Mr. Becker-Valle Leaves Mayfair

After teaching English for a handful of years, Mr. Becker-Valle is officially moving to Marina High School to pursue further opportunities. In an email sent to Tradewinds staff a week before school started, Mr. Becker-Valle informed staff that he had been offered a new position outside of Mayfair.  

We thank Mr. Becker-Valle for being a wonderful teacher throughout his time on campus and for continuously supporting the community through his engagement. On campus, Mr. Becker-Valle served as the Film Club, Model Making Club, and Yearbook advisor. He also taught English 9 and English 10 Ethnic Studies. In an online interview, Mr. Becker-Valle mentions, “I had the most fun starting and advising the model making club. My students had tremendous enthusiasm, and it was incredibly rewarding introducing them to the joys of miniature painting and wargaming-a hobby that I have enjoyed since I was their age.”

When asked about a significant moment that stood out, Mr. Becker-Valle underlines, “One day a group of my freshman English students came up to my desk and presented me with a scrap of paper that had a clump of each of their hairs stapled to it, and signed. Afraid of discarding such a strange gift, I put it on my wall. A year later, another group of students did the same thing. It was both the most disgusting and sweetest thing students have ever given me. Somehow that encapsulates what I love about Mayfair students.”

On the topic of the Mayfair community, Mr. Becker-Valle highlights, “I'd like to thank both the high school and middle school English departments, who were very welcoming and always cooperative. Mr. Saunders was tremendously helpful during my brief stints as a middle school and yearbook teacher. Mr. Eastham dispensed much crucial yearbook wisdom. Mrs. McAndrew is an incredible rockstar of a human. Mr. Headley was a wonderful friend and colleague to develop an ethnic studies curriculum alongside. Mrs. Quezada pulled my head out of several metaphorical toilets while I taught 7th grade. Mrs. Garrison was the best teaching partner I will probably ever have.”

When asked about additional comments on leaving Mayfair, Mr. Becker-Valle notes, “The decision to leave Mayfair was very difficult to make. I am incredibly proud of what my yearbook staff achieved last year, and was really looking forward to working with them, both new and old, this year. Besides their passion and ability, they were simply very fun people to be around, and I am genuinely grateful to have met them. I am also tremendously proud of the ethnic studies curriculum I co-created and got to teach for the first time at BUSD last year. Before teaching at Mayfair, I had taught at Marina High School, and my position was cut during a period of declining student enrollment. It turns out that since then, my friends at Marina had been working incredibly hard and making personal sacrifices to reestablish a position for me, and I was greatly moved to learn about this. This summer, they were able to offer me that position, and I took it as I felt that it would be a better choice for my career in the long run.” BV adds, “If my career at Marina goes belly up again somehow, then I would count myself tremendously fortunate to be welcomed back at Mayfair. Perhaps that will be the way of things, constantly cycling between these two fixtures of my life, borne by the great monsoon of fate as Matt Damon was thousands of years ago-a castaway doomed to remember a home that he can never truly return to. They say that time is a flat circle.”

As a member of our community, Mr. Becker-Valle has inspired generations of students to embrace their real personalities, while teaching many the value of hard work. We are extremely grateful for his time on campus, and we wish him the best at Marina High.

Image Courtesy of Angel Elizarraraz.