a newspaper-themed story in their classroom reader.

They also re-wrote the ending of the classic story The Frog and The Toad.

Welford hopes to challenge her reading students further by letting them create original short plays.

In preparation for the state test, Florida Writes, all Wewahitchka Elementary students are learning to pre-write and write on topic.

Welford meets with students individually to correct their writing, and hopes to begin peer editing when the students’ writing matures.

Her goal for this year is simple: “I’m hoping they’ll all master the Sunshine State Standards, and those who can’t that they reach their potential and are ready for the third grade.”