Educator Cornelius Salisbury is well-known for his paintings of Utah landscapes, pioneer homes, and historical figures of the Old West.

Many fine educators have distinguished themselves in fields outside of education. One of these is Cornelius Salisbury, a public school teacher from Salt Lake City, Utah, who has also earned renown as an artist.

Cornelius was born on December 31, 1882, in Richfield in central Utah. He earned his college degrees at the University of Utah and at Brigham Young University. He also refined his artistic skills extensive, training at the Art Students League of New York, the Pratt Institute of New York City, the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, and the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, DC.

Cornelius earned fame as a painter of landscapes of his native state, pioneer homes, and historical figures from the Old West. He served as the president of Associated Utah Artists, and was a member of the Utah Historical Society.

Cornelius taught school in Salt Lake City until 1943. He taught at Lewis Junior High in Ogden from 1920 to 1924, at Jordan Junior High from 1925 to 1927, and at West High School from 1928 to 1943. He is so highly respected in Utah that his work is on display at many public school throughout the state. Some of his pieces also hang in the Springville Museum of Art.

This amazing educator passed away on Oct. 9, 1970, in Salt Lake City. He was 87 years old. He is interred at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, Millcreek, Salt Lake, Utah. To read more about this amazing educator, click on this link to his biography compiled by the University of Utah.

Art teacher Hirotaka Hamasaki of Nara, Japan, connects to his students through elaborate chalkboard drawings.

Art teachers have an exceptional opportunity to inspire the next generation of creative students. They use all kinds of strategies to connect with their students. One of these is Hirotaka Hamasaki, a fine arts teacher and graphic designer from Nara, Japan. He connects with young people through his elaborate chalkboard drawings, where he recreates a variety of the world’s great masterpieces and a wealth of pop art pieces. 

Instead of writing notes or homework assignments for his students, Hirotaka emulates great works of art that feature historically significant imagery. Examples include Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper or Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Sometimes he recreates contemporary or pop art works, such as Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

In recent years, Hirotaka’s artwork has gone viral. His blackboard masterpieces have gone beyond his classroom, capturing the imaginations of millions of people all over the globe. But what many people don’t know is that he is not the only one who has shared a talent in blackboard art. In fact, there’s an actual blackboard art trend that has been sweeping Japanese schools for nearly a decade now. The trend can be traced back to at least 2012, when Kotaku East published an article about three students who spent a whole week decorating their classroom blackboard with an impressive chalkboard drawing inspired by the popular One Piece anime series. The following year, the internet magazine published another article, this time posting more amazing chalk drawings from the same three students. They also featured other creations from various schools around Japan.

See more of this amazing educator’s work on Instagram at Hirotaka Hamasaki.

Miss Illinois 2019 Ariel Beverly, a former art teacher at Glennwood High School, competed in the Miss America pageant this week.

There are many fine teachers who have earned fame for accomplishments outside of the classroom. One of these is Ariel Beverly, a former high school art teacher from Illinois who was crowned Miss Illinois 2019. This week, the educator competed in the Miss America 2020 pageant.

Ariel has long been passionate about arts education. During her college years, she taught art classes at Infinite Heart Studios in Bloomington, Illinois. She worked there from 2014 to 2017. “This was my first teaching position during which I created and taught art lessons for long-term weekly courses, as well as week-long summer camps,” Ariel described. “I became comfortable with several art medias, as well as teaching many different age groups, spanning from second grade to early high school,” she continued.

To refine her instructional skills, Ariel earned a Bachelor’s degree in Art Teacher Education from Illinois State University in 2017. She completed her student teaching at Evans Junior High School and Central Catholic High School, both located in Bloomington, Illinois. She also worked for one semester at Central Catholic as a substitute teacher.

After earning her teaching credential, Ariel accepted a position at Glenwood High School in Chatham, Illinois. She taught there for one year, and then resigned to return to Chicago. But she hasn’t lost her fervor for arts education. Currently, the young beauty queen is focused on advocating for arts education. “Currently, over 80% of Illinois schools do not require students to take a single course in the arts in order to graduate,” Ariel points out. According to statistics, declares Ariel, lower socio-economic students who attend schools without any art program are five times less likely to graduate from high school than students who have access to art education. To combat this inequity, Ariel has collected and donated over $10,000 worth of art supplies to school art programs.

Ariel did not begin to enter pageants until her sophomore year in college. She garnered the title of Miss Illinois 2019 last June. With that title, she became eligible to compete in the Miss America pageant this week.

To learn more about Ariel and her work in the classroom, see this link from Media Release.

In 2018, teacher Andria Zafirakou of London, England, was awarded the Global Teacher Prize by the Varkey Foundation. She teaches arts and textiles at Alperton Community School. The school is located in one of the UK’s poorest boroughs, Brent, where crime rates are high and gang presence is a huge problem.

Brent is one of the most ethnically diverse places in England. Officials count 130 languages are spoken in its schools. Students come from some of the poorest families in Britain, many sharing one house with five other families. The area has the third highest murder rate in the United Kingdom. Children arrive at the school with limited skills. They already feel isolated from staff and each other, making engaging with them all the more difficult and all the more vital.

The odds of succeeding with these kids are slim, but Andria defied them daily. Working as an art and textiles teacher and as a member of the senior leadership team tasked with earning the trust of her students and their families, she redesigned the curriculum across all subjects. She helped a music teacher launch a Somali school choir, and she created alternative timetables to allow girls-only sports that would not offend some of the more conservative communities.

No wonder Andria garnered the international award. She’s a true Chalkboard Champion. To learn more about her and her school, view the brief video below.