Visual arts educator Cheriece White has garnered a 2022 FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence from the NYC Department of Education. Photo Credit: The 74
Our nation’s students are fortunate that there are so many innovative educators teaching in our public schools. One of these is Cheriece White, a forward-thinking visual arts instructor who teaches at Soundview High School in the Bronx, New York City. She has garnered a 2022 FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence from the NYC Department of Education.
Cheriece inaugurated her teaching career in 2013, when she was hired to design a multimedia program for the newly-built Soundview High. Accepting the position meant creating the program from the ground floor up. Today, the curriculum she developed is the most popular program on her campus. In the beginning, Cheriece recalls, “It was a lot of self-teaching because at that point, social media was starting to boom back in 2013,” she says. “It really transformed content creation… and there was no professional development on it,” she remembers.
To meet the challenge, Cheriece designed a curriculum that includes lessons on elements and principles of design, color theory, and color psychology. Her instruction incorporates such topics as digital storytelling, website design, social media content creation, infographic design, logo design, and movie editing. Students are given opportunities to use digital technology to create commercials, develop movies, and plan future businesses. “It’s my personal belief that art is always changing as technology advances,” observes Cheriece. “So it made sense to create a curriculum that not only engaged the students’ current interest in social media and technology, but also educated them on how to design digital content, videography, and infographics for these platforms,” she continues.
Cheriece earned her Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts with a double emphasis in Media Communications and Media Design from State University of New York College, Old Westbury, in 2009. She earned her Master’s degree in Art and Art Teacher Education from Long Island University Post in 2012. Prior to her work as a teacher, she worked for one year as a specialist for Apple Inc.
For her innovative work in the classroom, Cheriece earned a 2022 FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence from the NYC Department of Education. The honor recognizes and celebrates extraordinary public school teachers who inspire learning through creativity, passion, and commitment.
To read more about this amazing Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to an article about her published by New York State United Teachers.
