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Oscar's worthy performance

A teacher finds his raison d'etre by helping his challenged students find theirs. It's what his son would have wanted.

GANDY/SUN BAY SOUTH - In class, Oscar Aviles can be a bit of a clown.

He sings. He dances. He gives high-fives. He goes all out teaching letters, colors and days of the week to his class, a mix of preschoolers and students labeled trainable mentally handicapped. "When they see you going crazy, they get into it," says Aviles, a teacher at Chiaramonte Elementary School for the past five years. "When you see that, you know you've got something."

Aviles, 54, showers them with tenderness and love. In return, they give his life purpose, he says.

They also help fill the void left by his son Andy, a soldier who died in Iraq in April 2003. Andy, 18, had been crossing the Tigris River, near Baghdad, when an artillery shell struck his armored vehicle.

On his way to class each morning, Aviles stops by a schoolyard memorial to his son, an oak tree planted two years ago on Veterans Day. Around it are a plastic yellow butterfly, a red, white and blue star, and a plaque in Andy's memory.

Aviles always says a prayer.

If it's possible, his students mean even more to him now, he said. In things they say and pictures they draw, he sees his son.

"I just put them all together and try to find a little bit of my son," he said. "That gives me back a complete Andy while I'm at school."

Last week, his class included seven mentally disabled children and four typical prekindergarteners. The mix - known as reverse mainstreaming - is magical, Aviles says.

"They learn so much from each other," he said.

The typical students, who stay in his class only as preschoolers, learn to see beyond disabilities and, as they grow older, stand up for their former classmates when other children pick on them, he said. The disabled students, who remain with Aviles through fifth grade, learn by modeling the typical students.

Aviles has found his niche, Chiaramonte principal Marie Valenti said.

"The kids really love him. They respond to him."

Aviles calls 5-year-old Uriah Thomas up to the white board, hands him a foam letter O and points to the months. "What month begins with O?" he asks. "O," he repeats 17 times with infinite patience. He leads the boy's finger around the shape. When Uriah finds October, he cheers and gives him a high-five.

Helping students like Uriah, who often sobs uncontrollably for no known reason, is Aviles' mission.

"They've already been knocked down by society," he said. "They've already been labeled, and they think that's all they can do. I try to find their strong points, focus on their abilities."

As they develop their strengths, weak areas tend to improve too, he said.

He sets goals and helps them work toward them. Writing. Sign language. On monthly field trips, they learn survival skills, such as paying for lunch and counting change at McDonald's.

"It makes me feel good that I can make some kind of a difference in somebody's life," Aviles said. "I guess that's my purpose in life."

Aviles always wanted to be a teacher but was lured away from college during his first summer break by easy money on Wall Street. For 30 years, he worked as a legal transfer clerk in New York and then in collections. He moved to Tampa with his wife, Norma, and their three children in 1990.

His wife, now a teacher at West Shore Elementary, encouraged him to go back to school to teach.

"That was my thing: teaching," he said. "As I got older, my love for kids just got greater."

His first two years teaching at Memorial Middle School were difficult. But that's when he set out to become a teacher of the year.

He persevered, just like his son, Andy, who always set high goals and chose the Marines because of the rigorous training. Andy graduated third in his class at Robinson High School and was class president his senior year. In a school speech, Andy said: "Don't talk about it. Be about it."

Andy lived that way, his dad said.

"We bumped heads, but still I was his No. 1 dog. That's what he used to call me," he said. "He knew that I was strict but fair. That's the same way I am with my class. I want their best."

Last week, Aviles' colleagues named him Chiaramonte's teacher of the year. It was a bittersweet moment, he said. Andy had known how important it was to him.

"I know he's looking down, saying, "All right, dog, you got your goal. You didn't talk about it. You did it.' "

- Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at edyer@sptimes.com or 813 226-3321.

AGE: 54

JOB: teaches mentally disabled students at Chiaramonte Elementary School

VOTED: Chiaramonte's teacher of the year for 2005-2006 by his peers

BACKGROUND: born in Puerto Rico and grew up in a close family of seven children in New York

FAMILY: Wife, Norma, daughter, Kristine, and son, Matthew. Another son, Andy, died in Iraq on April 7, 2003.

CHURCH: attends St. Patrick Catholic Church, where he hopes to become a deacon

PHILOSOPHY ON TEACHING: "Since I don't have money to give to my community, this is what I give back: the love that my parents gave me."

WORDS TO LIVE BY: Don't talk about it. Be about it.