Walking through B-pod in North Penn High School, you will hear several different languages being spoken. If you pop your head through the door to B-121, you can catch either Spanish or French being spoken by the new teacher, Miss Sara Eidemuller.

As a student at Quakertown High School, Eidemuller was asked to compete in The Bucks County Oral Proficiency Contest to represent her school district. In this contest, students would showcase their linguistic skills in front of a panel of native speakers and every year,  Eidemuller would bring home a gold medal in either French or Spanish.

“These experiences solidified that not only was I passionate about languages, but I also had the prowess to go along with it,” explained Miss Eidemuller.

As a 17-year-old high schooler, Eidemuller lived with a host family and attended school in the south of Spain for a few months, cementing her love of Spanish culture and language. Another contributing factor of why she decided to study to become a language teacher was her now retired French teacher from high school. She was “incredibly brilliant,” Eidemuller recalls, and to this day, she still considers her as a heroine in her professional career.

Eidemuller graduated with Honors from Millersville University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Spanish Education. Right after graduating, she spent two years in ten different schools in the Quakertown Community School District as a substitute teacher. She then taught in the Owen J. Roberts School District for one year as a French teacher in the middle school, and another year as a Spanish teacher at the high school. She had not yet had to the opportunity to teach both languages at once until this year. As she explained to me, “This is my first year using both of my certifications simultaneously and I’m glad to put them to good use.”

This being her first year at North Penn High School, one can only imagine how hard it is to adjust to such a large school and learn how to navigate all the pods. Not only is it bigger than any other school she has worked in so far in her career, but with such big cultural diversity, it is “exciting as a language teacher to witness students conversing in their native tongues and celebrating their heritage in school-wide events.”

Eidemuller’s favorite part about being a teacher is hearing from her students that they plan on being Spanish minors or majors in college. She likes to see her students advance and be proud of themselves.

Eidemuller expects her students not only to be able to memorize the language, but also to be able to use Spanish/French in creative contexts and to speak the language as well as they can understand it. Another goal she has is for her students to reach the point where she only has to speak Spanish/French to them, and the students would find it strange for her to speak English in the classroom.

This summer, Miss Eidemuller was offered teaching positions with several other districts, but with North Penn School District’s strong academic reputation, she accepted the one here. To seal the deal, another language teacher at North Penn, Madame Sapalidis, whom Señorita Eidemuller describes as a colleague and mentor, genuinely recognized and appreciated what she had to offer to the Language Department.

Besides being a teacher, Señorita Eidemuller is a huge 80’s pop culture enthusiast. She was excited to find out that she has taught at the schools that one of the biggest musical duos of the decade attended. Daryl Hall graduated from Owen J. Roberts and John Oates graduated from North Penn.

Eidemuller also enjoys genealogical research and she learned that she is related to a well-known Physics professor from Spain, whom she plans on emailing one day, en español, when she isn’t busy lesson planning.

It has only been a few weeks into the school year, but Miss Eidemuller really enjoys how well North Penn has been treating her. As one of her Spanish students this year, I look forward to going to her class and conversing in Spanish with a teacher who is so passionate about what she teaches.