While students walk down the hall, they hear music playing from a nearby classroom. It is the sound of teenagers learning about Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish class.

Spanish teachers are creating activities to inform their students on Hispanic culture. Spanish teacher Pedro Mendez said he uses music as a way to teach about Hispanic Heritage Month.

“I try to play music. I’ve played music from different countries with different genres every single day to embrace the diversity of Hispanic cultures,” Mendez said.

Spanish teacher Elena Cruz-Lopez also said she teaches students about Hispanic Heritage Month by sharing music.

“We are doing a unit on music right now. We’re focusing on studying musicians and their role in the Latino music world internationally,” Cruz-Lopez said.

Another Spanish teacher, Kevin Whitehead, said he has a similar approach for teaching students about Hispanic Heritage Month and works to tell the stories of successful Hispanic people.

“A lot of it is just telling people’s stories. Every day in class, I begin with spotlighting a famous, successful Hispanic person and telling their story,” Whitehead said.

Sophomore Mar Norton-Cruz said that students who are not enrolled in Spanish classes aren’t learning about Hispanic culture in the same way as students who are.

“By learning more about Hispanic heritage, Americans can have a better understanding of the culture. Because we’re American, there are tons of people from other countries that we don’t get to learn about,” Norton-Cruz said.

Mendez said the curriculum taught in Spanish classes could be expanded into other curriculum as well.

“I don’t think that students are learning enough, honestly. I don’t know what the math teacher is doing or what the science teacher is doing, but I definitely think it would be a great idea if they could do a little bit more,” Mendez said.

Cruz said that Hispanic Heritage Month should be talked about in every class.

“It would be like learning about the French Revolution but only in French class. There shouldn’t be much of a separation of Hispanic versus America,” Cruz said. “It’s just learning about people who had an impact on history.”