Student Nomination Story

Going into high school, I was really unsure of how I was going to perform in my math class specifically since I was going to be in a higher level of math. Before high school I did not do very well in algebra one but I did understand most of the material. I was afraid that my math teacher was not going to be patient or have good teaching techniques since most of my previous teachers would just go through a small example and expect us to do it right. The teacher that I really appreciate is Mr. Benge, he is the reason why my understanding of math has increased and why most math topics seem simple. Mr. Benge’s way of teaching is what got me through my freshman year and my sophomore year. His notes are very helpful and he is really patient with me and my peers. His way of teaching also helped me somewhat find a way to teach myself on some math topics which will really help me when I go to college or whenever I need to learn something myself. Something that Mr. Benge said that really stuck in my head is “ math is simple, you just need to know the rules”. I am very grateful for Mr. Benge since he has made math somewhat easy for me and has also set a mindset for me which changed how I think about college. Starting sophomore year I was not really sure if I still wanted to go to college since things were not really looking up, but my mindset changed this year after listening to Mr. Benge talk about how important it is to get a higher education.

Joel Trujillo

I am a student who did not take school very seriously at the beginning. I never really took school extremely seriously until high school started. I always had decent grades and never failed a class in my life. School was just not my priority before. Of course I cared about school, just not as much as I do now. Now, I am very focused on school and it is my main priority. It is mostly due to my math teacher. I remember when I first met him at the teacher meet and greet, my mom said he talked a lot but he seemed like a nice man overall. Although, when I went to his class the first time, I thought he was scary. I met him my freshman year, the second day of school. We had a schedule last year where you would go to your 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th period on Mondays and Wednesdays, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th period on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Friday, we went to all 8 classes. This meant you saw your 5th and 8th period everyday. When the school year started, I had Geometry 1st period. Therefore, I would go to my geometry class on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It was the second day of school and I had to go to my geometry class for 1st period. I walked into my class and saw him at his desk. He did not look like he was in a good mood. The class was very full and we had about 25 to 30 students in there. He didn’t really introduce himself, he just gave us a lesson. He got mad easily and he was constantly yelling at our class to be quiet. I didn’t really like him, I thought he was too strict. I left his class and thought that he was a little scary. I knew I wasn’t going to like him. Then the next day passed and it was Thursday already. I walked into his class again. Mr Benge still looked grumpy. I sat next to my friend and class started a little bit later. He took attendance but he didn’t call my name this time. I raised my hand and told him he didn’t call my name. He looked at me and called me over to his desk. We looked at the role sheet and my name was nowhere to be found. At the time, we didn’t use laptops for class, we used paper and pencil so I could not check my schedule. I showed him my paper schedule I had gotten the day school started. He saw I had him in his 1st period and there was a bit of confusion. We were both confused and since he was new, he did not know how to check my schedule from his computer. He told me to just stay in his class and get through 1st period and then go to the office in between classes and see what was going on. I stayed in his class and took all the notes for the day. I went to the office after his class ended and they told me my schedule had changed. They printed out my new schedule and I went to my classes. The day went by and now it was time for 8th period. My new 8th period was Geometry. I went to his class again. It was significantly smaller than 1st period. We had only 11 students in that class. Since I had gone to his class already, I had already finished my notes. He told me since I had already done my notes, I could just do whatever, be on my phone or review the lesson. I sat in the very back next to his desk so I would not distract the people at the front. Since 8th period was a short class and he saw them everyday, the lesson was basically over quickly. They finished the lesson in about 30 minutes. He then gave them some practice problems to work on and he sat at his desk. We had about 15 minutes left until the day was over. He began talking to me about how my schedule had changed and how it was funny. I laughed with him and we started to have a normal conversation. He seemed a lot more relaxed then how he was in the morning. He was more calm and relaxed at the end of the day. This was the start of everything. All thanks to a schedule change. I began going to his class everyday and he was always in a good mood by then. He made jokes and he laughed with us. It wasn’t just fun and games though. He also made sure we learned. He made math fun and he made me discover my love for math. He was the reason I began liking math again. I began to find math really fun and I was always participating in his class. That is something I had never done before. I was always too shy to participate in class and he made me break out of my shell. I had never in my life participated in class. Never. I was actually understanding what he was teaching. I understood almost everything. I constantly participated and I was always right. Most of the time at least. I began competing with a girl in that class because we both liked to participate. We would race to see who would answer the problems first, who would raise their hand more in class, etc. This competition allowed me to realize how much fun math was. I started to get really good grades on tests and I began to realize I was very smart. I always thought I was dumb and I couldn’t do math. I was the best student in that class period. I got the highest scores on the tests every time. I was always getting higher than a 90 without even a curve or test corrections. A lot of my friends did not understand what was going on in class. Since I understood what was happening, I helped my friends by explaining it to them and tutoring them. This helped me realize that I love teaching and tutoring my peers. Mr Benge also put me in charge of helping the students who didn't understand. All of the tutoring and helping my peers made me realize that I like teaching. He really helped me find my passion. I was always confused about what career I wanted to pursue and he helped me realize what it was. Now, I want to pursue teaching math. He became a role model for me and I have taken to heart many of the things he has said and taught me. Some things he has said that have stuck with me have been “never give up on doing what you love because life gets better”. He had a very tough life growing up and he has trusted me with his past. I learned a lot of things about him that made me sympathize with him. His experiences made me realize how lucky I am to be here and how privileged I really am. He is a role model for me because he managed to overcome all of those obstacles in his life and he still smiles through everything. I aspire to be like him. I am grateful that he has told me so much himself. I am grateful that also always manages to cheer me up. I am grateful for his teachings and life lessons. I am grateful that he has given me the chance to prove myself capable. I am grateful that he helped me rediscover my love of math and teaching. I feel much better about school now. I am more confident in my abilities and my knowledge. I am getting better at participating in class and I am really enjoying school now. My dreams for the future changed because before, I had no clue what I wanted to do. Now, I am sure I want to be a math teacher in the future.

Anahi Gutierrez

As a student it was always difficult for me to find interest in specific subjects especially during middle school math. I was always most interested in English and the sciences during middle but not to the point that I wanted to pursue it, I just did what was necessary for me to get good grades. During all 3 years of math in middle school I was an average student, and found that math was very demanding to the point where I lost complete interest and joy from doing any of it. My teachers as well did not encourage enthusiasm in any specific thing. This thought of doing the bare minimum and hating anything math related changed when I got into high school and met my geometry teacher Mr. Benge. The moment I stepped into that geometry class I was met with a new way of learning math where I grew to love doing every problem. Although I did not previously have much trouble with actually solving the problems, my mentality regarding it was not the best. In class he would give a lot of freedom as long as we would understand what was going on, and by doing so I was able to have fun in class and at the same time learn everything about geometry as well as the algebra I was not able to understand from the previous year. As a teacher he would constantly make sure that every individual understood by going to each student privately or allowing them to communicate in groups/partners. This ability to communicate with him made each and every student comfortable to express any conflicts they had in geometry. Many Fridays he would also allow the students to get a break, by bringing out board games/card games for the students to use. It might not have seemed like a big deal but getting a mental break was very important to me and many others, these days made me remember how much I liked the class and made great memories. I am very grateful to have an amazing teacher who listens to his students and always tries to make it as easy as possible. During that year in 9th grade he encouraged creativity and changed my mind on how entertaining and interesting math can really be. Now I feel like I am able to get more interested in topics that I like and now have interests in math which I would like to learn more about. After the encouragement he gave that year I feel more motivated to learn in school whether it is associated with math or not. I am glad to have him this year too.

Mia Chicas

My name is Bryan Fuentes and I am 16 and currently in 10th grade. I’ve always found math to be the hardest subject and to be very hard to learn and review. Through all the math teachers I've had one of them stood out as the best. My current teacher of 2 years, Mr. Benge is the best math teacher I've had throughout my schooling career. Before I started high school I was very worried about how difficult math would be as it’s always been hard to begin with. Mr. Benge is a great teacher because of his teaching style. Although math has always been a very boring class that I often get distracted in I have not since I started highschool. I have found my grades in math are higher than they have ever been and I consistently receive good test scores. He is a dedicated teacher, he often hosts tutorials twice a week and always responds to any questions whether they are related to the subject or not. Mr.Benge has also inspired me to plan out my college career as he has helped clarify how important it really is by telling us about it through his past experiences. I am grateful for the support that he provides to his students and his effectiveness in teaching. Through his support I have found a new enjoyment for math and find it to be not as scary and I thank him for helping to maintain a good math grade. Through his advice I have found myself thinking more about my plans for college and what career I would like to pursue. Before I was worried that the math portion of engineering would stop me but through his class I now have gained a new confidence to pursue a career in engineering.

Bryan Fuentes

I’ve always tried to be a good hardworking student, and been lucky enough to get teachers who are nice, and have sympathy towards their students. My attitude towards school had actually been good. I would say the school is somewhere that I've always been eager to go back to in the summer. It keeps me busy. Although it has also given me challenges. I’ve always struggled with math and there were times where I just wanted to throw away everything since I could never understand it. That was probably the only reason why I didn't like school. Since high school my math teachers weren't the best if you could say. One of them left the beginning of the year and we didn't learn anything, so I was struggling. Then he was one of my teachers and literally my math game changed. I still struggled of course but he tried to explain it as much as simply as he could. Something else that I also saw that change was that I wasn't as scared to ask questions if I was confused. I used to just keep all my confusion and hoped that somebody asked the same question as I had and sometimes they did. So now I wasn't too scared to ask questions and it made me feel so smart for some reason. I sometimes wondered if he would be tired of me asking questions. Then an accident happened that made all of us go to tutorials and if i'm being honest, I needed those. It helped me so much and I could sometimes understand how the math puzzle worked. By the end of the break, I was so happy since the test seemed easy and how I could understand. I will always be grateful of how patient he was towards all of his students. Along with helping me like math, just a tiny bit hehe. Now, in a way it reminded me of how I want to be a teacher for students like me, to help them.

Aracely Vasquez

Hello. My name is Raechel Amofa. I am a 10th grader at C.E. King High School. There, I met my algebra teacher, Mr. Benge, in my freshman year of high school. My energy when first meeting him was no different than meeting any other teacher. I didn’t necessarily think we were going to have any challenges freshman year since we both could relate to being new to this high school. Towards the end of the first semester, I could tell he was struggling with something. It wasn’t any of my business but I was still concerned because that was my teacher and for a first year teacher, he was doing pretty well. In the beginning of the first semester, I found out that he was dealing with a death in the family. What makes Mr. Benge special is that even though he was dealing with a tragedy, he still made his students a priority. He never gave up and went above and beyond to make sure we got the informative instruction. He continued to make lesson plans, help students when needed, and so much more. I am grateful for Mr. Benge because when he was probably hurting the most, he still managed to teach. He didn’t give up. Therefore, I will always find him a great teacher. Even if he assigns homework that I’m too tired to do, even if he gives us 10 pages of notes to write, I know that he is trying his hardest to make sure we pass and get the right education needed to become successful. Because of Mr. Benge, I feel more capable to accomplish things no matter what comes my way. We don’t really talk much but I wanted to give him a token of appreciation. I wanted to let him know that I see him trying and I really thank him.

Raechel Amofa

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