Fernandez honored as middle school Teacher of the Year

Booker Middle School Orchestra Director Victor Fernandez thinks his mariachi band is performing for the junior achievement assembly.

Little does he know, Sarasota County School Board members have just exited a bus parked in front of the school and are sneaking across campus with handfuls of balloons to surprise him as Teacher of the Year for middle schools countywide.

As the band finishes its song, Lori White, superintendent of schools, makes the announcement to Fernandez and the student body, noting that he’s also a finalist for the overall district Teacher of the Year Award, which will be announced in January.

Still wearing her sombrero and holding her violin from the mariachi performance, Daniella Romero throws her hands into the air and begins cheering for her teacher.

“I’m a guy who believes that anything for the school is good, and I’ll do anything to make it a better place,” Fernandez says. “They asked me to play the assembly and got me there, unknowingly, with my two top students. I was shaken and stirred — it was very humbling.”

Although he has been teaching at Booker for less than two years, Fernandez has already won the hearts of many of his students.

“He’s just the best teacher — you walk into his classroom and you just feel it,” Daniella says, placing her hand on her heart in unison with her classmate and fellow band member, Stirling Lamb.

Fernandez is amused that, although they all play Mexican music together, no one in his band of three is actually from Mexico.

Fernandez was born and raised in Cuba until the age of 13, when he moved with his family to Miami and attended the New World School of the Arts. Daniella hails from Colombia, and Stirling was born in the United States.

“Our favorite song to play is ‘Tequila,’ but we changed the name to ‘Azucar,’ which means sugar,” Fernandez says. “We add Mexican words like ‘chimichangas’ and ‘fajitas.’”

Fernandez originally set out to fulfill a career in music performance, but while in college at Florida State University, he observed the teaching methods of the orchestra directors and spent time with the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra.

“I fell in love with education,” Fernandez says. “My heart was in teaching.”

His teaching philosophy makes perfect sense to his students. He mimics the professional world within the four walls of his classroom. Using baseball as an example, he says he doesn’t believe his students will learn how to play the game by simply being told the difference between a bat and ball and how they are used. Anyone wanting to learn the game would learn best by practicing on the field.

“We learn music by making music,” Fernandez says. “We learn to be musical by being musical. We play music on their level and create musical phrases at their level. We don’t just talk about Brahms and Mozart, we listen to it and say, ‘How does this make you feel?’”

The district Teacher of the Year for 2012-2013 will be chosen from among the three finalists — Fernandez, Danielle Tanaka, of Venice High School, and Jessica Gardner, of Gocio Elementary School.

“In my mind, I’m there to support them and help them grow,” says Fernandez of his students. “My favorite memory is seeing their faces at the end of our concerts. When they all get on stage for the big picture together, and you see the gleaming looks of pride and the glow in their parents as they’re taking pictures of their kids, it’s a really climactic moment for them. It’s moments like that that motivate me to continue doing what I do.”

Victor Fernandez on his favorite music
“I listen to many music channels on Pandora. I love Mozart and Tchaikovsky symphonies — they are my two favorite composers. I’m also an old classic rock kind-of-a-guy and love the Eagles, Aerosmith and Guns ’N’ Roses.”