Patrick Bedell, the teacher that we all know and love. His first year at North was spent student teaching in the social studies department. Since then, Bedell has exceeded all expectations of both students and teachers.

Bedell started off his teaching career at the University of Illinois. He got involved with North when his application and résumé was sent out to schools in surrounding areas of where he was looking to come teach at.

“They [The University of Illinois] send out your stuff [application/résumé] to a bunch of different schools [in the area] and some of them will actually have you in and interview you while some of them will do a phone interview. North I guess just looked at my résumé and my grades [and choose me from there],” Bedell said.  

In an Omega interview, Bedell was asked about his involvement with sports that accumulate a lesser crowd like girls’ basketball.

“I just thought they [girls’ basketball] deserved it. It was important that they deserved some recognition,” Bedell said.

During the 2017-2018 girls’ basketball season, Bedell attended 16 games out of the 28 game season.

“No matter how busy he seemed, he always showed up to the games and gave us the support that we needed,” senior Anne Edwards said.

Bedell is continuing to engage with sports that do not get as much attention as he feels is needed.   

When asked about how Bedell converses with students, freshman Adele Gorman and junior Maggie Urbanski had this to say.

“I think it’s just because he is so happy all the time and he tries his best to get to know everyone. He can connect with almost anyone,” Gorman said.

To elaborate on what Gorman said, Urbanski continued to express her thoughts.

 “He engages in conversation with literally everyone he sees in the hallway,” Urbanski said.

When he was a student teacher, Bedell taught alongside social studies teacher Karen Spahr-Thomas in her law classes and helped tutor kids in AVID. Because of this, Spahr-Thomas taught Bedell more about how to interact with students.

“The one thing I stressed to Mr. Bedell from day one, just from my experience, was that while you’re observing, I want you to memorize every student’s first name,” Spahr-Thomas said.

Walking around in the hallways, Bedell always makes an effort to say hello to students by their first name. By doing this, it reinforces his friendly personality as a teacher.

“The thing you can’t teach as a mentor teacher is you have to care about students and right away he cared about students, he was willing to come in early, things like that that are intangible. He’s hardworking, caring of the kids and I mean you either have that or you don’t and he definitely does,” Spahr-Thomas said.

While he is only part time for his position in the social studies department at the moment, Bedell has left an impact on the student body that is encouraging them to want to learn.  

“Mr. Bedell not only teaches his students, but he also gives them the confidence to be who they are and bring their own individual ideas into class and discussions,” sophomore Noah Clements said.   

According to Bedell, social studies department chair Jenne Dehmlow has expressed interest in keeping Bedell around for the upcoming school year. This would either be as a part-time teacher or as a permanent substitute teacher like he was first semester.