At the school, there is one teacher who rises above in terms of helping students with public speaking. John Cook teaches Speech, English and Creative Writing, but there is one class which he favors.

“I do enjoy teaching Speech best though. Why? Because of the excitement of helping others get over the fear of public speaking,” Cook said.

Almost every student that enters his class leaves it with more confidence in their speaking skills. Nicolas Caporoso, a graduate and past student of Cook’s speech class reflected on his time.

“I loved it. That was one of my favorite high school classes,” Caporoso said.

Something that many students appreciate about Cook’s class is the collaboration. 

“I liked how much of the class was just us as the students working together,” said Hunter Heard, a senior and former student of Cook.

Cook has been a teacher for over 26 years and has worked here for 20 of those years. His favorite thing about the school is the friendly atmosphere and friendship with his other colleagues.

Before he was a teacher, Cook got his Bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a focus on English, Speech and Theatre. He started as a substitute teacher for a few schools, until eventually graduating and becoming a teacher.

“Career-wise I’ve always been a teacher,” Cook said.

In his personal life, his interests reflect the subjects he teaches in school. Cook enjoys watching movies, traveling, reading and writing in his free time. His favorite place is home on his sofa either reading his Kindle or watching a movie.

In his classes, Cook has a personalized, exciting and hands-on learning experience. 

“My favorite thing about Mr. Cook is his energy for the class,” Caporoso said.

Cook has lots of popular assignments, one of which, students can choose a song to lip-sync in front of the class.

“My favorite assignment was the lip-sync project because it was funny and also really good for helping with the performance anxiety that I had in the class,” Heard said.

This assignment and assignments like these help students open up and have more confidence in front of an audience. This, accompanied by repeated exposure to speaking in front of a crowd, heals many students’ fears about public speaking.

Before students enter Cook’s class, they can often be messy speakers. For example, Cook talks about his craziest classroom story, where a student decided to take a creative risk with his speech.

“He decided to start off his speech in a risky and exciting manner: he kind of leaped into the classroom, misjudged (i.e., did not look before he leaped) and slammed into my table/desk breaking it, bending all four metal legs on the table. To say that was memorable and crazy is an understatement!”

Cook’s class has helped many kids who previously weren’t even able to speak a full sentence in front of an audience to flourish. Students will slip up every once in a while, but mistakes are part of the process, and without them, students wouldn’t be able to speak as confidently as they do after leaving Cook’s class.