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"When students leave elementary school and start middle school,
my goal is for music to be their favorite subject," said Oliver
Diez, Palmetto Elementary School's music teacher. He says the key to
his success at teaching is keeping music class fun.
Oliver Diez
"Without fun they lose all interest," Diez said.
Making games to teach musical concepts is a technique that works well
for Diez. Students already have learned to read musical note rhythms
by playing a game with heart-shaped symbols that represent music
notes. To learn about note pitches the students play with large
plastic sticks that sound different pitches in a scale.
Teaching multi-cultural music is another aspect of Diez's
creativity in the classroom. During October, which was Hispanic
Heritage Month, the third, fourth and fifth graders staged a large
production. Each class represented a different Latin American country,
including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Argentina and Colombia.
In December the students sang holiday repertoire for their production.
The students also put on a concert for Black History Month in
February, displaying a variety of music genres from jazz, to hip-hop,
to traditional African drum and dance music.
The final performance of the year, scheduled for May, will be a
musical entitled A Small Part of the World, which showcases songs from
different countries around the world.
In addition to being involved in music, Diez was the chairperson
for this year's United Way fundraiser. Through pizza and candy sales,
Palmetto Elementary greatly exceeded its goal by raising a total of
about $1,600 dollars.
A recipient of this year's Sally May Award as rookie teacher of the
year at Palmetto Elementary, Diez is very enthusiastic about teaching.
His enthusiasm for music carries over from the classroom to the stage,
where he also performs as a saxophonist with the Latin Rock band Don
Pepe. The 10-member band played at this year's Calle Ocho Festival and
opened the show for the Grammy award-winning band Los Fabulosos
Cadillacs at Miami's Bayfront Park. The band has performed in Atlanta,
Gainesville and numerous locations on South Beach. Pepe also can be
heard on a new tribute CD to the 1980's band The Cure. The CD is a
compilation of Latin Rock bands covering The Cure's songs.
A native of Miami, Diez attended Miami Lakes Senior High School and
received his Bachelor of Music Education from Florida International
University. At FIU, Diez began studying saxophone performance before
deciding to pursue a career in music education.
Diez's chose to be an elementary school teacher because "in
elementary, that's when they're starting off. So I want to teach them
right from the beginning to make sure when they leave, they leave with
a lot of knowledge."
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