Making the band
Dallas teacher uses Latin music to inspire his students

As a music teacher at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Otis Gray doesn’t place limitations on his students. “I continue to set higher goals, and they do everything they can to get there,” says Gray, a member of the Alliance of Dallas Educators. A prime example is Gray’s 16-member Latin music ensemble. The band is one of the most talented high school groups in the nation and one of only a handful devoted to playing Latin American music.

When the Dallas school board created a mariachi program to educate students about Latino culture eight years ago, Gray decided to expand the program to teach his students about the diversity of Latin American music. The band is an extension of that effort, notes Gray.

A graduate of Booker T. Washington, Gray has taught music at his alma mater for nine years. “Three and a half years ago, the band didn’t exist. Now we’re opening for some of the best known musicians in the world,” he says with pride. The talent of the students is only part of their success, adds Gray. The other part is the excitement and motivation that the students get from the music.

It doesn’t hurt that Gray is really into the music as well. The AFT member’s love of music and teaching isn’t lost on his students. A classically trained pianist, Gray became interested in music listening to his mother play Beethoven and Chopin on the piano as a child. He always knew he would teach music and is happy to do it at his alma mater.

“The school breeds excellence,” says Gray. “It has always had a good faculty, and it has produced a lot of talented musicians. It was within that context that I started this program.” Indeed, a number of now famous musicians—including Erykah Badu, Edie Brickell, Norah Jones and Roy Hargrove—attended the high school.

In the last few years, the ensemble has garnered its own acclaim and recognition. Last summer, the group was invited to  the World Salsa Congress in Puerto Rico.

The band is a diverse mix of Latinos, African-Americans and white students. The music they play is equally diverse, ranging from salsa and Afro-Cuban to merengue and Latin jazz. The band has been applauded for its authenticity; and the group’s ability to capture the sound and vocals as well as the passion and spirit of Latin music has won over many fans.

Parents of students in the ensemble have created the Latin Music Foundation to help organize concerts and raise money for travel and performances. “Our program does well because we believe in it, and the parents are behind it 100 percent,” says Gray.

“I believe music can help students learn self-discipline, respect, creative thinking, and problem-solving and people skills. It’s a medium through which kids can grow into themselves and find a way to express themselves,” explains Gray. That’s why the loss of music programs across the country is so sad, he says. “We have to find a way to measure the value of these programs so they don’t get cut.”

Animal magnetism
Miami member shares passion through zoo magnet program

Every day is a trip to the zoo, literally, for United Teachers of Dade member Suzanne Banas.

Since 1999, she has been the lead teacher of the Richmond Heights Middle School’s Science Zoo Magnet Program based at Miami’s Metro Zoo. “I love science and I love animals—and the zoo magnet program allows me to share this passion with the kids,” says Banas, a 22-year teaching veteran.

To fully appreciate what she brings to the program, and more specifically the students, one only has to listen to her unbridled enthusiasm about the various topics students explore—ranging from botany and conservation to climatology and meteorology. And, of course, zoology.

The proper names of animals, including coatimundi, rhea, and Galapagos tortoise roll off Banas’ tongue like one-syllable words. It’s no wonder. The Miami native has spent her life around animals. Her mother, who now has her own zoo in Naples, Fla., let her children “bring home anything but dogs and cats.”

“We had ducks, chickens, rabbits and snakes,” says Banas. “My sister even brought home a pony.”

Although Banas has dogs and cats of her own today, she continues her mother’s tradition, counting among her personal pets: ferrets, parrots, lizards, wild birds and sugar gliders. “I’ve always been in animal rescue,” says Banas, who takes some of the rescued pets to school with her to teach the children how to properly care for neglected animals.

One of the students’ favorite classroom pets is a rescued rabbit they named Dog, which was raised among dozens of dogs and acts like one. Dog was deformed because she had been fed dog food, says Banas. Now Dog is on an appropriate diet and gets “petted and loved.”

In addition to working on special projects with the program’s sixth- through eighth-grade students, numbering 300 this year, Banas is the program’s ambassador, visiting area schools with animals in tow. This summer, she will set sail on Royal Caribbean International’s Explorer of the Seas—a cruise ship outfitted with state-of-the-art ocean and atmospheric science labs, as one of a handful of teachers selected for the Miami-Dade Public Schools Scientist/Teacher Mentor Program, a joint effort of the school district, Royal Caribbean and the University of Miami.

For Banas, life really is a trip to the zoo.