TOWAMENCIN – Teaching is a skill Mrs. Bari-Rae Rudolph is no stranger to; with 19 years of experience under her belt, culminating in her taking up her latest challenge: teaching high schoolers. Once faced with rowdy middle schoolers, Rudolph now finds herself surrounded by older students far different from those she has taught before.
Many teachers knew early on that they wanted to be teachers, but that wasn’t originally the case for Rudolph. Instead, her passions initially lay elsewhere in the historic field.
“When I was in high school, I didn’t realize that teaching was what I was going to get into. I was a history student in college and I initially [thought] that I would be a history scholar [or] a college professor,” Rudolph admitted.
Unlike other first-time high school teachers, Rudolph believes herself to be well-prepared for the challenges she’ll face at North Penn High School. Her work with the Youth Services Agency and ten years in the School District of Philadelphia served to create the foundation for her teaching career that she would carry into North Penn School District.
From 2016 to 2024, Pennfield served as Rudolph’s introduction to North Penn, learning what style of teaching worked the best for both her and her students. During this time she learned the importance of seeing the kids of the building not just as students, but also as her equals who would provide insight into a world she didn’t always understand.
Clarity, alignment, and providing opportunities for students are what Rudolph considers to be the three most important aspects of designing lessons for high schoolers. However, when it comes to presenting these lectures, she believes that fun and entertainment often play bigger roles than most realize.
“There is a big difference between what planning [a lesson] looks like and what delivering a lesson looks like,” Rudolph asserted.
If asked, most teachers would claim that the most difficult challenge facing students is technology or phones, but Rudolph has other suspicions. In proper civics teacher fashion, she believes that the true problem is embedded deeper in society.
“The way that our country is so divided right now, it’s hard for kids to look at leadership and admire them and aspire to be them. So, aside from parents and teachers, where is their example of how to be a good American?” Rudolph reflected.
In order for our country—and by extension the people in it—to better itself, Rudolph strongly feels that there needs to be more of a focus on civic dialogue in education and society as a whole. She incorporates this belief into her lesson planning, ensuring that her students can have in-depth political discussions with each other in a way they might never have had the chance to before.
“It’s so important to be able to speak to each other about our differences. That’s the responsibility of a democracy, to be able to compromise [and] speak to each other,” Rudolph said.
Be it through encouraging civil discussions or educating her students about their responsibilities as upcoming adults, Mrs. Bari-Rae Rudolph’s job of helping North Penn students step into their role as Americans is far from over.