News Briefs

Dallas ISD Police Officer Kimberly Stangarone taught herself sign language so that she could better communicate with deaf students at J.L. Long Middle School. WFAA-Channel 8 followed Stangarone on the campus, where she has worked for the past three years. Click here to read the full story and watch the video.

For School of Science and Engineering alum Larry Tyler (2003), lessons learned at the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center magnet helped him carve out a career in the mortgage industry. Today, despite his many career milestones, it’s the little people in his life who are his biggest accomplishment by far. AlumNow, a Hub feature that checks in with district alumni to see where they are now, recently caught up with Tyler for an update and for some sound advice for students. What are you doing now? I’m Vice President of Servicing for Nationstar Mortgage. My departments help customers keep their accounts in good standing,…

On a trip this summer, Scot Pankey found his New York groove by asking people to dance with him. The resulting video shows him dancing with strangers to the Bee Gee’s “You Should Be Dancing.” Pankey, a teacher at Dallas ISD’s A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School, became an Internet sensation in January along with his students when a video they created at the school went viral. In it, Pankey danced with students to “Uptown Funk.” One particular upload of the video has surpassed 13 million views on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUEg7kd6Cg

At 3:30 a.m. on the morning of the first day of school, Ben Dickerson, principal of Edward H. Cary Middle School, filmed some of his, um, enthusiastic dance moves all over the school. Dickerson made the video as his way to wish every teacher’s room good luck. Really, the above video needs no further explanation.