Would you rather have a teacher who grades easy and helps you get a good grade in a class or a teacher who is a tough grader and more difficult to work with to fix grades? Social studies teacher Jeffery Benya has a more relaxed teaching style that students love.
Benya had a different career before teaching and it was quite full. Benya started his career in movie theater management. He received the Showman of the Year award in 1998. This is an award given by the Hollywood Reporter Magazine in Los Angeles. At one point in his life, he also owned a nightclub in College Park. It was eventually closed after a year because he lost “business and about $250,000,” Benya said.
He then worked in television doing commercials and PSA interview shows. He also worked in film and made movies. His most successful movie was never published but still was recognized. The film was called City of Secrets and was given an honorable mention in a D.C film festival from the first five minutes, which is all Benya submitted.
Benya was the first in his family to receive a college degree and he did it unusually. He started taking classes to learn, but he never had the intention of graduating. Eventually, he had over 140 credit hours and had been recommended to graduate with five different degrees just from taking classes on his own time. He could only choose one and chose his current degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Benya later went and got degrees from Johns Hopkins University in the education of history and education administration.
He also has and currently owns a bookstore. He opened his first bookstore in 1975 when he was in high school and had bookstores on and off that have failed. He currently has a bookstore called the Curmudgeon opened 14 years ago. It has books, movies, records, and a large section just for comic books including 10,000 books. He currently manages it and it is “8,000 square feet of heaven,” Benya said.
Benya never had teaching as a part of his career and started teaching off a dare. He was in the middle of film projects and his wife told him about an interview for a job but didn’t tell him what for. He said he went reluctantly and said in his interview that he didn’t want to teach. They gave him the job because they said “There are many who don’t want to be students, so you’ll fit right in,” Benya said.
Now that Benya has been teaching for 20 years he has been a beloved teacher. With the way he got his college degree being there just to learn and him not wanting to teach it shows he is a relaxed person. In casual conversation he starts by asking “Is it okay with my leg up,” Benya said.
Benya teaches through storytelling mainly because he is a history teacher but does more. He doesn’t want students to stress over his class so he gives students opportunities to make sure grades are good for those students. He allows his students to reason over their grades so they can be fixed based on errors or changed completely if students don’t agree with the grade they got. Benya also has rapport among students, Junior Branden Estrada who is in one of his AP world classes has “loved his class and enjoyed his teaching style,” Estrada said.
Recent graduate Kellen Christensen had Benya as one of his teachers and said he enjoyed Benya as a teacher. “Mr. Benya is a super chill teacher,” Christensen said.
Benya is an effective teacher because of his experiences and his relaxed nature. His calm demeanor and experience have helped him gain rapport among students as well as have students not only pass his classes but excel in his classes.
