Daily Inspiration: Meet Benjamin Bray

Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Bray

Hi Benjamin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I wasn’t sure I wanted to teach. However, I was certain that good teachers are great people. My sister was diagnosed with lymphoma when she was very young. She went through treatment, which weakened her immune system too much for her to be able to safely go to school. A family friend worked as an elementary school teacher. On top of her full time job, she would come over to our house and provide my baby sister with a one-on-one education so that she wouldn’t fall behind. Selflessness isn’t a strong enough word. My sister is now a full-grown woman, having beaten cancer and staying in remission ever since.

In my own life I was fortunate to have a number of teachers who were genuinely kind, supportive, and compassionate. I once had to give a speech in my AP Government class and my peers were trying to pressure me into going first. My friends were warning them that they wouldn’t want that, because they knew no one would want to follow. I did end up going first and I bared my soul. With tears pouring from my eyes, I listed everything my family had been through, including my sister’s battle with cancer. By the time I was done, I had to leave the room; I just had to get away from everything I felt in that moment. My teacher gave me the space that I needed and then followed up to check on my well-being. It wasn’t about the speech anymore, or my grade; instead it was about me, Benjamin Bray, the person in pain and in need of help. I remember when I got the email about my scholarship to UC Irvine, which was literally the only way I was going to be able to afford going. I had tennis practice that day and when I got there I told my coach (who had also been my teacher for multiple classes) the good news. Without hesitation and with sincere joy for my accomplishment, my coach hugged me and told me how proud he was. That was the same teacher who took the time to go over to my dad during one of my basketball games to tell him that he and my mom did a great job raising me, that I was already a good man and will surely become even greater moving forward. Those are just two of the many teachers I was so fortunate to have in my life.

It was my first year at UCI and I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to teach. I knew I wanted to write. I knew that I wanted to be a published author of poetry, fiction, essays, and anything else I felt inspired to write. I didn’t want to fall back into teaching just because writing didn’t work out; I didn’t want be a disingenuous educator who inevitably grows bitter about their career and loses whatever spark for teaching they may have once had. So, I signed up for my first education class with an open, yet cautious mind. I ended up absolutely loving that class! I was certain, as a result, that I wanted to teach. Fortunately, making that decision led me to meeting even more amazing educators who showed a genuine interest in my success, despite teaching at a school with thousands of students.

I haven’t mentioned any of my amazing teachers by name, because I don’t know if it would be okay for me to do so, but if they get the chance to read this, they’ll know who they are. Furthermore, I couldn’t possibly share all the stories that would include all the amazing things different teachers did for me without this becoming far too long; please know that I haven’t forgotten any of you nor the impact you continue to have on my life.

Now, here I am, going into my 12th year of teaching and I have grown so much. I have become a far better and much more confident educator. I’ve embraced the power of working with others, asking for help, and actively participating in problem solving instead of complaining about all the issues we face as educators. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the amazing educators from my past, the amazing educators I get to work with in the present, and the amazing life I get to look forward to with the woman I love more than anyone else in the world, having recently had the greatest day of my life getting married to her.

Finally, I am elated to say that I owe my students my genuine gratitude, because every time one of them asks me why I teach, I always have the absolute truth ready in response, “It’s because of you, the students, that I do this job; no matter how I may feel on any given day or in any given moment, I come to school each day, because I get a chance to teach amazing students.”

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m actually glad you asked this question, because I appreciate the opportunity to channel that same courage I had that day in AP Government. My older brother was left permanently disabled in significant ways by a extremely rare brain disease. Growing up, I idolized him. I followed him around and happily fulfilled the role of annoying little brother, because I knew he was prepared to fulfill the role of protective older brother when he needed to. That brain disease took him from me and our relationship has never been the same. My oldest younger brother lost him too and he went on to suffer in his own, quiet way. I am proud to say he has overcome his own challenges to become the amazing husband, father, and man he is today. My youngest younger brother never really got a good chance to get know our older brother before the disease and it pains me to know that he didn’t get that chance. Again, I get to say I am proud. I am proud of his courage in acting and putting himself out there in such a vulnerable way; additionally, I am proud of the skills he has developed. We’ve even worked together on a couple of projects wherein I did the writing and he did the artwork and design. My baby sister, as previously mentioned, beat cancer. She’s also become one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. She continues to work hard towards her goals. My wife and I recently had the honor of attending her graduation from Mount SAC; she’ll be starting up at Cal State Long Beach in the fall.

My family went through all of the aforementioned hardships before I was even in high school. There was one particularly tough Christmas when I also ended up in the hospital; I even shared a room with my older brother for a bit. My parents had their two oldest children recovering from life-threatening medical issues at the same time, right before Christmas. Fortunately, I got to go home, but would make return trips in the future with further complications. My parents became all too well known around Loma Linda Hospital. My parents practically lived there for a while and those of us still at home were fortunate enough to have family friends offer us a place to stay and meals to eat. The people around us showed just how much they truly cared. Ultimately, my parents would prove to be absolute rocks in the storm. They have never stopped loving all of their children and each other unconditionally.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have taught at least three sessions of 9th grade English Language Arts every single year of my teaching career and will continue to do so for this upcoming year. However, since the year when we all had to do an entire school year of teaching through webcams, I’ve been working with a phenomenal co-teacher. I was offered the opportunity to be a co-teacher and my first thought was, “Seriously? You mean I could have another professional educator in the room with me and we could teach as a team? Yes!” Admittedly I was naïve about it, learning later on that not every co-teaching partnership works out; which makes me all the more grateful to work with the co-teacher that I have. Together we teach our students not only the fundamentals of ELA, but about being mindful and patient, taking the time to breathe for just a couple minutes whenever they need to calm the storm in their mind, or simply for the purpose of a quick reset. We build relationships with them through icebreakers at the beginning of the year and then continue to invest in those relationships by giving them chances to open up in the journals. We learn truly fascinating things about our students every year and we get to see their confidence shine when we ask them about topics they have some expertise in. We start off the year with most kids either saying nothing at all, or insisting that they just can’t succeed in our class. We end each year with most of those same kids having turned things around and even if their grades still need some work, they’ve become more confident, comfortable, and kind individuals. Now that we’ve had our first super successful year using Readable English, we are all the more motivated to keep finding the very best ways to help our students improve as unique individuals and as young scholars with great potential.

What does success mean to you?
Personal improvement. We have a saying in our class, “Practice makes better.” We are upfront with our students about our expectations for them in our class. We will never demand that they be perfect, not at any point. We will expect them to strive for improvement, to learn from both success and failure. We expect them to add the word “yet” whenever they try to say, “I can’t.” Furthermore, we don’t let things just sit at the “I can’t yet” step. We teach our students how to write SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals and organize the contents of their student planner to enable success in those goals. We don’t tear them down for struggling and we don’t patronize them for taking the little steps towards the larger goals. Our students are treated like they are capable (because they are) while being held accountable for their share of the plan for their success.

As an educator, I’ve accepted the my profession will require that I be a lifelong learner. Not only have I accepted it, I celebrate it. I am so excited to have said yes to co-teaching, even though it was something brand new to me. I am so glad I was chosen to attend a conference that is normally only attended by educators from within special education departments. I can’t put into words how grateful I am to the wonderful team at Readable English for showing me their program and being with me for every step of its implementation in our classroom. I don’t want to ditch everything we already do and I don’t want to refuse to try anything new; both of those options fit into a fixed mindset. With a growth mindset, like the one my co-teacher has taught me how to have, I can make use of what already works, while refining if need be, and I can try new things, all at the same time. It takes extra work, yes. It requires putting one’s self out there, yes. However, you cannot gain anything without trying out some of those open doors just waiting for you to step through. I look forward to doing some great work for and with my students, as much as I look forward to finding the ways in which I can be even better!

Contact Info:

• Website: My poetry blog that I’ve been posting to since March 2014: https://genuinesilverpoetry.blogspot.com/

Image Credits
Most of the pictures were taken by my amazing wife or her amazing mother, who I affectionately refer to as Ma!

The picture of me with Santa Claus was included, because it’s special: that Santa Claus you see there is my dad. After spending the majority of his adult life breaking his back to provide for his family, he now has a job that he actually loves. I’ve gotten the chance to talk to him about it and it brings tears of joy to my eyes to know that such a hard-working, well-deserving person gets to be happy with his work as merry old Saint Nick! Love you, Dad!