Tag Archives: Vocational Education Teachers

Illinois teacher Jim Marzuki was also a State Senator, WWII veteran, and accomplished sculptor

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Illinois teacher Jim Marzuki was also a State Senator, WWII veteran, and accomplished sculptor. He is pictured here in 1985. Photo credit: Art of Jim Marzuki

There are many outstanding educators who serve their community in the political arena. One of these is Jim Marzuki of Illinois, a high school fine arts teacher who also served in his state’s House of Representatives.

Jim was born on June 22, 1925, the son of Italian immigrants. After his graduation from West Aurora High School in 1943, he enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II. He served in the military from 1943 to 1946.

Once the war was over, he returned to school on the GI Bill and earned his Bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University. He also earned two Master’s degrees, one from Governors Sate University and the other from the University of New Mexico. Once he completed his second Master’s Jim returned to Illinois, ultimately landing in Park Forest.

The former veteran inaugurated his career as an educator when he accepted a position at Rich East High School in Park Forest. He taught at the school from 1956 to 1980. There he instructed courses in Industrial Arts and Fine Arts, and he also coached football.

Jim was also an accomplished sculptor. He exhibited at art fairs in the Chicago area and was active at the Art Institute of Chicago, selling his work through their rental and sales gallery. He also created some wood carvings and paintings which showed influences of Native American and Mexican influences, as well as Picasso and abstract artists.

In addition to these accomplishments, Jim was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives on the Democratic ticket, where he served from 1983 to 1985. He has also served on the Park Forest Village Board and on the Park Forest Planning Commission.

Jim Marzuki passed away on July 9, 2000, after having suffered a massive stroke.. To learn more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to The Art of Jim Marzuki.

 

Former NFL player Cory Schlesinger now teaches in Michigan

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Former NFL pro football player Cory Schlesinger now teaches technical education and vocational education  in Park Allen, Michigan. Photo credit: In-Play Sports Magazine

There are many examples of professional athletes who have gone from the sports arena into the public school classroom. One of these is Cory Schlesinger, a former NFL pro football player who now teaches high school in Michigan.

Cory was born on June 23, 1972, in Columbus, Nebraska. As a high school student, he played as a linebacker and fullback for Columbus High School. In his junior year, and again in his senior year, he was named to Nebraska’s All-State team. He also won the 189-pound wrestling state championship twice during his high school years. During his college years, Cory played for the Cornhuskers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In his senior year there, Cory scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns in the 1995 Orange Bowl that helped his university capture their first national title.

Cory currently teaches computer-aided design, drafting, and vocational education classes at Allen Park High School in Allen Park, Michigan. But every one of the 120 students in his classes is well aware that Cory is a retired NFL fullback who played 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions. His nickname then was the “Sledge,” a player who blocked his opponents and brought them down like a sledge hammer.

Despite this reputation, the former pro-football player has a great heart, patiently instructing his students, conducting a school-wide strength and conditioning program for both boys and girls, and donating his time to charitable events organized by the Lions. “Cory’s such a generous, kind and wonderful person,” described former Allen Park High  principal Janet Wasko in 2013. “He doesn’t stand on ceremony, but everyone knows who he is. He cares about the whole student body. It’s not just about football,” she said.

Cory Schlesinger: the “sledge hammer” that became a true Chalkboard Champion.

 

CTE educator Julio Mejia garners FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence

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Career and technology education (CTE) teacher Julio Mejia of New York has garnered a 2025 FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence. Photo credit: FLAG Award

There are many public school teachers throughout our nation who are deserving of special recognition. One of them is Julio Mejia, a Business and Technology educator from Staten Island, New York. He is one of six teachers in New York City who has garnered a 2025 FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence.

Julio has taught career and technology education (CTE) electives at New Dorm high School, where he is an alumnus, for the past eight years. There he leads the school’s specialized Small Learning Community (SLC) for business and technology. To expand his students’ exposure to professional fields, Julio plans field trips and events, including Career Days. This year, he also took on the responsibilities of the school’s Work-Based Learning Coordinator. Additionally, he coaches the school’s boys volleyball team. And as if all that were not enough, he teaches a college-level business course under the auspices of the University of Delaware.

In his classroom, Julio has worked to improve curriculum so that it better serves his students’ needs and to better prepare them for real world demands. When he noticed that his freshmen already possessed a working knowledge of some of the programs taught in the computer applications course, he shifted his focus to more advanced software. Also, when he perceived a gap in students’ creative thinking, he collaborated on the development of a new marketing elective.

“As an educator, you always second guess yourself on whether or not what you’re doing is making a difference,” confesses Julio. “Having other people tell you that you’re doing a great job — and compared to other teachers throughout New York City — is definitely something that’s super exciting. I’m really grateful for this opportunity to be given what I’ve been given,” he continues.

In addition to his FLAG honors, Julio will receive a check for $25,000 which he can use any way he wishes, and his school will receive an additional $10,000 grant to fund an arts-based initiative designed by the winner.

Julio earned his Bachelor’s degree from City University of New York, College of Staten Island, in 2015.

 

Ag teacher Melanie Bloom named Iowa’s 2025 Teacher of the Year

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Agriculture teacher Melanie Bloom of Sioux Rapids, Iowa, has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Melanie Bloom

It is always exciting for me to share the story of an outstanding educator who has earned accolades for her work in public schools. Today I share the story of Melanie Bloom, a vocational education teacher from Idaho. She has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.

Melanie teaches  agricultural education courses at Sioux Central Community School District in Sioux Rapids, Iowa. She has taught there for the past 16 years. In her district, more than 25% of all middle and high school students are enrolled in agricultural education classes and are members of the Future Farmers of America (FFA). In her classroom, Melanie encourages her students to explore diverse careers in the agriculture industry, and then to develop career skills that prepare them for those careers. She also teaches them to make informed choices about food, fibers, and natural resources. 
 
To accomplish these goals, Melanie employs inquiry and project-based learning strategies. In addition, she designs and leads professional development sessions. She has influenced agricultural educators nationwide as a curriculum developer for the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education initiative. Melanie also serves in several agricultural advisory roles, most notably the Iowa Advisory Council on Agricultural Education, where she assists with identifying standards, escalating agricultural opportunities for all students, and promoting agricultural education as a career. She has also served as a beginning teacher mentor and faculty member in an Iowa teacher preparation program.

Melanie earned her Bachelor’s degrees in Agricultural Education and Animal Science, and her Master’s degree in Agricultural Education, all from Iowa State University. Currently she is a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia, working on her degree in Agricultural Education and Leadership Development.

 

Nancy Cook: Vocational Ed teacher, suffragist, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt

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Vocational education teacher, suffragist, and Chalkboard Champion Nancy Cook, at right, with Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at left. Photo credit: George Washington University

Many remarkable teachers blend their interests in teaching with an interest in politics. Such is certainly the case with Nancy Cook, a high school vocational education teacher who was also a tireless worker for women’s suffrage and other political causes dear to her heart.

Nancy was born in Massena, New York, on August 26, 1884. After her graduation from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1912. There she became an avid supporter of woman’s suffrage and campaigned for legislation to protect women, to abolish child labor, and to secure world peace.

After her graduation from college, Nancy accepted her first teaching position in Fulton, New York, where she taught art and handicrafts to high school students from 1913 to 1918. It was here that she ran into fellow Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who was also a teacher of arts and handicrafts at the school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together.

During World War I, Nancy and Marion became active doing volunteer work for the Liberty Loan Drive and the Red Cross. As Marion remarked after the war, they both “really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy.” In 1918, Nancy and Marion traveled to London, England, to work in the Endell Street Military Hospital., a facility staffed entirely by women. There they scrubbed floors and performed whatever other chores were needed. Nancy would, with less than two weeks of training, begin to make artificial limbs for veterans that had lost an arm or a leg in the conflict.

Women earned the right to vote while Nancy and Marion were abroad. Upon their return to the United States, Nancy accepted a job as the executive secretary of the Women’s Division of the State Democratic Committee, a position she held for nineteen years. She was key to the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1927, Nancy, Marion, and Eleanor Roosevelt purchased a small, private school for girls in New York City they called the Todhunter School. The school provided primary and secondary education, emphasizing art, music, and drama, as well as a college preparatory curriculum. Todhunter combined traditional testing and grading standards with progressive teaching methods.

Nancy and Marion were very good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Together, the three women built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of FallKill Creek in Dutchess County, New York. Nancy and Marion lived there full-time, and Eleanor often visited. Nancy, who was an expert woodworker, made all the furniture for the home. The trio established Val-Kill Industries with the goal of producing fine hand-made heirloom furniture/. More importantly, by doing so, they were acting on a larger social goal of providing a second income to local farming people in rural Hyde Park in order to keep them from migrating away to city jobs.

When Eleanor Roosevelt committed herself to redeveloping Arthurdale, West Virginia, she asked Nancy to work with the subsistence homestead program. Nancy and the First Lady oversaw the interior needs of each Arthurdale house, while Nancy temporarily administered the furniture and woodworking projects of Arthurdale’s Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association.

Nancy Cook, Chalkboard Champion and suffragist, passed away on August 16, 1962.