TOWAMENCIN – Every inch of his room is covered with some sort historical artifact, whether it’s political bumper stickers on his white board or the long list of pictures of every American president in history. Mr. Bill Berardelli sure knows how to set the mood in his room for his American Cultures class as this students dive into the 1920s to the early 2000s.
Berardelli started out at Methacton High School as a swimmer before he left Pennsylvania to go to college at West Virginia. There he continued to swim and decided to jump into the world of Social Studies and make it a career for himself.
“I graduated from Methacton High School in 1975 and I was a swimmer for that high school. I continued to swim for West Virginia University and graduated in 1979 where I swam all four years. I had a number of inspirational social studies teachers in high school and a family who has a great appreciation for American history. And between my family’s influence and some of the teachers that I’ve had, it was something that had always interested me,” Berardelli explained.
Berardelli also mentioned that both of his parents were teachers and that also played a key role on why he chose the teaching route.
“My parents were teachers; my dad was a phys-ed teacher at Methacton, and my mom was a phys-ed teacher at Germantown Academy.”
Although Berardelli did not start out teaching at North Penn, he is a proud educator and has high hopes for the district.
“North Penn is not the first school where I taught. I spent my first six years teaching at Upper Perkiomen High School. I do really like North Penn. I think North Penn is doing a very good job overall. I’ve been blessed to work with some dynamic colleagues over the years who I’ve found very inspirational,” said Berardelli
With Berardelli’s long experience in teaching, he recalls his past with basically teaching every topic that social studies has to offer, whether it’s dissecting the mind in Psychology or discussing the current events in Topics of American Life.
“I think I’ve taught virtually, over the course of my career, 10-12 different courses including Economics, Sociology, World Cultures, Psychology, and Political science.”
But what Berardelli is truly known for is his eleventh grade American Cultures class. “My eleventh grade curriculum starts with World War I and try to come up to the year 2000. And my favorite part is probably teaching about Vietnam and the 1960s because it’s just something that I was too young to appreciate in the 70s. I knew some things about it but taking it apart academically and looking in through various lenses of history, I just think it’s the most interesting to teach.”
Like every teacher out there, Berardelli also shares some hardships on teaching. “The hardest part about teaching would be the behind the scenes and paper that nobody sees. I’m in front of students six times a day for 45 minutes and sometimes people forget what it takes to get ready to prepare for those 45 minutes for more than one class.”
Berardelli also explained, “I still enjoy planning lessons, and I constantly reinvent things and find ways to make class more interesting or more engaging. I like presenting information to students and for the last couple of years, I’ve had some very good students and I’m very blessed for that.”
Berardelli’s closing statement reassures all that his future in North Penn is intact and that he is still a proud Knight. “I’m not going anywhere; I plan to be here for awhile.”