Bellows Free Academy’s recently-hired long-term sub, Adam Taft, sat down to chat with The Mercury.  When asked about how his school year is going so far, he said “It’s going pretty good.” 

Taft is subbing for David Mitchell, a science teacher who was hired this year.

Taft grew up in a small village in England where his mother was a lunch lady at the local school while his father was a car mechanic. The village he grew up in is right between Birmingham and Wales.

“It reminds me of Vermont; that’s why I love it here. The village had lots of farmland,” Taft said.

Taft attended Leicester College in England.

“I studied biochemistry,” Taft said.  He added, “When I did biochemistry from the start, it was biology and chemistry classes, nothing else. You don’t have to complete general classes. Once you get to college, you do all of your classes in the field that you’re studying,” Taft said.

Later on, Taft lived in California for about 10 years. He taught math to middle and high school students.

When asked why he wanted to work at BFA, he said, “I applied to BFA because I wanted to get back into teaching. I really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere here. It was a big incentive to apply for a job here.”

Taft is currently teaching two biology and two skill-building classes. “It looks like I’ll be doing biology for the whole year because of a teacher shortage,” Taft said.

One of Taft’s focuses this year is making sure that kids are doing hands-on activities and experiments, creating a fun and educational environment.

“There are so many experiments you can do in biology. I want to do more experiments, so that it is more hands-on in class,” Taft said.