TEACHING

Cook’s teaching experience is an extension of his social collaboration work and similarly involves diverse communities in dialogue to generate experiences of reflection and insight.

Cook began classroom teaching while still in college at the University of California, Berkeley, first at Jefferson Child Development Center and then at Kieler Middle School. He taught for two years at the Bayview Child Development Center with elementary and preschool age children in general education, where he became a specialist in developing multidisciplinary curricula in the natural sciences, American history, and ethnic diversity. After college, Cook led K-12 programs in mural making with the East Bay Conservation Corps/Project YES, the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, Southern Exposure Gallery, and the San Francisco Conservation Corps. Cook then worked as a classroom teacher at Berkeley High School, where he developed an original art course integrating theory, history, and practice for students of all abilities. While head coach of the Berkeley High School varsity lacrosse program he also started a weekly extracurricular graffiti club with lectures, films, and guest speakers as a supplement to weekend painting and field trips.

COURSE SPOTLIGHT

Accountable in Oakland

California College of the Arts, 2016

A course for students to engage with diverse communities in Oakland through interactive, participatory, and performance methods

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COURSE SPOTLIGHT

HOPE SF Arts and Healing Assessment

Department of Health Education, San Francisco State University, 2015

An engagement with public housing residents to explore creative expression, healing, and community building

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East Coast History

Cook moved to the East Coast in 1994 and taught English to middle school students at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, an independent education program in Manhattan. He became certified in Conflict Resolution Education, and taught students of all ages as well as workshops with staff. He developed and administrated a summer program for junior high school students, teaching Biology while directing curriculum development for English and Math with NYSED-certified teachers.

After a summer of teaching a freshman-level drawing class at Cooper Union, Cook began working at Satellite Academy. Satellite Academy is an alternative public high school, a “last chance” school founded in 1979 to help young people who have not been successful in traditional New York City public high schools or who are returning to study after a long absence. The school works with students from all five boroughs and of the 200 students, approximately 60% are African American and 40% Latino; 80% of the kids are eligible for free lunch. At Satellite, Cook developed and implemented a school-wide curriculum integrating visual thinking strategies with Art History, Art Practice, English, Life Science, and Global Studies as an approach to viewing and understanding contemporary art. He was the first director of ABACA (Arts Benefit All Coalition Alternative), which partnered Satellite and The Drawing Center, Art in General, Thread Waxing Space, Artists Space, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for extraordinary arts exposure, resources, and programming. Students developed, curated, and produced exhibitions using the Bohen Foundation Collection and Artists Space slide registry, and received generous, multi-year support from the Soros Foundation and Empire State Partnership program during his time there. After leaving Satellite Cook continued to teach and lecture at all academic levels, including major projects at the Coalition of Essential Schools Conference, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Amherst College, Duke Ellington School for the Arts (high school), Packer Collegiate Academy (K-8) and Step One School (nursery school). 

Returning to Northern California

After teaching in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2004 with conceptual artist and photographer Wendy Ewald, Cook returned to California as the Diebenkorn Fellowship Professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, and taught an array of undergraduate and graduate courses. He became an active volunteer teacher, site leader, and District Budget Committee member with Berkeley Unified School District and was recruited by the Alameda County Office of Education to train and coach middle school teachers. He then served as a Visiting Professor in Community Arts/Social Practice and Diversity Studies at California College of the Arts. In his last academic position, he served as Director of Social Practice and Pedagogy at San Francisco State University Department of Health and Education, Health Equity Institute.