After bringing his 23-year tenure at George Washington Carver Middle School to a close, Mr. Richard Hudson has burst onto the scene at Coral Gables Senior High. Along with him, comes his passion for teaching, charismatic personality and love for distance running. Teaching both Advanced Placement English Language and English I, Mr. Hudson is the latest addition to the English Department and hopes to be able to bring his expertise to the classroom as well as inspire a new audience.
Mr. Hudson began his career in education at the high school level, teaching at Miami Jackson High for six years before moving on to teach at Carver Middle for a lengthy 23 years. Throughout his teaching journey, he has consistently been a role model for his students and even inspired one of his students at Carver to become an English teacher. By instilling a passion for the English language at an early age, Mr. Hudson mentored a former student of his and a now fellow teacher at Gables, Mr. Wood.
Even before arriving, Mr. Hudson had already become quite familiar with the school due to his son, who he describes as a star student when he attended. In Gables, he has already been flooded with nostalgia through seeing so many familiar faces from his previous teaching job. Mr. Hudson is not the only one happy to see his former students returning, with many of them who will be taught by him again already excited for the new school year.
“From when I first had his class in eighth grade, his class made reading interesting for me when usually I wouldn’t like it that much. He made me enjoy reading and I still have that to this day,” sophomore Alessandro Vendrame said.
His immersive approach to teaching has made English lessons easy to understand and enables students to further involve themselves in their lessons. Just as he expects the most from himself in his classroom, he also anticipates that effort from his students in being able to apply themselves and do their best. In his class, he tends to involve interactive activities such as acting out scenes in novels, where his students can truly understand what they are reading with a visual representation.
“I want students to be willing to push themselves. I also want them to learn to think for themselves as well as be able to analyze what people are truly saying with their language. An excellent tool in life is the ability to be able to formulate your own opinion on a topic and I try to reinforce that kind of critical thinking in my class,” Mr. Hudson said.
Outside of school, Mr. Hudson is very passionate about distance running and has learned to involve students in this hobby of his. Previously in Carver Middle, he challenged his classes to participate in the Superintendent’s 5K race, encouraging students to beat his time. His challenge was met by the students, as many of them turned out at the event and some even managed to surpass his record.
Following his retirement in the future, Mr. Hudson already has a great ambition which he has promised to himself to complete: hike all 2190 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Tying into his passion for distance running, exploring and conquering the Appalachian Trail has long been a goal he has wanted to complete, stretching back to even 28 years ago. But in the meantime, his path at Gables is just beginning, and much like the hiking, he’s looking to leave his mark on it.
“I want to be able to still do things when I retire. I might even upload daily vlogs of my journey on the trail, like some hikers I’ve seen on YouTube, but I think I’ll have to improve my technology skills first,” Mr. Hudson said.
