Finding the Key to Help Kids Learn Music

Delilah Ovalle doesn’t just teach music at an elementary school in Parlier—during the 2023-24 school year she taught music at all the elementary schools in Parlier.

Not only that, but she feels called to the job. While she has always loved music, Ovalle never thought about teaching until she was a student at FPU. “I never knew what I wanted to do,” she says.

After earning her B.A. Ovalle began teaching in the Fresno Unified School District, finishing her teaching credential a few years later. Now she teaches music at all four elementary schools in Parlier Unified School District, and to better serve her students, she is continuing her music education in FPU’s IMAP (Individualized Master of Arts Program).

Ovalle believes God led her to Parlier. Her grandparents had moved to the Fresno County city decades ago and she has always felt a connection to this community of about 20,000 people, mostly migrant farm workers, about a third of whom live below the poverty line.

So, when Ovalle was invited to interview, she prayed, “God, please let this one work out.” She was so hopeful that she turned down other opportunities for the chance at Parlier. “I felt something inside me tell me to be here,” she says.

FPU gave Ovalle the degree, experience and confidence to do the job. “The staff and professors at FPU were always there for me,” she says. “They always had the right words.” While a student she learned to use Finale music notation writing software, allowing her to write customized practice sheets for kids. Now she could take music already written and transpose it into a key her elementary school kids could play and practice.

This way of teaching simplified music has had a deep impact on the kids’ desire to learn, according to Ovalle. Each year when her students finish fourth grade, she asks them to write a letter declaring their desire to join the school band. One student wrote, “I want to join band because I feel like music is actually something I am good at.” Another wrote, “I want to make my family proud because I have finally found something I am good at.”

These comments are close to Ovalle’s heart because she was dyslexic and often struggled in school when she was young. “The only way I got an ‘A’ in a class was to do all the homework and all the extra credit,” she says. Some of her fourth-grade students who never received awards in math, reading, citizenship or attendance got a music award because they performed all their songs with 100% accuracy.

Ovalle’s effect on students shows when she sees them in Parlier stores. The students often want to introduce her to their parents saying, “Mom, look it’s the music teacher.” The kids regularly tell their parents music is their favorite time of the day at school.

In high school Ovalle was an up-and-coming cross country star. When someone suggested she focus on running so she could compete in the Junior Olympic Games she replied, “I don’t want to be known as a runner. I want to be known for music.” That, and for being a great teacher,is how she is now known to the families andstudents of Parlier.